Why UNC football coach Mack Brown regrets his reaction to Saturday’s loss to James Madison

North Carolina football coach Mack Brown did his best Monday to explain all that happened Saturday.

After the Tar Heels were blitzed 70-50 by James Madison at Kenan Stadium, Brown said some things in the locker room he wished he had not said but did say in the heat of the moment.

Losses made him physically ill, Brown said Monday. An humiliating loss like the one Saturday had him flummoxed.

“I was very disappointed in the game, disappointed in me,” Brown said. “Walking off the field I was really disappointed because had a great week of practice. I felt really good about the team but we made entirely too many mistakes during the ball game.

“So walking off the field I thought I’m responsible for all this, it’s on me, so I should ask the team about leadership and if they feel good about me moving forward. That’s something I shouldn’t do. I shouldn’t put that pressure on young people at that point. I’m supposed to be a leader and probably the worst things I’ve ever said in my life were after losses. So disappointed in me, but the kids were overwhelmingly, ‘Come on, coach, let’s go, let’s move forward.’

“Disappointed in me. I’ll grow from it and not do it again.”

Brown said he apologized to athletic director Bubba Cunningham for what he said and the way he acted in the locker room..

“I wasn’t walking in there to quit,” Brown said. “I was walking in there to say, ‘Hey, we stunk. If this isn’t working, help me, man, I’ll get out of here.’ That’s what my purpose was. It didn’t come out that way.”

Brown, 73, noted that when he returned to UNC, when he returned to coaching again, he promised his wife, Sally, that he would accept losses better. He had never been good with that, he said, but promised to be better.

“I lied,” he said Monday.

Brown said he was “mad at the world, mad at me and mad at everybody” after the game. But he then went home and said within 30 minutes had sent out a team text through Teamworks. It was time to turn to Duke and the next game.

“I told them, ‘Hey, sorry, we’re moving forward, let’s go,’” Brown said. “I then started breaking down the (JMU) game to see what we did wrong and what we can do better.”

The Tar Heels (3-1) open ACC play at Duke ( 4-0) on Saturday. There will be the need this week to put the JMU beating behind them, learn from it. The fixes will need to come quickly, Brown said.

“It was just a bad game for all of us. It’s just facts,” Brown said. “We took a step back and we were doing so well and we were so excited. I think that’s what got me after the game.

“They had a great week’s practice and were so excited and you want to be 4-0 going into a rival game. And then it just falls apart. And there are no answers. That’s what got me after the game. How does it happen?

“We let everybody down. I don’t like letting people down. I let our team down, I let our coaches down, I let our university down. And I hate that.”

There were reports Saturday of an ultra emotional postgame scene in the UNC locker room and Brown at offering to step aside as coach and the players refusing to let him do it. Those reports were based on unnamed sources.

No UNC player was allowed to speak to the media after the game, and won’t this week before the Duke game.

On his weekly “Mack Brown Live” radio show Monday, Brown said he “got his rear end kicked and said some stupid things” after the JMU loss. He again said he wanted badly for the Heels to be 4-0 going into the Duke game and was too upset.

Brown said he became dejected during the game and left the field believing he couldn’t do his job. He said he then talked to the players “about quitting and leadership.” The players wanted him to stay, Brown said, telling him to “stay tough.”

“I’m excited about the future. I love my job and love these kids,” Brown said Monday.

Brown, in his comments to the media after the JMU game, called the loss “embarrassing” and it was to anyone associated with UNC football. The Tar Heels had allowed 70 points in a game before Saturday – to East Carolina in a 70-41 blowout on Sept. 20, 2014.

But that game was in Greenville. Saturday’s loss was at Kenan Stadium, before an announced crowd of 50,500.

The Dukes, unstoppable on offense, scored 53 points in the first half, at one point scoring touchdowns in five straight possessions. They led by a stunning 32 points at halftime, 53-21.

No team, home or away, had scored 53 points against UNC in a half during a football history stretching back to 1888. JMU did that, the Tar Heels leaving the field to boos at halftime.

UNC did score 50 points and had 616 yards in total offense. Quarterback Jacolby Criswell, in his first career start at UNC, passed for 475 yards and three scores and Omarion Hampton rushed for 139 yards and three TDs.

“His growth is coming, and that comes with confidence and knowing exactly what we’re doing,” offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey said Monday of Criswell, a graduate transfer from Arkansas. “I think you’ll see him continue to improve each week.”

But UNC’s defense looked lost, its secondary constantly caught out of position as JMU moved the ball and reeled off explosive plays. Quarterback Alonza Barnett III was a game-long problem for the Heels, throwing for 388 yards and five TDs and running for another two in setting JMU records while the Dukes’ experienced offensive line won the battle up front.

JMU, considered a 10-point underdog by Vegas oddsmakers, had an extra week to prepare for the game after an underwhelming 13-6 win over Gardner-Webb. But coach Bob Chesney, who came to JMU from Holy Cross, had the right game plan and the players the right mindset.

Brown, in his postgame comments, said he was once booed by 102,000 Texas fans when he coached the Longhorns. Asked if his UNC players noticed the boos at Kenan, he said dryly there weren’t enough fans still around for many boos to be heard.

“I don’t get to bitch, I have to fix,” he said. “That’s what I get paid for.”