Mack Brown explains decision to tell starters that they can be replaced weekly

After revealing his team’s starting quarterback and full roster starters on Monday, Mack Brown explained his unusual reveal method. Brown used a press appearance to reveal every player that was a “Blue Team” player, or starter for North Carolina‘s upcoming season.

Part of his process was to publicly name their week one starting quarterback as Drake Maye, revealing to the team and the public his decision. Despite giving Maye the starting nod, Brown hammered home that the situation was flexible as he was asked follow-up questions — indicated that Maye and every single player on his roster would have to prove they’re a starter each week.

Mack Brown on his ongoing quarterback battle

“We thought long and hard at what was best, and really and truly, we didn’t announce the right tackle, we didn’t announce the nose tackle… and if you’re being fair as a team and everybody’s important and everybody’s got a role, then we didn’t think it should be handled any differently,” said Brown on naming his starting quarterback publicly with the rest of the team.

“And the fact that, if Drake didn’t practice well this week, Jacolby [Criswell] practices better, then he’ll start on Saturday. This is bigger to you all than it is us. Because we compete every day.

“And that’s everybody that gets announced today and people will have opinions — it’s interesting, I always thought it was funny that people that have never seen practice have an opinion that one is better than the other. I wish I could do that, I get way too much information.”

Mack Brown was then asked why they had opted to name their starters on Monday instead of closer to game day, if practice would determine who was truly starting on game day.

“Because you all were anxious, and you were nervous and you needed something,” said Brown. “Very honestly, we did it with Sam [Howell] because we felt like the guy that’s gonna walk out there first will talk to you tomorrow. He needs to have a week to lead the team, it needs to be his team for this week. But if he doesn’t practice well, you’ll be talking to Jacolby.

“We have told these players we are not going to allow guys to walk out on the field in practice and not compete and not practice well and then play on Saturday. You lose your job daily, and that’s fair.”

Brown was then asked a follow-up question about why he chose to reveal their depth chart in this fashion, and if he was looking to develop an edge to his players as they continued through fall camp with uncertainty about starters.

“Absolutely. We’ve announced, but they know it … but they’ve known who’s been out there more.

“But what we felt is that, we’re not gonna talk about who we’re playing anymore. Because last year we played up or down to the level of competition. We’re gonna talk about creating a standard of excellence every day at practice, every day at school, every day of their lives. And that’s gonna help you when you get out.

“We’re not gonna let anybody walk on that field that’s not ready to go. We’ve said three things can happen — you’re gonna get embarrassed if you walk out there and you’re not ready to go. Because we’ve got enough talent now, they will embarrass you. You’re gonna lose your job if you’re not ready to go every morning because we’re not gonna put up with it. And thirdly, you’re more likely to get hurt if you’re not prepared. So you need to be at that level, standard of excellence, every day before you walk out on that field if you wanna play.”

Before Mack Brown fully closed his press appearance, he fielded one last question about his decision and the team’s belief in their starters. Brown was asked how he expected players to buy-in to their decision each week about who was starting, as a constant position battle would lead to players on the team taking sides with who they thought deserved the job.

“We have talked a lot about trust with our team. And I’ve been doing this longer than any of them, I checked their resumes. So they’ve gotta trust that we know which one to put out there. And again, I didn’t say that Jacolby would not play. I didn’t say that we aren’t gonna trust him and that he’s not gonna come into games and then help us win. I said Drake will walk out there first. And we’re gonna play the guy who puts the ball in that end zone. It’s really like ‘make-it, take-it.’ If you’re scoring touchdowns you stay, if not we got another good one to go out there and do it.”