Why UNC football coach Mack Brown cautioned his players about eating ‘poison cheese’
It was during North Carolina’s team meeting Sunday that Tar Heels coach Mack Brown mentioned the new football polls had been released.
UNC was ranked No. 10, moving up a few notches after beating Miami 41-31.
“Nobody moved,” Brown said Monday.
No cheers, no fist bumps, Brown said.
“A couple of years ago, I think I said, ‘You’re eighth in preseason’ and they all cheered,” he said. “And then we lose to Virginia Tech in the opener.
“The difference is this year we’ve earned being tenth. In ‘21, we were given it before the season based on the year before and I don’t count those. As you get to this part of the year, you get what you earn and these (players) have earned it. They appreciate being where they are, they’ve worked hard to earn that and they know it’s fleeting.”
The Tar Heels (6-0, 3-0 ACC) have a home game this week against Virginia . The Heels are such prohibitive favorites over the Cavaliers (1-5, 0-2) that Brown might be tempted to do something like hang a piece of cheese at his players’ lockers this week.
Brown has told and retold the story many times from his days at Texas. It’s about 2005 and the Longhorns’ championship season, and Brown told it again Monday with the Virginia game on his mind.
The Longhorns had just routed Kansas 66-17. They were 10-0 and ranked second in the polls going into the final regular-season game — at Texas A&M, which was 5-5.
Brown said he got a call from an old friend and former coach, Bill Parcells, then the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.
Brown remembers the conversation going like this:
Parcells: “You’re in trouble, man. You’re in trouble because you’re sitting around talking about you and you’re talking about USC and talking about the championship game. This is A&M’s bowl game. They’re not going to a bowl game and their only chance to save their season is to beat you, and you aren’t even thinking about them.
“You’re like that big rat that’s eating the poison cheese. You’re going to die now. You’re going to eat the poison cheese and die.”
Brown’s reaction? He said he was “scared to death” and hung a piece of cheese from each player’s locker along that week along with the Parcells admonition..
At halftime, Texas led 21-15.
“I walked in and said, ‘We’re going to win the game and you’re not going to die, but you’re damn sure sick because you ate some of that cheese and we need to wake up,’” Brown recalled.
The Longhorns woke up. They won 40-29. They made it to the national title game and the showdown against top-ranked Southern Cal, Vince Young scoring the winning touchdown as Texas won a 41-38 thriller in the Rose Bowl.
Playing Virginia at Kenan Stadium is anything but like going to College Stadium, Texas. The Carolina-Virginia game may be called the “South’s Oldest Rivalry” and a lot of the games have been close, but it’s not Texas-Texas A&M.
But the moral of the old story still rings true, Brown said.
“You can’t sit around and eat the poison cheese,” he said “You can’t listen to the talk, you can pat yourself on the back, because we are human beings.
“We know Virginia is going to play hard Saturday night. We knew Miami was going to play hard Saturday night. How are we going to play? Are we going to walk around all week and be cool and talk about all these stats and how many times we’ve been 6-0.
“Better not, or you won’t be 7-0.”
ACC weekly awards
UNC’s Drake Maye was named the ACC’s quarterback of the week, Omarion Hampton the top running back and Tez Walker the ACC’s top receiver after the win over Miami. Cedric Gray has been named co-linebacker of the week after making 10 tackles, recovering a fumble and picking off a pass.
Injury update
Brown said wide receiver Kobe Paysour suffered a broken toe and not an ankle sprain in practice last week and has had surgery. Brown is hopeful Paysour can return this season.
Paysour has 22 catches for 272 yards and three touchdowns, his juggling 77-yard TD reception against Syracuse one of the season highlights — and No. 1 on ESPN’s SportsCenter’s “Top 10 Plays” after that game.
This story was originally published October 16, 2023 at 3:34 PM with the headline "Why UNC football coach Mack Brown cautioned his players about eating ‘poison cheese’."
