UNC football coach Mack Brown has 'more unanswered questions right now than any other time in my career'

CHAPEL HILL — Mack Brown is a Hall of Fame college football coach with 33 mostly successful seasons under his belt, including a national championship. But when Brown kicks off his 34th year at the helm Saturday, he'll do so with more questions about his 2022 North Carolina team than any other he's coached.

The uncertainty isn't the kind Brown experienced during his first stint at UNC back in the late 1980s when the lack of depth and quality players led to consecutive 1-10 finishes before the Tar Heels reeled off eight straight winning seasons and cracked the national top 10.

This time it's more about inexperience as UNC attempts to rebound from a 2021 season that began with great expectations, but ended with a disappointing 6-7 finish.

"When I say there are probably more unanswered questions right now than at any other time in my career that means we've got a lot of really talented young players who haven't played, and we don't know how they are going to respond,'' Brown said earlier this week.

"We're very talented, but we're very inexperienced. You can't answer inexperience, game-type questions during the week. They've performed well in practice. We like what we see.''

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North Carolina's depth chart for the Week Zero opener against Florida A&M at Kenan Stadium (8 p.m., ACC Network) will feature 13 sophomores, six redshirt freshmen and nine true freshmen.

There will be 13 new starters in the opening lineup, including highly touted redshirt quarterback Drake Maye. Maye, the No. 9-ranked quarterback prospect in the recruiting Class of 2021, will make his initial college start as the Tar Heels kick off for the first time in three years without record-setting Sam Howell under center. Backup sophomore Jacolby Criswell is also expected to take snaps against A&M.

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Maye is part of two straight nationally top 20-ranked recruiting classes that Brown hopes can help answer some of the questions surrounding the 2022 squad. Twenty players from those classes, which were ranked No. 14 and No. 11 nationally by 247Sports.com, are on the depth chart for Saturday's opener and six are listed as starters.

"We've been here (UNC) going on our fourth year,'' Brown said. "We've really had two-and-a-half recruiting classes, so some of our best players are young. Last year's recruiting class was unbelievable and a lot of those guys will play Saturday for the first time.''

At least 10 true freshmen who caught the attention of Brown and team veterans in preseason camp, are expected to make their college debut Saturday.

Junior cornerback Storm Duck pointed out corner Marcus Allen as one of the freshmen who have made their mark. Allen, a 6-1, 175-pounder from Marietta, Georgia, is No. 2 on the opening depth chart behind junior Tony Grimes.

"Marcus is long, tall and quick,'' Duck said. "He's talented and real competitive, too.''

Nose tackle Travis Shaw, a 6-foot-5, 355-pounder from Greensboro, was one of the most heralded prospects in the 2022 recruiting class. Shaw was rated the nation's No. 6 defensive line prospect by 247Sports.com and chose UNC over Clemson and Georgia.

Shaw is one of four players listed on the depth chart at nose tackle, but starter Ray Vohasek believes he'll be an asset at that position.

"Travis had a great spring, especially coming right out of high school,'' Vohasek said. "Then, right when we started camp, he picked up right where he left off. He's been improving day by day. I've been trying to help him out as much as I can. I think he can really help us this year especially with what he brings to the table with his size and athleticism.''

Now it's a matter of seeing how those young and untested players perform on the field.

"We've got a lot of question marks that will be answered Saturday night at 8:15,'' Brown said. "Everybody will see it when we see it.''

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This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: UNC football coach Mack Brown has talented but untested young roster