UNC's Mack Brown planning for social distancing upon return to football offices

Mack Brown has had to adjust to more than trying to figure out how to lead a football program in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Brown and his wife, Sally, have had to make their own changes during this new normal. The 68-year-old coach at North Carolinasaid on a Zoom call with reporters Monday that he and his wife, Sally, have been careful about their own social distancing measures not only to keep themselves safe but to keep from infecting others.

Though Brown said he tries not to think too much about being in the age group most impacted by COVID-19, he knows he has to do his part to try to stay safe. That means wearing a mask when he goes out, wearing a glove when he pumps gas, and mentally preparing for no hugs or high-fives once he and his players return to campus.

"You can think about it, but until we're out there and it's real, we're not going to know for sure," Brown said. "I had a young teenager come up when I was walking the other day and said, 'Hey, Coach, can I have a selfie?' and I thought, 'You know, you really can't.' I said, 'You can have a 6-foot selfie. So he stood across the road and took the picture of he and I together. So yeah, there's going to be differences, and I've talked to the players about that.

"When our team gets back together, I'm going to want to hug all of them. I can't. We just can't do that, and it's not just me at my age, it's all of us because you don't want to infect someone else, either. I'm just hoping things get better before we all go back to work, but I don't think this is going away. It's going to be a different way of life for all of us."

Brown said the current plan is for him and his staff to return to the building on June 15, and he will stick to that until someone at the university tells him otherwise. Already, Brown is thinking about how many people can safely fit into his office, coach meeting rooms and the team meeting room, in addition to how many players will be allowed to work out in the weight room at the same time.

He said there might be social distancing measures implemented in the elevator, too, and the athletic department is looking into using an app to take the temperature of everyone who steps into the building throughout the day.

Of special concern is assistant coach Jovan Dewitt, who recently survived a bout with throat cancer and is entering his first year on the North Carolina staff after working at Nebraska last season.

"You take a coach like Jovan Dewitt, who just got through with a bout with cancer and he's got an underlying medical condition, so I'm not sure how we'll handle Jovan," Brown said. "We want him to be comfortable and safe, so we've got to look at all those things coming back. I don't think short term that we'll be normal. I do think classes will be smaller; I do think there will be more online classes. We're all going to have to look at what social distancing means in football."