University of North Carolina Athletics
A Conversation With John Bunting: Part I
December 27, 2000 | Football
y: Joe Bray
TarHeelBlue: What type of coach was Bill Dooley, and how has the game changed since you played for him?
Coach Bunting: "Good football coach. Really, really good football coach. He stands for all the right things that football stands for. Teamwork, playing hard, being in great condition, securing the ball, minimal turnovers, great defense.
"That's how you win. That's how you win in the NFL, and that's how you win in college. The guys at the highest level always talk about securing the football, playing great defense and scoring in the red-zone.
"You need a great third-down percentage on both offense and defense. How do you do that? Well, on defense you get third and long, on offense you get third and short because you can convert those. So how do you get to those two things? Well, you've got to be able to stop the run on defense, and you've got to be able to run the ball some on offense, and then make the conversions on third down. You don't want to be faced with third and twelve.
"On offense you've got to eliminate pre-snap penalties, eliminate all unnecessary roughness penalties and be disciplined. On defense you want to minimize missed tackles and don't give up the big play. If you do that, you'll usually play good defense.
"It's simple, don't complicate it. That's what Bill Dooley did. Don't complicate it, it's as simple as that.
"It's very important now offensively to score touchdowns when you get in the red-zone. When you get in the red-zone defensively, make them kick field goals. I think that's about the only difference that I see between today's football and football in the past. That's a major, major emphasis now, red-zone offense and red-zone defense."
TarHeelBlue: Given that you have the talent to run it, what is your preferred style of offense?
Coach Bunting: "The Gulf Coast or the West Coast. I use the terms interchangeably. What we did with the Gulf Coast at New Orleans is to run the ball a little more than the pure West Coast. That's the difference.
"In college football, I think you need a system that is simple and easy to understand. People that run the West Coast offense will tell you there is a lot of memorization, but that if you reduce the load the West Coast offense can still be very effective in college ball.
"That's what I prefer to get into, because it's going to do two things. First, it's going to give us multiple looks for defenses to defend. Multiple looks, and many times doing the same things out of multiple looks. That's the beauty of the West Coast or the Gulf Coast offense.
"You get different personnel groupings regular with one tight end, two backs, two wide receivers. Or, two tight ends, two wide receivers, one back. Two tights, two backs, one receiver. Three wides, one back, one tight end. Then, when you want to get a little more exotic, you get into three wides and two backs, or you get into the four wides.
"You can do that effectively if it's taught the right way, because you interchange the personnel. For example, the guy that's playing running back, if he was to split out and run some type of a pass route, it would be the same route that that guy would be playing if he was in fact a wide receiver.
"So you try to teach a pass pattern that can be run out of any of the personnel groupings that I've just mentioned, and it's all run the same. It's a matter of getting aligned up right and running the play. It's all the same.
"It's the best style of offense because of multiple looks.
"And the second thing is, and this is very important, recruiting. People that want to play a pro-style offense, whether it be because that's what they see a lot of on TV in the pros, or they have aspirations to play in the pros, this is the style of offense that we need to have here. Those are the advantages of playing this style of offense
"Now, there are advantages to playing other styles of offense. We had a couple of guys in from another staff that throw the ball fifty times. It scares me, it scares me a lot. I think that can bother our defense two ways. One, on game day, we throw the ball too much, the offense is off the field, the defense is right back on it. There is no time of possession.
"Two, it can bother the defense because if you're throwing the ball all the time in spring practice, you're not learning how to defend the run, and there are going to be teams in this conference that want to run the ball. If you're always going to be defending against the pass in spring practice, you're going to be soft and ineffective in stopping the run during the fall. So, there's a problem with a team that throws the ball fifty times.
"Then we've talked to some other coaches who want to run the ball, and run the ball only. That's not going to work. You have to do more than that.
"Then we had one situation where we had an up-tempo offense that was very, very interesting. It had some principles from the Delaware Wing-T incorporated into a passing scheme. They ran a lot of snaps, 90 or more a game, and the average is usually between 65 and 70.
"We've had four different systems that we've had through here during interviews. I'm going to have to judge which one will be best for us now, and obviously two, three, four years from now.
"The one that I'm probably most comfortable with is the West Coast type of offense, because you have the ability to run the ball and the ability to get into multiple personnel groupings as part of the package. Plus, it's attractive to the kids."
TarHeelBlue: How about the other side of the ball. What kind of defense do you prefer?
Coach Bunting: "We're going to attack. We're going to be an attacking defense.
"We're going to have the means to change up and play a soft defense, but it will be by a total disguise. We'll give the appearance that we'll be attacking, but we'll play soft in a given situation, such as a 3rd and 20 situation. Make them think you're coming after them, then play soft coverage. Make the quarterback scared to death, where he wants to get rid of the ball, we'll knock it down and get off the field.
"But, primarily we're going to be an attacking defense. You have to make it easy for the players to understand, but I want to be able to attack. In order to do that you have to have corners that can cover, if you're going to play man-to-man. I've come from a system where our corners were not the greatest man-to-man cover guys, so we had to play a lot of cover two. Cover two simply means that the corners must be technically sound, they must be fundamentally coached very, very well.
"The most important hire for me, after I get the coordinators in place, will be two people, the offensive line coach and the secondary coach. Those are the two most important hires to me, because you win or lose games right there. Up front, the offensive line must protect the quarterback. That's a big, big part of what offense I'll choose. I want the quarterback protected.
"I want to be able to, at a moments notice, get into multiple protections that will ensure that that quarterback will not get hit, so that he knows that and has confidence. Quarterbacks get hit all the time, but I'll be quite honest with you, the games I watched last year, he was getting hit a lot, far too much. I don't want that to happen. I want the quarterback to have confidence that he won't get hit.
"The secondary has to be extremely well coached and disciplined. They have to know how to tackle in space, so that small gains don't turn into big gains. Once again, to me it's simple. But, is it hard to coach those kids up and get them to do the right things all the time, yes it is.
"So, I've got to have a great secondary coach. I've got to get the best I can possibly find for us."
TarHeelBlue: Special Team's play is such an important part of the game. Will that coaching responsibility be shared or done by one coach?
Coach Bunting: "It will be shared, and I will be directly involved with that. I think if anything I'll probably have as much involvement with that as I will with the offense or defense. It's an important part of any football game. It's 30 to 35% of the game.
"People sometimes neglect that part of it. It will not be neglected here. I will have one member of the staff coordinate it, but other members of the staff will be directly involved with particular units on the special teams. I will be heavily involved with that."
The next three installments will be as follows:
Part II - Friday, Dec. 29: Bunting will discuss what he perceives to be the biggest problem facing his squad, and how he hopes to overcome it.
Part III - Monday, Jan. 1: Bunting will talk about his thoughts and actions during his hiring process, plus discuss the impact that other coaches have had on his career.
Part IV - Wednesday, Jan. 3: Coach Bunting will discuss what it has been like to return to Chapel Hill, and how he plans to restore pride in the Tar Heel football program.
