University of North Carolina Athletics
A Q&A With Coach Gary Tranquill: Part I
July 25, 2003 | Football
By: Joe Bray
TarHeelBlue: Please give our readers an overall assessment of each of the offensive position groups?
Coach Tranquill: "Let's start with the wide receiver position. It's the most inexperienced group we have on offense. Derrele Mitchel and Brandon Russell played some last year, but not a great deal. Derrele split some time with Sam Aiken, and he played in three wide-out situations.
"He probably played about half the time last year. Brandon didn't play that much, but he's been at the position for a couple of years now, so he's not one who's going to have to learn a position.
"The only other guy who has any extensive playing time is Jarwarski Pollock, a guy who I thought was our best wide receiver last year after Aiken and Chesley Borders. He's shorter, but has great quickness and ball skills. The biggest concern I have with him is being able to play 60 or 70 plays in a game because he's not going to be able to take the pounding. We have to look at him as one of our playmakers on offense, and I think he will be.
"He's tough, he's got all the right qualities. Hopefully he can avoid any kind of injury that causes him to miss some playing time.
"Of the three freshmen we recruited, hopefully one of them will be able to play very quickly. Then, by the fourth game or so, we'd like to have two of them playing.
"It all depends upon how quickly they can learn the offense, because from a physical standpoint they're all good enough. They all have good physical tools, they run well, they all look like they have pretty good ball skills.
"The game will speed up for them considerably. It's really going to help us if they can learn and catch up with the speed of the game because that's a position where we really need help.
"It's time for a guy like Danny Rumley to showcase his talent a little bit. He needs to jump in there and do the things he needs to do to get some playing time.
"It's an inexperienced position, but we'd like to play with three wide-outs at times and even four wide-outs at times if we can. The critical key at this position is how quickly can a couple of the three freshmen help us."
TarHeelBlue: What about your tight ends?
Coach Tranquill: "The biggest concern I have at that position is depth. I think that Bobby Blizzard can be a premier tight end. He's got size, he blocks well enough, he has good pass receiving skills, he runs well enough. He can do all those things, plus he's a guy we can play in different positions. In the spring we put him in what we call our H-back position, where he's half a fullback, half a tight end. It's also called the F-back depending on how we organize our formations.
"Sometimes he's half a receiver and half a tight end. He's so versatile that we can do lots of things with him. The problem is that when he's that position guy, John Dunn is the tight end or our true freshman is our tight end. It's going to be a matter of how quickly one of those guys, or hopefully both of them, can show us that they can play so that we do those things with Blizzard.
"I thought John Dunn came along in the spring, I thought he played better. He's a bright young man, but he'd never been a tight end before last year. He did spend most of last year there, plus this spring, so hopefully he can contribute. We need for him to contribute.
"The same goes for the new guy. Just like with the wide receivers there's a spot for him right away if he shows us that he can play."
TarHeelBlue: Has the offensive line improved?
Coach Tranquill: "The offensive line should be a strength position for us. We've got fairly good experience up front now.
"We've got Skip Seagraves and Willie McNeill at tackle. McNeill has ability but needs to be more consistent. He and Seagraves both played a lot last year.
"Add Jeb Terry, Kyle Ralph and Jupiter Wilson at the guard position. That gives us five good, solid offensive linemen who have been in the game. Then you've got Jason Brown at center. He's the best athlete we have on offense up front.
"That's six guys who have proven they can play, and play pretty well. After that, the depth is a major concern to me.
"Drew Hunter backing up at tackle has not played. acking up at center is Steven Bell, who played a little bit last year. Chris Woods at guard has not played.
"A guy who came out of spring with whom we were very pleased was Brian Chacos, who we moved from tight end to tackle. I'm not sure he's going to stay at tackle. He can run very well. You like to have a tight end who grows out of that position and into an offensive lineman. He may not be the greatest athlete as a tight end, but he's a very good athlete as an offensive lineman. I also think he's tough enough, hopefully he can enter the mix.
"We figure we need seven guys who can play. Somebody's always going to be nicked up. Jupiter Wilson can play both guards and Kyle Ralph can play both guards, that's a plus. Skip Seagraves can play both tackles. If Chacos comes through for us he'll give us that third tackle that we need.
"At least on paper, the first five or six guys are pretty good players. We've come a long way in the past two years."
TarHeelBlue: Do you anticipate playing any true freshmen at this position?
Coach Tranquill: "We're not looking for any of them to help us right away, but you never know. If somebody shows a little bit that we can give them some work, we'll do it.
"In terms of learning, offensive tackles don't have as much to learn as the center and the guards. The tackles are usually tied up one on one, but it's tougher to block pass rushers off the edge than it is those guys inside. In terms of understanding things it's a little easier to learn the tackle position, but physically I think it's harder to play tackle.
"It's not easy blocking those big defensive ends who can get up the field fast, that's a chore. That's why left tackles in the pros make more money than any of the other offensive line positions."
TarHeelBlue: Let's look at the running backs.
Coach Tranquill: "The running back position is kind of unique. We've got four guys there who can play. Chad Scott had a very good spring. He's not a big guy, but he's probably as good a pass protector we have as a back. He catches the ball well, he's a slasher as a runner. I'm anxious to see how he performs in a game.
"Ronnie McGill came in at mid-year. He doesn't have gave great straight-line speed, but he has power and he has balance, he's a hard guy to knock off his feet. We were pleasantly surprised with just how well he did in the spring.
"I thought Willie Parker had the best spring he's had since we've been here. I think he saw the other guys and realized that he really had to compete at the position.
"Jacque Lewis was probably our most consistent guy last year. He does everything pretty well. He'll be in the mix too.
"It's going to be a problem initially in determining how we're going to get each guy enough work. Don't be surprised to see two tailbacks in the game at the same time. I've done that before. It's going to be interesting to see how the tailback position shakes out."
TarHeelBlue: How worried are you about the lack of depth at fullback?
Coach Tranquill: "The fullback position is a critical situation for us. That's why I mentioned Blizzard. If our two young tight ends are better than our fullbacks, then we can do a lot more things with Blizzard. He can be that H-back if we have a tight end to go with him.
"If we don't have another tight end, you may see a little deviation from an I football team. As I just mentioned, you may have two tailbacks in the game at the same time.
"Nobody at the fullback position has any experience to speak of. James Gibson has been here for two years, but hasn't really played a lot yet. Rikki Cook may be a runner rather than an I fullback. He may be a guy you can put in there as one back and give him the ball because he does have good running skills. He may eventually jump in the mix as one of the tailbacks. I don't know. Fullback is a very thin position right now."
TarHeelBlue: Let's look at quarterbacks, the position you coach.
Coach Tranquill: "Darian Durant had a pretty good spring. The number two position is up for grabs. We'll make that decision after a couple of weeks into preseason ball.
"When Durant got hurt last year and we had to put C.J. in, he hadn't really played in three years and he basically got thrown to the wolves. That's not easy. Both Matt and C.J. have good physical tools, but they lack experience. The more reps you get at quarterback, the better you get at decision making.
"Some guys are innate at it, they just step in there and see what they need to see and make plays. That's one of Durant's assets. He see things and makes pretty good decisions most of the time, and he makes plays. The other two guys need to get better at making quicker decisions.
"Darian's much better in a game than practice. You put Darian in a game and things change. Sometimes he tries to do too much, sometimes he doesn't let the flow of the game come to him. Part of that is inexperience.
"When you think of Durant, he played six and a half games last year and split time in about ten games the year before, so he really just has a year's experience under his belt, which really isn't very much.
"It really impressed me when he came back for the Duke game last year. A lot of guys wouldn't have done that. He missed some throws he could have made, but he made the big ones he had to make when we really needed them. I admire him for that.
"Darian kept his hand in things when he was hurt. He was in all the meetings so he had a good idea of what was going on."
TarHeelBlue: What's your overall feeling about the offense?
Coach Tranquill: "Overall, I think we should be a better offense. I hope we can run the ball better. The last two years we haven't been very good at running the football. My philosophy is that you have to be able to run the ball with some degree of consistency to be good on offense.
"I know there's a lot of people who do nothing but throw it, but that's not the way we're geared here. Don't get me wrong, I'm not averse to throwing the ball. We were probably over 50% throwing the ball last year, a lot of that being in catch-up situations.
"It's very important to have a balanced offense. One helps the other. The way the game's played today, if you can run the ball, you're going to get extra people on defense trying to defend against the run, which should make it a little easier to throw the ball.
"If you can throw the ball real well but not run the ball, then you get all the junk. You get all the blitzes, you get all the different coverages. If you've got a good mix, it takes away a little bit of what the defense can zero in on.
"I don't want the defense with eight or nine men in the box every time we have a tight end and two backs in the game, because it's pretty darn hard to run the ball against that."
