University of North Carolina Athletics
Interesting Contrasts In New Defensive Staff.
February 10, 2004 | Extra Points
Feb. 10, 2004
by Lee Pace, Extra Points
The new additions to the Tar Heel defensive coaching staff provide some interesting contrasts.
John Gutekunst is 59 years old. He's been a head coach, a coordinator, and a position coach. He's coached both sides of the ball. He's lived and worked in the Northeast to the Deep South to the Midwest. He's not worn pads in nearly four decades, since he hung them up at Duke in 1967.
Marvin Sanders is 36 years old. He's coached college ball for 12 years and is not far removed from suiting up for a national title contender. He lettered at defensive back on three Nebraska teams in the late-1980s-the Cornhuskers went 10-2, 11-2 and 10-2 during that period under head coach Tom Osborne and were never out of the nation's Top 10.
Old sage and young blood, you might say.
"I like the combination," John Bunting says of his new defensive co-coordinators. Gutekunst replaces Dave Huxtable with the linebackers, and Sanders replaces Jim Fleming with the secondary. Fleming was dismissed after the 2003 season and now is defensive coordinator at Akron. Huxtable was relieved of his coordinator title and subsequently accepted a position at Central Florida.
"I wanted an older guy, a gray-haired guy who's been through a lot of situations in college football," Bunting says. "John is a guy Bill Dooley recommended to me right away. I brought him in and increasingly felt he was the guy to help lead us.
"At the same time, I wanted a younger coach to help with some very young players. I wanted to cut it clean from the previous staff. I wanted someone with experience at a top program. I pursued Marvin for a long time, and eventually worked it out.
"In a short time, I've already seen some camaraderie and chemistry developing between those two. I think they're going to help us this spring and next fall put together a much-improved defense."
Gutekunst comes from South Carolina, where he had worked on Lou Holtz's staff for five years. Sanders comes from Nebraska, where he'd been on Frank Solich's staff for one season after working at Colorado State for two.
Both coaches bring considerable experience and perspective to Carolina that hopefully can help Bunting lift the Tar Heels from the pits of a 5-19 skid. And defense is where the Tar Heels need the most attention.
"There's obviously been a problem here," says Gutekunst. "People love to be able to say it's this one reason-this one coach or this one player or this scheme or that one position. But in my experience, it's a combination of things. It's an injury here or an injury there. It might an attitude problem. It might be something you didn't pay attention to in the off-season. All of a sudden, it snowballs and starts going downhill and you can't get it stopped in the heat of the battle. It's not about affixing blame."
The Gutekunst hiring is reminiscent of one of Mack Brown's best personnel moves during his 10-year run as head coach from 1988-97. After the 1989 season, the Heels were coming off a 2-20 hammering over two years and the Tar Heel offensive staff was under considerable pressure-never mind they were lacking in linemen, quarterbacks and tailbacks. Brown hired a new offensive line coach in Whitey Jordan, whose experience, maturity and convivial personality lent a measure of stability and cohesiveness to the operation.
Everyone who knows "Gutie," as he's been nicknamed for years, says Bunting made a good decision.
"We got lucky. Gutie will do a great job," says Brad Lawing, the Tar Heels' defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. Lawing worked with Gutekunst under Sparky Woods at South Carolina in 1993.
Clearly one element Sanders will bring to the equation is his youth and ability to relate to today's players. Better than perhaps anyone on the Tar Heel staff today, Sanders knows exactly what it takes to be a player in a championship-caliber program in modern college football.
Sanders says there are three threads running through every successful defense he's been a part of-whether wearing a helmet himself or a coaches' whistle.
"One, cohesiveness. You want guys who believe in each other," he says.
"Two, accountability. They have to hold each other accountable. It begins with winter drills. The leader determines the speed of the pack. The leaders evolve and everyone jumps on board. They don't let anyone skip a drill or be late to a meeting."
"And three, effort level. We had some success at Nebraska strictly on effort. Effort level is huge."
No matter who's running the drills in practice or calling the stunts and coverages in games, though, the Heels won't get better unless they amass the kind of talented linemen who can stuff the run, the linebackers who can sack the quarterback and the cornerbacks who can stick like glue to a receiver.
 John Gutekunst was head coach at Minnesota for six years.  |
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They've been woefully short of them since the Julius Peppers/Ryan Sims class departed in 2001 and since the building blocks of the 1996-97 juggernaut departed for the NFL-Greg Ellis, Vonnie Holliday, Brian Simmons, Kivuusama Mays, Omar Brown, Dre Bly, et al. Told those players were together on one defense during those glory days, Sanders' eyes widened.
"Wow," he said. "I knew North Carolina was known for great athletes. I didn't realize all those guys were here on the same defense. That must have been an incredible team.
"That's what it's all about-getting great athletes. I don't care where you are or what level you're at. If you don't have great athletes, you won't be successful."
It's ironic that Bunting is a defensive specialist-that's where he played and made his name coaching-but it's on that side of the ball where his three-year-old Tar Heel program has had the most problems. Already four coaches have come and gone on that side of the ball-Jon Tenuta, Rod Broadway, Fleming and Huxtable.
And he's been saddled over two years with a pronounced lack of healthy, athletic, fleet, tough and smart players. He has some of those and has recruited some more. But there haven't been enough. As Gutekunst says, it's usually a combination of problems.
"Football's a game of heart and a game of talent," he says. "Everyone wants 40 yard-dash times, verticals jumps, bench-press numbers. But it's more than that. I'm looking forward to getting to know this team, to finding out who has the heart and the talent."
