EXTRA POINTS: Crunching The Numbers

August 31, 2014 | Football, Featured Writers

By: UNC Athletic Communications

By Lee Pace, GoHeels.com

Snaps: Ninety-three. Takeaways: six. Touchbacks: eight. Freshmen: eight. Yellow flags: ten. Quarterbacks: two. Victories: one. The numbers added up to a 56-29 victory for the Tar Heels Saturday night in their season opener against Liberty University and leave any number of permutations to consider as the 2014 season evolves.

This offense wants to build on head coach Larry Fedora's fast-tempo blueprint and improve on its average of 75 snaps a game in 2012 and 73 in 2013. One element the staff believed was slowing its velocity down was communicating personnel groupings audibly-the coaches screaming THUNDER, for example, in short-yardage situations that called for two tight ends and a fullback. This year Travis Riley, a former running back sidelined permanently by injury and now a student-coach, is managing a stack of signs from the sideline that are held up for the players to see, hastening their ability to enter and exit the lineup quickly.

"It helps speed us up a lot," quarterback Marquise Williams said. "I'm glad we're doing the cards this year. It helps get guys in and out and get lined up faster. We want to be way faster than we were last year. Our tempo was good tonight, but we're going to push it more and more each day."

Forcing tempo was evident on the Tar Heels' first and last drives of the first half, when Williams hit 5-of-5 passes on an eight-play, 61-yard scoring drive that took 2:11 to complete, and then in the two-minute drill when Carolina zipped 66 yards on seven plays in just over one minute for another touchdown. Midway through the third quarter, Williams hit Mack Hollins for seven yards on a screen pass, then quickly ran the same play, with Hollins catching Liberty out of position and Jack Tabb laying a textbook block to pop Hollins for a 33-yard touchdown. The Tar Heels' total of 93 offensive plays was their highest in a single game in 20 years.

"We were just hitting them with tempo, hitting them before they could get lined up," first-year offensive coordinator Seth Littrell said. "It's a start, but we have to get better. The thing that hurt us was we had too many pre-snap penalties. That kills your tempo. We've got to clean that up."

Indeed, despite rigorous off-season emphasis analyzing the whys and wherefores of the Tar Heels' proclivity in 2013 to draw infractions, they were sloppy Saturday-10 flags for 60 yards. Deep snapper Conor Fry sailed the ball over punter Tommy Hibbard's head, leading to a safety, and Williams under-threw open receivers on two deep balls. That's plenty of fodder for re-emphasis and corrective measures in week two and was one of the reasons the Tar Heels found themselves trailing to a Big South Conference opponent once at the end of the first half and again midway through the third quarter.

"We would have had two touchdowns if not for the under-thrown balls," Littrell said. "Put two scores on the board and it's a different story. Sometimes Quise tries to hang the ball. If he lets it go like he did in that two-minute drive and he doesn't try to over analyze things, he's going to be all right."

That Williams started was of no surprise, despite Fedora and the coaching staff playing coy with their planned deployment of the incumbent starter and the challenger, red-shirt freshman Mitch Trubisky. Suffice to say Carolina is blessed at the position and both will have considerable roles in 2014.

"I think they did a good job of managing the game, they moved the chains," Fedora said. "I think we were 9-of-17 on third downs, which is pretty good. What I didn't like was the interceptions, all three were avoidable. But we got out of it with a win and both got a bunch of really good reps."

Fedora and Tar Heel defensive coordinator Vic Koenning lamented the defense's lack of forcing turnovers in 2013, ranking 71st nationally with 20 turnovers gained after notching 25 in 2012, and put inordinate focus on stripping and swarming and elevating to balls in training camp. Previously the defensive coaches awarded points during practice for a litany of accomplishments-sacks, creating negative plays and the like. Fedora last spring suggested changing the focus to creating turnovers only, and that mantra carried over to August. If the defense couldn't get a takeaway at least once every 25 offensive snaps during training camp, it meant post-practice punishment. The Liberty win was an excellent start, the Tar Heels getting four fumble recoveries, Jeff Schoettmer scoring on a pick-six and Kedrick Davis stealing a pass with a twisting and diving snare in front of the Carolina boundary late in the game.

"One of our goals is to be in the top 20 in the nation in turnovers," Schoettmer said. "We needed to get three or four every day or we'd have to do up-downs. It has definitely been an emphasis in camp-interceptions, stripping the ball, getting fumbles."

The bad snap on a punt was one special teams gaffe, and placekicker Thomas Moore missing a 44-yard field goal to the right was another. But Hibbard had punts of 53, 49 and 43 yards and sophomore Ryan Switzer averaged 10 yards on seven punt returns. The big story in the kicking game, though, was the emergence of kickoff specialist Nick Weiler, who nailed nine kicks into the end zone, all but one resulting in touchbacks. Of the eight Tar Heel touchdowns, Moore made the point after on the first two, and Weiler was appointed for the next six. Weiler was afflicted with a groin injury in 2013, but off-season surgery has corrected that and he's strong and healthy this year.

Weiler's performance was "phenomenal," said Larry Porter, the running backs coach and special teams coordinator. "He just crushed it, he was outstanding," Fedora said. Added Hollins, "Nick's an amazing weapon."

Get used to Weiler's name and familiarize yourself with a handful of freshmen who were initiated into the world of college football Saturday night. Elijah Hood drew gasps and guffaws when he lowered his shoulder and leveled a Liberty defender on a third-down run and 10-yard gain late in the first half. Defensive tackle Tyler Powell was productive and lent credence to Fedora saying upon National Signing Day last February, "That kid is just tough. That's the only way to describe him-tough." Also playing were offensive linemen Bentley Spain and Jared Cohen, receiver Austin Proehl and defenders Allen Artis, Ty Tomlin and Cayson Collins.

Fedora said he found one of the freshmen in the hallway of the Kenan Football Center "sobbing" upon arrival at the stadium so overwhelmed was the kid over the enormity of the event. "We all think it's no big deal, but to them, it's huge, huge," Fedora said. "There were some really good things that were happening with those young guys even though they weren't perfect."

In the end it was an entertaining and insightful opener in Kenan Stadium on a sultry evening before an excellent Labor Day weekend crowd. The page turns on chapter two next week as we learn more about tempo, turnovers and banishing those infernal pre-snap penalty flags.

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (leepace7@gmail.com) is entering his 25th year writing "Extra Points" and 11th reporting from the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network. His unique look at Tar Heel football will appear regularly throughout the fall. Follow him on Twitter @LeePaceTweet.