University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: See The Game
October 23, 2016 | Football, Featured Writers
By Lee Pace
Gene Chizik speaks of “seeing the game well.” He first sensed it with this year's Carolina defense in the first half of the victory in Tallahassee in early October—few real busts in assignments and limited confusion with players recognizing the sets, formations and tendencies of the Seminoles. He saw more of it the following week when the Tar Heels limited Virginia Tech to a pair of field goals through most of the first half and more still last week against Miami when the Tar Heels muffled a talented Hurricane offense to 13 points and forced a fumble and recovery to secure the win late in the game.
“If a defense is seeing the game well, I don't jack with them,” Chizik says. “When you're in the groove, you don't mess with it. We're playing a high percentage of base defense because we're seeing what's in front of us.”
The Tar Heels saw things very well again Saturday at Virginia in a decisive 35-14 victory that was Carolina's seventh straight win over the Cavaliers, their ninth straight true road win and gives them a nice boost going into an open week.
It's freshman safety Myles Dorn seeing a particular formation and personnel group near the goal at Miami last week, making a tackle-for-loss and helping force a field goal. It's linebacker Cole Holcomb seeing a tendency in a down-and-distance situation and knifing through to stop ace Cavalier tailback Smoke Mizzell for a one-yard gain this week. It's safety Des Lawrence seeing a Virginia out-pattern develop, using his body to screen receiver Doni Dowling from the ball and flicking his right hand at the precise instant to deflect the ball to the ground.
“It's happening more, I can see it watching from upstairs,” Chizik said Saturday night. “More guys are getting experience as we go on. There are only so many things you're going to see in the course of a season, and we've seen most of them now, with the exception of the option. The reps are starting to accumulate. Everyone is doing their job. I talk about, 'Stay in your lane. Do your job.' We're seeing more of that. It's very gratifying.”
Carolina's defensive resurrection—from allowing Georgia 474 yards and 6.6 yards a snap in the opener, from serving up a 65-yard dart to Illinois on the game's second play, from yielding 495 yards and 5.8 yards a crack to James Madison—has begun in the pit. Defensive line coach Tray Scott and the “Trench Mob,” as the group calls itself, has
developed some continuity the last month with tackle Jalen Dalton finding his stride after a training camp injury setback and end Tyler Powell getting back onto the field consistently. Nazair Jones has been stout against the run and pass, and fellow tackles Dalton, Aaron Crawford and Jeremiah Clarke have played well and now their position has been buttressed by freshman Marlon Dunlap. Senior Mikey Bart is a persistent irritant at one end, and Malik Carney has started to emerge across the way the last two weeks.
Informed the Tar Heels limited Virginia to three yards a snap and three-of-19 third-down conversions, Scott smiled and his eyes opened. “Wow, I had no idea,” he said. “That's pretty solid. We're just running a lot of base defense. The guys made the decision they were going to get it fixed. It's been a lot more base, day-one type stuff.
“They've been doing a better job against the run, they're more gap-control conscious,” Scott continued. “They're firm with their fits. We've not done anything different. If anything, we went all the way back to the basics. The guys just made the choice. The guys have just been grinding and trying to get it fixed, whatever it may be. It's been fun to see.”
Chizik has spoken of a football season as being a marathon, not a sprint, and of the need to initiate younger players to live bullets on game day so that by mid-season they don't have that deer-in-a-headlight look. That's why Scott has rotated from eight to 10 players along the front line consistently, why secondary coach Charlton Warren started the year with freshman Patrice Rene seeing considerable playing time at cornerback in nickel packages but watched the ascension of sophomore Corey Bell Jr. up the depth chart as Rene's progress stagnated in October. The “next-man-up” mentality has manifested itself with linebacker Ayden Bonilla not blinking when starter Andre Smith was banished to the sideline at Miami over a targeting foul.
“You can really just see it in their eyes,” head coach Larry Fedora said. “They feel much better about what they're doing and how they're doing it. They're making ordinary plays that they make in practice everyday.”
“The first game I was like, 'What's going on?' Everything was moving really fast,” said Holcomb, the walk-on linebacker who has moved into Shakeel Rashad's “Will” linebacker slot this year. “I was just trying to keep up with everything. Now I'm starting to settle in and get the hang of this defense. I know these guys trust me and that I belong.”
Added Lawrence, “Today we had 11 guys flying to the ball and we had great energy all game.”
Of Virginia's seven first-half possessions, five were five snaps or less and none of those series gained more than 22 yards. Quarterback Kurt Benkert found ample completions, but a majority were underneath routes or quick ones to the flats, where the receivers were quickly snuffed by the Tar Heels. Benkert's longest completion was a mere 16 yards, and he had thrown for only 126 yards when the Virginia coaching staff pulled him in favor of Connor Brewer at the start of the fourth quarter. Miami parlayed some missed assignments to significant gashes on crossing routes a week ago—“basic, 200-year-old stuff, play-your-rule kind of things,” Chizik lamented—but there was none of that Saturday by Virginia.
“We've had vast improvement in terms of physicality and gap-integrity and urgency since the James Madison game,” Chizik said. “We've gotten better slowly. Our linebacker fits are a little better. Our defensive line is playing with more of the temperament we demand.
“I'm very proud of these guys, they've been improving every day because of the way they've been working. I see a lot of encouraging things—and it's time. The month of November you have to be playing your best defense.”
The maturation of the Tar Heel defense comes at an ideal time. A competent defense melds with an offense hitting on all cylinders (albeit with a blocking front hit with a myriad of injuries) and a kicking game that, while showing minor snafus such as having a field goal blocked against Miami and giving up kick-off returns Saturday of 50 and 29 yards, is certainly an asset and not a liability. Fedora and the Tar Heels would certainly like to have a mulligan against Virginia Tech, but otherwise to be 6-2 with an off week to catch their collective breath is not a bad thing.
“All you've done is take care of business every single time,” Fedora told his team afterward. “I'm proud of you.”
“We stay calm and stick to what we know and what we do,” said tailback Elijah Hood, who had a colossal game with 107 yards on 16 carries and appears to be running with a full head of steam after some injury issues. “We don't get shaken or rattled. We keep fighting until the whistle blows. That's how we've won a couple of games this year—just keep playing until there's no time on the clock.”
The clock now winds into November with games against Georgia Tech, Duke, The Citadel and NC State. The longest trip is eight miles to Durham. Here's hoping the medical staff has plenty of duct tape and bailing wire on hand and that at least one team among Pitt, Duke, Georgia Tech and Virginia can blindside Coastal Division antagonist Virginia Tech in the final month.
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace has covered Tar Heel football for 26 years through “Extra Points” and a dozen as the Tar Heel Sports Network's sideline reporter. He has just published a book on Kenan Stadium, “Football in a Forest.” Follow him at @LeePaceTweet and contact him at leepace7@gmail.com.
