University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Correctables
September 6, 2016 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
by Turner Walston
It's over. Done. Film reviewed and players graded, and the Georgia loss is behind Larry Fedora, his staff and players. The Tar Heels are 0-1, but Carolina football's 2016 season will hinge much more on this weekend's game at Illinois than what happened in Atlanta. Yes, the Illini are another non-conference matchup, and yes, Fedora's stated goals (winning the state championship, the Coastal Division, the ACC Championship and the season's last game) could still be intact with a loss in Champaign, but it's how the Tar Heels respond after the disappointment of the opener that will resonate far beyond the second Saturday in September.
Fedora listed those goals at Monday's press conference, some 36 hours after the Tar Heels arrived back in Chapel Hill. Leading up to the tilt against Georgia, he was careful to caution that winning or losing the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Classic wouldn't affect those goals. True, if those are the goals. He hasn't said that about the Illinois game.
The Tar Heel head coach wasn't happy about the way his team performed in Atlanta. He wasn't happy about the mistakes made, the missed opportunities. But upon studying the film on Sunday, he felt relief. "Every issue that we had was correctable," Fedora said on Monday. "I'm not happy we made the mistakes that we made, but everything was correctable."
Correctable as in missed tackles on Georgia tailback Nick Chubb. As in missed throws from Mitch Trubisky. As in missed blocks in the running game, as in misplays in the secondary. Correctable as in fine-tuning the details in the execution, not necessarily in the schemes themselves. "It's not like we're deficient here, we're not going to be able to hold up, now what do we have to do scheme-wise to cover that hole, those kinds of things," Fedora said. "I felt like everything that happened in that game was correctable."
Football is not solitaire; there's an opponent across the field moving pieces around, reacting and attempting to impose a game plan of its own. So, sometimes you have to tip your hat and acknowledge that opponent's skill and execution. Sometimes you have to acknowledge that, well, Nick Chubb is a Heisman Trophy candidate and quite difficult to wrap up. His 222 yards and two touchdowns speak to that. "He's a good back," Tar Heel defensive tackle Nazair Jones said. "A lot of it was him just making good moves and keeping his feet going and lowering his shoulder."
Jones said he hadn't yet heard a number on the missed tackles from Saturday, but "I'm pretty sure we'll hear it. He's not going to just let us waltz out and not know about it," he said. "We saw the film. We saw what we did. We saw the mistakes that we made. Like [Fedora] said, it's all correctable, but against a back like that, you have to gang tackle. You have to get tons of hats to the ball."
Offensively, there were missed opportunities, and at least one missed player. Trubisky's attempts downfield sailed through the Georgia Dome air and past Ryan Switzer and Austin Proehl. Mack Hollins, who was forced to sit out the first half due to a targeting call in last December's Russell Athletic Bowl, would likely have been a target on some of those deep throws. Hollins might have used his length to catch up to those overthrows, but the bottom line is Trubisky has to be more accurate. "Obviously, you'd like to have some more throws back," the quarterback said. "I think if I had two throws back, it'd be a different ballgame."
At the very least, Trubisky did what was asked of him in taking care of the football. He had no turnovers and he did his best to make plays, even with a few low snaps coming his way and the Georgia pass rush bearing down. He is a different quarterback than Marquise Williams, and he did a nice job checking down, going through his pass progressions rather than taking off and running as a quick second option. He did move his feet, however, scoring on a beautiful naked bootleg that fooled the Georgia front. He'll be a better quarterback for having Saturday's game under his belt, and he has much to build on. "I've just got to go back to basics this week, not trying to do too much for myself, just do my job," Trubisky said. "I need to have better eye discipline. and better presence in the pocket, so we'll get that fixed this week."
The Tar Heels had their chances Saturday, but they can't go back in time and get a win. They played Georgia tough and came up short. It's behind them. Fortunately, they don't need to go back to the drawing board, to rethink how to win football games in 2016 because of some glaring deficiency. These players and coaches can execute this game plan. They made mistakes, but they are all correctable. And that's the work of the week ahead of Illinois.
