University of North Carolina Athletics
Five With Fedora: Miami
October 2, 2018 | Football
By Jeff Greenberg, GoHeels.com
1. In this game there was a struggle by both quarterbacks to get anything going consistently in the passing game. After taking a look at it, do you feel this was a decision-making issue, or poise under pressure issue?
"To be honest, I really think it was a combination of the two. With quarterback play, so many things kind of go hand-in-hand in terms of being successful at the position. If you're not trusting the protection or trusting what you see in front of you, then you might panic a bit, which affects your poise in the situation. Once you start to lose that poise, then your decision making or the efficiency of that decision making will be negatively affected as well at that point. It all goes together. I think what you saw is our guys didn't handle the pressure well and started to rush into poor decisions. We have to get them to calm down and trust the protection. Our offensive line has only given up something like four sacks all season, which ranks in the top 10 nationally. Now three of those sacks were in this game, so yes, there was pressure. But we had plenty of chances to make the throws we needed to make to move the chains and keep the offense moving. The run game was working well, but the pass game is what got us behind on most drives. So that will be a focus the next two weeks is getting our guys to trust the protection and trust what they're seeing."
2. After a game like this on the road, how do you handle the travel back? Are you the type that watches film on the way home? Do you take notes? Sleep?
"I'm a notes guy. I'm making notes and thinking about everything that happened in the game. It's fresh in your mind and you're just going over plays, situations and the decisions that were being made both on and off the field. I'm thinking and making notes about what we need to do moving forward from that game. Just taking a total assessment of the week, the game and what we have to do when we get back. I don't watch the film yet in most cases because the assistants are usually busy breaking down and grading the film on their iPads at that point on the way home. I may go back and talk with some of them about particular things I'm thinking about and reviewing from the game in my notes. I have a hard time sleeping on the way home after any game, let alone a loss. My mind is still racing and thinking about the game and what happened in the game. I think we got back to Chapel Hill around 4 a.m. and I didn't sleep one bit. I try and take advantage of that time."
3. Third down was a trouble spot in this game. What was preventing success for your guys in the third down situations?
"On both sides of the ball, we were not efficient on first downs. Defensively, we allowed them to run the ball successfully too much on first down. A year ago, that was one of our strengths against them, but in this game we lost that part of the battle. We didn't have enough tackles for loss versus explosive plays and that hurt us in this game. We had too many missed tackles in this game. Throw in the fact that our offense essentially gave them 24 points off of turnovers and guys started to get frustrated and trying to do too much and that can work against you. Offensively, we were in too many long yardage situations on third down because we weren't making the decisions we needed to make on first and second down. As we mentioned earlier, there were throws to be made to move the chains and we didn't make them. All of us, players and coaches, have to do a better job. Coaches have to get guys in the position to make that block, make that cut or make that throw. And the players have to trust what they see and make the plays in front of them. Everybody has to execute their job on and off the field."
4. You are entering your open week in the schedule. For coaches, is it really an open week? What does the week look like for you and your staff?
"I think the word "open" is probably the wrong word to use (laughing). If you mean "open to work more" then sure, that would be correct. We got back in at 4 a.m. Friday morning. Then on Friday and Saturday everybody was back out on the road recruiting. Then we got back Sunday to get everything ready to go for this week. That means working all day to get that done. Monday morning we meet as a staff to go over and update each other on the recruiting trips that were made over the weekend by the staff. Monday afternoon we go over the film again to go over the corrections that needed to be made, both as a staff and with the players. Tuesday we'll start game-planning for Virginia Tech as a staff so that we can start installing the base packages for that game on Thursday. Then the staff is back out on the road Friday and Saturday recruiting."
5. The majority of programs appear to follow this type of schedule where the open week is used a lot for fundamental work on the field during practice. Is the theory that you can prepare too much for the next game so that's why you work in the fundamental work first during an open week?
"The reason we all do this is because once the season begins, you really don't have the time needed in practice to go over some of the base fundamentals. Your practice time is limited and you have to spend as much as that time on the game plan as you can. Finding time to practice and rep everything in the game plan is crucial. First you have to install the game plan, and then you have to get as many reps as you can with the game plan. When you have this time, you really want get as much fundamental work as possible with everybody on the team. You also use this time to work on things you want to add into the game plans moving forward for the rest of the season. This is the time to do that. So I don't think it's a function of coaches thinking you can prepare too much for any one game. You can never be too prepared. It's more a function of trying to work in time during the season for player and skill development, while also managing a game plan. The open week is the chance where you have time to do both."
1. In this game there was a struggle by both quarterbacks to get anything going consistently in the passing game. After taking a look at it, do you feel this was a decision-making issue, or poise under pressure issue?
"To be honest, I really think it was a combination of the two. With quarterback play, so many things kind of go hand-in-hand in terms of being successful at the position. If you're not trusting the protection or trusting what you see in front of you, then you might panic a bit, which affects your poise in the situation. Once you start to lose that poise, then your decision making or the efficiency of that decision making will be negatively affected as well at that point. It all goes together. I think what you saw is our guys didn't handle the pressure well and started to rush into poor decisions. We have to get them to calm down and trust the protection. Our offensive line has only given up something like four sacks all season, which ranks in the top 10 nationally. Now three of those sacks were in this game, so yes, there was pressure. But we had plenty of chances to make the throws we needed to make to move the chains and keep the offense moving. The run game was working well, but the pass game is what got us behind on most drives. So that will be a focus the next two weeks is getting our guys to trust the protection and trust what they're seeing."
2. After a game like this on the road, how do you handle the travel back? Are you the type that watches film on the way home? Do you take notes? Sleep?
"I'm a notes guy. I'm making notes and thinking about everything that happened in the game. It's fresh in your mind and you're just going over plays, situations and the decisions that were being made both on and off the field. I'm thinking and making notes about what we need to do moving forward from that game. Just taking a total assessment of the week, the game and what we have to do when we get back. I don't watch the film yet in most cases because the assistants are usually busy breaking down and grading the film on their iPads at that point on the way home. I may go back and talk with some of them about particular things I'm thinking about and reviewing from the game in my notes. I have a hard time sleeping on the way home after any game, let alone a loss. My mind is still racing and thinking about the game and what happened in the game. I think we got back to Chapel Hill around 4 a.m. and I didn't sleep one bit. I try and take advantage of that time."
3. Third down was a trouble spot in this game. What was preventing success for your guys in the third down situations?
"On both sides of the ball, we were not efficient on first downs. Defensively, we allowed them to run the ball successfully too much on first down. A year ago, that was one of our strengths against them, but in this game we lost that part of the battle. We didn't have enough tackles for loss versus explosive plays and that hurt us in this game. We had too many missed tackles in this game. Throw in the fact that our offense essentially gave them 24 points off of turnovers and guys started to get frustrated and trying to do too much and that can work against you. Offensively, we were in too many long yardage situations on third down because we weren't making the decisions we needed to make on first and second down. As we mentioned earlier, there were throws to be made to move the chains and we didn't make them. All of us, players and coaches, have to do a better job. Coaches have to get guys in the position to make that block, make that cut or make that throw. And the players have to trust what they see and make the plays in front of them. Everybody has to execute their job on and off the field."
4. You are entering your open week in the schedule. For coaches, is it really an open week? What does the week look like for you and your staff?
"I think the word "open" is probably the wrong word to use (laughing). If you mean "open to work more" then sure, that would be correct. We got back in at 4 a.m. Friday morning. Then on Friday and Saturday everybody was back out on the road recruiting. Then we got back Sunday to get everything ready to go for this week. That means working all day to get that done. Monday morning we meet as a staff to go over and update each other on the recruiting trips that were made over the weekend by the staff. Monday afternoon we go over the film again to go over the corrections that needed to be made, both as a staff and with the players. Tuesday we'll start game-planning for Virginia Tech as a staff so that we can start installing the base packages for that game on Thursday. Then the staff is back out on the road Friday and Saturday recruiting."
5. The majority of programs appear to follow this type of schedule where the open week is used a lot for fundamental work on the field during practice. Is the theory that you can prepare too much for the next game so that's why you work in the fundamental work first during an open week?
"The reason we all do this is because once the season begins, you really don't have the time needed in practice to go over some of the base fundamentals. Your practice time is limited and you have to spend as much as that time on the game plan as you can. Finding time to practice and rep everything in the game plan is crucial. First you have to install the game plan, and then you have to get as many reps as you can with the game plan. When you have this time, you really want get as much fundamental work as possible with everybody on the team. You also use this time to work on things you want to add into the game plans moving forward for the rest of the season. This is the time to do that. So I don't think it's a function of coaches thinking you can prepare too much for any one game. You can never be too prepared. It's more a function of trying to work in time during the season for player and skill development, while also managing a game plan. The open week is the chance where you have time to do both."
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