Extra Points: The Great Conundrum

By Lee Pace

Having seen seventy-eight games and more than a hundred practices, conducted interviews into triple digits and filed away innumerable fly-on-the-wall snippets into the Larry Fedora Era of Tar Heel football, I remain flummoxed by this prickly quandary: How does a program run by such a structured, disciplined and regimented head coach who employs constant initiatives to instill those same qualities in his team continue to need a calculator to keep up with turnovers and penalties on the playing field?

The disconnect is mystifying. The latest exhibit was the Tar Heels' 2018 season-opener at the University of California. Carolina handed the ball away four times via interceptions and drew 13 penalty flags worth 124 yards of real estate, and that drip, drip, drip of mishap proved too daunting to overcome. The Tar Heels dropped a 24-17 decision to the Bears despite a spirited fourth-quarter rally that trimmed a 24-3 deficit to within a successfully converted onside kick of giving Carolina a last-gasp possession to win or tie—shades of Clemson in the 2015 ACC Championship Game.

"Turnovers and penalties, that's the game right there," Fedora said. "You get 13 penalties in a game, you don't give yourself a chance to win a football game. All that work you put into it and you have those kind of penalties, you're going to shoot yourself in the foot."

All that work you put into it ...

ACC officials are on hand with whistles and yellow flags every Tar Heel practice and scrimmage and conduct periodic programs on rules nuances and initiatives. Players have been counseled on what to say and what not to say to officials, all the better to maintain a businesslike mindset. Each offseason, the staff breaks down every penalty individually with the offending player.

"Just playing smarter is a big part of it," Fedora said going into the 2014 season. "Last year we had a lot of stupid penalties. Every personal foul is a stupid penalty, those are selfish penalties. The ones when you're playing aggressive, we can live with those. It's the ones you control that we can't allow to happen."

The "Tar Heel Circle" is convened after the first practice following all scrimmages, and players are called into the circle and cited for loafs, mental mistakes, ball-security miscues and penalties from the scrimmage. They acknowledge by name in a loud voice they "let the team down four times," for example, and lead the team in an up-down (still in pads) for every demerit.

Fedora gives players summer reading projects with books such as Make Your Bed by Admiral William McRaven and The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson, all an effort to teach players the importance of paying attention to the details—from school and personal life to football skills such as protecting the nose of the football by a running back and proper footwork for a quarterback, the latter a key indicator of a properly aimed pass that stays out of the hands of opposing cornerbacks.

Turnovers are tracked during every practice—not just scrimmages—and every player on the offense runs 40-yard sprints afterward for each miscue. That means freshman guard William Barnes hauls his 330 pounds across the turf under the noonday sun along with the tailback or receiver who dropped the ball.

"We win together, we lose together," says QBs coach Keith Heckendorf. "We want the linemen to take ownership and hold those guys accountable, to say, 'That's not acceptable.' Coming from your peers, that means a lot. When they hold each other accountable, that's when you can accomplish something."

There absolutely has been a correlation between turnovers and the Tar Heels' fortunes since Fedora took over in 2012. Here are the numbers:

Year   Record           Turnovers
2012    8-4                   30th nationally at plus .58 per game;
2013    7-6                   48th at plus .15;
2014    6-7                   59th at even;
2015    11-3                 30th at plus .50;
2016    8-5                   76th at plus .15;
2017    3-9                   103rd at minus .50.

And not surprisingly, the Tar Heels' 2015 ACC Coastal Division championship season was marked with their lowest penalty yardage average per game in six years at 46.43 yards.

"Charting penalties and balls on the ground has been a major focus this camp," offensive coordinator Chris Kapilovic said in August. "Guys are being held accountable for those. We're trying hard to eliminate pre- and post-snap penalties—the things that come from being sloppy and losing focus."

So obviously Fedora, his staff and players will double-down on their attention to detail and accountability after this gut punch on the West Coast. Vigorously hoping to prove that last year's 3-9 season was an aberration and there were plenty of playmakers on the team, the Tar Heels were totally inept on offense through the first half—just 38 total yards, one first down, six three-and-out possessions and three interceptions from QB Nathan Elliott.

"My performance was not very good at all," Elliott said. "If I had played better, we would have won that game for sure. It's my responsibility for this one, this loss is on me. We never got anything rolling. The defense played absolutely great, you could not ask any more of them. But I have to do better. We picked it up in the second half, but we have to start the game faster."

"Whether you believe in us or you don't, I have a lot of faith in us and when this thing gets rolling, I think we're going to be something scary," added tailback Antonio Williams after his first game as Tar Heel following his transfer from Ohio State. "We can build a lot on the fourth quarter. You take that into the next game and the rest of the season, and there's no telling what we can do."

The usual Tar Heel storyline of prolific offense and porous defense in recent years was totally flipped in Berkeley, and that bodes well for the evolution of the defense under second-year coordinator John Papuchis. The Tar Heels surrendered just 279 yards and 3.4 yards per play—well under last year's averages of 436 and 5.8. Despite not having the services of tackle Aaron Crawford, the defensive line controlled the line of scrimmage much of the game and it was heartening to see seniors Jalen Dalton, Jeremiah Clarke and Tyler Powell launch their final seasons in workmanlike and productive fashion. Linebacker Dominique Ross, forced into a starting role late in the 2017 season, looked aggressive and quick covering Bear running backs out of the backfield and pressuring the quarterback and had four solo tackles, including one for a loss.

"That's awesome, what you saw from the linebackers and D-Ross," safety J.K. Britt said. "They're going to shrink gaps and allow me to play fast. Now we just have to build on it. We have to make sure when the offense is not doing well, we give them energy and encourage them like they've for us."

The Tar Heels and Papuchis figure to be more aggressive and multiple in their calls in 2018, Papuchis admitting he was "somewhat vanilla" last year given graduation and injury induced personnel losses that put a young and depth-challenged back end on the field.

"I thought our defense played well enough to win a football game," Fedora said. "All day I thought they gave great effort. They got pressure on the quarterback. We got sacks in the first half. We forced them to go to their quick game really the whole second half. We were aggressive. We tackled. The only thing I would've liked to have out of those guys was to get a couple takeaways."

Ah, that turnover category again. Cal starts the season plus-four in that domain, the Carolina minus-four. The Bears have five penalties, the Tar Heels 13. No rocket scientists needed to plan the Tar Heels' week headed to East Carolina on Saturday.

Carolina graduate Lee Pace (1979) has written "Extra Points" since 1990 and reported from the sidelines for the Tar Heel radio network since 2004. Reach him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

William Barnes

J.K. Britt

Jeremiah Clarke

Aaron Crawford

Jalen Dalton

Nathan Elliott

Tyler Powell

Dominique Ross

Antonio Williams

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