GoHeels Exclusive: Monday Notebook

Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati

October 14, 2019 | Football, Featured Writers

By: Pat James

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

Sitting at 3-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play, North Carolina finds itself firmly in the ACC Coastal Division mix just past the midway point of the season.

And in talking with his players after the team's open week, Mack Brown said he senses their excitement about that heading into Saturday's game at Virginia Tech.

"People say, 'Well, do they have a legitimate chance?'" Brown told reporters on Monday. "Well, obviously we do. I mean, it's there for us. We control our own destiny and every team is as good as we are moving forward. So, we understand what's out there for us, and we've got to improve in a lot of areas, but it is what it is."

Here are five more notes from Monday's press conference, which also featured Jay Bateman and Phil Longo:

Building off the open week

During the open week, UNC practiced Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before taking Friday and Saturday off. Brown said he and his staff rested the veterans who have played a lot – especially the running backs, none of which took any hits last week – and primarily focused on teaching the younger players.

"We really worked those guys and hit a lot," Brown said. "It was like a spring training for them because we said, 'Here's your chance. You've got three days to prove to your coach you can get some playing time.' So, there might be some guys who come out of that with a better chance to play."

Both Bateman and Longo discussed how their respective units benefitted from the open week.

"You get to kind of go back to basics and refocus on fundamentals and on technique, little things that maybe you don't have quite as much time to address when you're in the schedule, a regular workweek where you've got to play on Saturday," Longo said. "And I think the other thing is you get a little rest time and you get a little healing time. And I think that was really good for our team. So those are probably the two biggest benefits for us being off."

"There were some schematic things, I think people were giving us the last couple of weeks that we weren't handling well," Bateman said. "So that was part of that. I think always in the bye week you want to spend time on the fundamentals of getting off blocks and tackling. So, we spent a little more time on that. And I think Coach Brown did a great job like you would expect of giving us time to work on that but not beat them up either. So we didn't do a lot of full-pad tackling on the ground, crazy stuff. It was more, 'Let's focus on this for five minutes, and we can get it on film and teach off it.' So, I think those are the two main things."

Secondary depth

Carolina announced on Monday that Trey Morrison is out indefinitely due to an upper-extremity injury. He joins a growing list of defensive backs who have sustained injuries, which includes Cam'Ron Kelly, Patrice Rene, Tre Shaw and Myles Wolfolk.

Along with Storm Duck, who has started the last two games, Brown said the Tar Heels will look for Obi Egbuna, DeAndre Hollins, Greg Ross and Javon Terry to provide depth at cornerback. At safety, Don Chapman and D.J. Ford will split time opposite Myles Dorn.

Brown said all the injuries in the secondary put "a tremendous amount of pressure on Jay Bateman and Dre Bly."

"Dre is making his money," Brown said. "He's having to coach the heck out of them. And to me, no better person than Jay Bateman, who has dealt with this kind of stuff before. Army had a lot of numbers, but sometimes they didn't have the great players. So, they had to do a tremendous job of scheming to cover some guys, and I have full confidence in Jay that he can do that, even though, watching Virginia Tech, those receivers are really good."

Schematically, Bateman said you can't go out of your way to alleviate any pressure that might be placed on the young corners.

"Any time you put stress on one part of your defense, it affects the rest," he said. "So you have to decide if we're going to protect this corner or this corner, then how does it affect the rest of the defense. So, we had the ability to do that. We did that all the time. Whether we felt like we had a matchup problem or not, that's what you do as a defensive coordinator – pass the stress around.

"But we're not going into this game like, 'Oh my gosh, this guy is playing.' We're going to be fine."

Howell's historic pace

With six regular-season games down and six to go, Sam Howell has thrown 15 touchdown passes. He needs three more to break Darian Durant's UNC freshman record of 17, set in 2001. Mitch Trubisky owns the school record for touchdown passes in a season with 30 in 2016.

Howell has also thrown for 1,544 yards, already the third most by a Carolina freshman in a season.

"It has been surprising to see what Sam has done," Brown said. "I'm really proud of him. He's tough. We didn't protect very well early; we're doing better now. Whether he was holding the ball a little too long or probably a combination of both when you start looking at it. And then you lose Jace (Ruder) and then Cade (Fortin) transfers, so we went from strength at quarterback – unknown strength because we at least had numbers – to Vincent Amendola now as the backup quarterback, and he's doing really well."

Longo said on Monday that it's difficult for him to take a step back during the season and appreciate that he appears set at quarterback for the next few seasons. But he said he is able to "appreciate how well and how hard (Howell) works."

"The fun thing about Sam is I keep challenging him and he keeps responding. …" Longo said. "We're not giving him more to think about each week. But there's 101, four verticals and there's doing the good thing, and then there's an advanced four verticals, as an example. And a little bit more progressing and understanding some things that you've learned from experience down the road. Sam's getting into those things now. …

"But we're beyond the 101 stage. I mean, Sam, he studies the game, he cares, he's passionate about it. That's all part of what makes him as good as he is right now, and we still have things we need to get better at. But I really like where the process is and I like the fact that he accepts just about every challenge I give him."

Addressing drops

After dropping three total passes through the first three games, the Tar Heels have dropped three or more in each of the last three games, including a season high of five against Georgia Tech. Brown said a lack of focus has been the main reason for the drops.

On Sunday, Brown said "a few" balls were dropped during practice. So, afterward, Lonnie Galloway spent about 45 minutes throwing tennis balls to the receivers.

"One of my friends was out there," Brown said, "and he said, 'What's that about? They're not going to be catching tennis balls.' I said, 'You know when you go to the golf course and they have these little bitty holes and you're trying to putt in and when you see the real hole it's real big?' I haven't seen that big hole yet on my golf, but same thing with football. A football is huge. If you can catch a tennis ball and have to focus on it, you ought to be able to catch a football."

Longo also detailed how drops aren't the result of a receiver having good or bad hands.

"It's eyes and focus," he said. "That's what changes it. So, we have addressed that with all kinds of different things during the week. It really comes down to receivers focusing in on the ball and finishing the catch. And that's just discipline, it's eye discipline, it's focus on the football. We had more last game than I would care to have. Typically though, with this group, when you emphasize something, you get it. The emphasis has been securing the ball and finishing the catch. So, I would hope that that's an area we improve on going into the Virginia Tech game."

Scouting Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech enters Saturday's contest at 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the ACC, and is coming off back-to-back wins against Miami and Rhode Island.

In that span, redshirt sophomore Hendon Hooker has emerged as the Hokies' starting quarterback, completing 26-of-47 passes for 445 yards with six touchdowns and no interceptions. He's also rushed for 119 yards.

"I think he's done a great job," Bateman said. "He hasn't turned the ball over. The ball has been in his hands a lot with all the Jet Sweep stuff they do. The quarterback runs off of it. And then I think against Miami he did a great job. I think against Rhode Island, he probably didn't have to do this as much of, you know, getting them out of jail. You know it's 2nd-and-10 they drop back, you've got them covered, and he scrambles for 14 yards and he killed Miami scrambling.

"So, I think that's a big emphasis for us, is rush lanes, contain, maybe not trying to make a great pass-rush move to beat a guy because it is going to open up a huge lane inside of you."

On defense, Longo said Virginia Tech is "going to crowd the box, they're going to force you to make sure you stay on blocks and you finish in an effort to be able to run the football."

"They're going to challenge us to win physically in an effort to run the football," Longo said. "And then with so many guys around the box, if your answer is to throw the football, then they're close enough to pressure you, too. So we're going to have to win the battle at the line of scrimmage. I think Sam's going to have to quick-trigger the ball and we're going to have to do a good job establishing the run game in the first quarter and the first half to be able to do what we want to do offensively."