GoHeels Exclusive: Silver Lining

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

Ever since he arrived as North Carolina's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in December 2018, Phil Longo has often discussed the relative simplicity of his offense.

Built around 28 basic plays with hundreds of variations with personnel groups, formations and motions, Longo's offense conditions players not to overthink. That allows them to play fast and display their athleticism. It also means less time spent learning an expansive playbook.

All of that could benefit the Tar Heels in the coming months, perhaps now more than ever.

With spring practices canceled due to the spread of the coronavirus, most schools are facing a tighter window to expand their offenses between now and the start of the 2020 season, whenever that might be. But with his offense already installed, Longo isn't fretting.

"We're trying to get to a point where they're playing instinctively, and in order to do that, they've got to be able to do this with their eyes closed or without having to think," said Longo in a videoconference with reporters on Monday. "We want to be able to snap the football and go play really, really fast. And you can only do that when things come instinctively to you. So, it is (a silver lining). It's designed that way.

"It's definitely the silver lining with the issue that's going on right now. And we'll still have to recover mentally and recovery physically, just like everybody else in the nation, when we get back. But I think the mental curve is going to be much shorter just because that's always been an advantage in this offense."

Another favorable factor is the amount of returning experience on offense. With 35 players coming back, Longo not only believes that it won't take too much time for the offense to find its footing once football activities resume, but that they'll be able to help the newcomers acclimate.

"I've been saying all winter that we've got 35 coaches coming back on top of the four coaches I have who are full-time," Longo said, "because we've got 35 veteran players coming back who know the offense. So, when our young guys – the 25 new young guys – come in and turn around in the back of the line of a drill or something that we're doing, I've got a whole slew of receivers, O-linemen and running backs there who can teach them because they already know it.

"We would much rather have spring ball and get the reps, get the physicality and do all of those things. But we're not re-inventing the offense and we're not installing all kinds of new stuff. So, we're probably ahead of the game mentally, and I think we'll probably get into the groove a little bit sooner in camp in August than some others would because the offense hasn't changed."

Nor will it as long as Sam Howell is around.

Howell delivered one of the best seasons in ACC history last fall, completing 259 of 422 passes for 3,641 yards, 38 touchdowns and seven interceptions. His 38 passing touchdowns set the FBS true freshman record and were the third most ever by an ACC quarterback.

Yet, there's still room to improve. As part of Longo's quarterback development process, he said he's having Howell watch film of every NFL defense and tell him how they could run UNC's offense against them. They've also reviewed tape of all of Howell's negative moments from last season, such as the seven times he missed a receiver on a free route, and concentrated on getting better in those areas as opposed to spending a lot of time working on what he already excels at.

"I don't know that there are any major concerns with Sam, but playing quarterback, you can always get better at every aspect of play," Longo said. "And that's what we're doing right now; we're trying to address the biggest weaknesses, take the weak link and move it forward. Then what happens is your overall package just gets stronger – same way you develop an offense, same way you develop an entire football team."

Carolina has certainly seen that process unfold along the offensive line and at receiver.

Heading into spring ball last year, Longo said the offensive line was the offense's weakest unit. But after a year working with strength and conditioning coach Brian Hess and learning Longo's offense, the group has made significant strides.

Longo refrained from saying the offensive line could be one of the best in the country. That, however, is a possibility with five players (Jordan Tucker, Brian Anderson, Marcus McKethan, Joshua Ezeudu and Ed Montilus) returning who played 500 or more snaps last season, according to Pro Football Focus. There are also enough talented underclassmen in the mix to potentially give Longo eight players (three guards, three tackles and two centers) capable of starting, his ideal number.

"We have a number of offensive linemen who I think are getting close to the standard we need them to be at at that position in order to play, which helps us create depth," Longo said. "We're not going to play a guy just because he's the next guard if he's not good enough. We're going to play the next-best lineman and make sure he can play guard.

"We always want our best five on the field all the time, and this year I think we have a chance to hit that eight-player mark and be in a legitimate situation to have a real two-deep at each position."

Expectations about the team's receiver room are just as high.

The presence of Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome, only the fourth and fifth players in program history to eclipse 1,000 receiving yards, are major reasons for such optimism. So are the returns of Beau Corrales and Antoine Green, who combined for 792 yards and eight touchdowns in 2019. But the Tar Heels also bring back Rontavius Groves and Emery Simmons. In addition, the Heels are expecting to have a healthy Khafre Brown to go along with a host of talented newcomers.

With so much expected depth at the position, Longo said a receiver such as Dyami Brown should be able to go from playing 80-90 snaps to 55-60, allowing him to stay fresh while continuing to produce at a high level. That's not the only benefit.

"Last year, we had four, four 1/2 guys at receiver who I felt could start or play for us at any time," Longo said. "This year, we're going to have six or seven at the least. That gives us great depth at every position, it means we can stay fresh all game in our tempo and it also means to be the starter here, you're going to have to compete more and practice at an even higher level than last year because there are more people behind you looking to take your job.

"They're always looking to take your job, but now they're looking to take your job and they have the ability to actually do it. There's a difference there. Everybody behind you wants to start, but now they're good enough and they're athletic enough to threaten for reps."

Longo wholeheartedly believes that. But he and the rest of the staff won't know for sure until they finally see the newcomers participate in a college practice.

Certain questions will also remain unanswered, such as who will emerge as the third running back behind Michael Carter and Javonte Williams and who might step up as the second tight end alongside Garrett Walston.

"We all know Josh Downs athletically is probably good enough to play for us right now," Longo said. "Now, he still has to put pads on and prove that, and spring ball would've given him that opportunity. And if we were all wrong, we would've seen that in spring ball, like, 'Hey, you know what? He needs another year to develop.' But if what we felt about him in particular was true, we would've seen that in spring ball. Now, that's a question we're going to have to answer in August.

"So, the development of our young guys who we felt were going to be impactful to this year's success, those are the guys who I'm most concerned with. I'm not worried, but I think we have to do the best job developing them in the fall, and that's going to be a big part of our priority in regard to our plan on offense and developing those guys in August so they're ready to play on opening day against Central Florida."

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Brian Anderson

Dyami Brown

Khafre Brown

Michael Carter

Beau Corrales

Josh Downs

Joshua Ezeudu

Antoine Green

Rontavius Groves

Sam Howell

Marcus McKethan

Ed Montilus

Dazz Newsome

Emery Simmons

Jordan Tucker

Garrett Walston

Javonte Williams

Related Videos