University of North Carolina Athletics
RAMblings - Personnel, That's the Key - Rams Club
RAMblings 10.6.09 - Personnel, That's the Key
by Lee Pace
In the wake of the Tar Heels' abysmal offensive performances the last two weeks, Butch Davis was asked at his weekly press conference on Monday about coordinator John Shoop and if Davis still had confidence that Shoop was the proper engineer.
Davis responded without hesitation that he thought the criticism was unfair, that Shoop was a bright coach and that the offensive staff was working extremely hard to overcome the problems that had dogged them all year and particularly the last two weeks-performances that combined had netted only one touchdown and just over three yards a snap.
Davis then referenced Larry Coker, his offensive coordinator at Miami when they took a program ravaged by NCAA sanctions in 1995-96 into the upper echelon of college football in five years.
"They said Larry Coker had no clue what he was doing, he couldn't coach a lick as the offensive coordinator at Miami," Davis said. "Then unbelievably as Reggie Wayne got there and Kelvin Winslow Jr. got there and Andre Johnson got there and Clinton Portis got there and we started averaging 40 points, all of a sudden Larry Coker looked like a genius as the offensive coordinator. And all it was, was the growth in your program, in experience, in depth."
The same theme has been played out twice to significant success in Chapel Hill.
Dean Smith was hung in effigy in 1965 but then he began fielding a team with Billy Cunningham, Larry Miller and Charlie Scott. Soon instead of hanging his likeness in a tree, Tar Heel fans were bowing and scraping to King Dean.
Mack Brown was assailed during his 2-20 Carolina debut in 1988-89, but soon a team that featured Jason Stanicek, Natrone Means and Corey Holliday on offense and Dwight Holler and Thomas Smith on defense began winning games. While that was going on, Brown and staff ratcheted the talent level up a notch and, by the time the new line of newcomers had developed several years later, no one could move the ball on Greg Ellis and Dre Bly.
"This is a recruiting game," Brown said. "Forget Xs-and-Os. Personnel, that's the key."
And it will be for Davis, Shoop & Co. as well.
During the evolution of every new staff and regime, there is a turnover in personnel roster-wide. The Tar Heels started that process on defense from the first day of Davis's arrival at the end of the 2006 season. They had to play Bruce Carter, Quan Sturdivant, Deunta Williams, Kendric Burney, Marvin Austin and other freshmen and sophomores that year and the results were certainly spotty. But in two years, those players have matured and form the bedrock of a solid defense.
Davis had the luxury on offense of inheriting some dynamic talent at wide receiver and some veterans along the offensive line who had seen significant combat duty-Hakeem Nicks, Brandon Tate, Garrett Reynolds, Calvin Darity and Richard Quinn among them. They lacked a quality tailback, so in the early going they used what they had-a big-play passing attack that featured the athleticism and speed of its receivers.
Now those players are gone. The offense faced the task in 2009 of completely rebuilding its receiving corps around Greg Little and finding enough bodies along the offensive line to compensate for graduation, attrition and injury losses. Then they were smacked in the face the first two weeks of the year with the loss of starters Lowell Dyer, Jonathan Cooper and Zack Pianalto.
"An offense is decidedly more difficult to build because of how precise your execution has to be," Davis said. "You can use the 2007 season as a microcosm of what we're facing on offense. We were young and inexperienced on defense and giving up all those points. We couldn't stop the run, we couldn't do anything. You look at the six or seven freshmen who were playing then, it wasn't that they were terrible players. They were just young. Now they're pretty good football players."
The issue of the offensive line was addressed in a June installment of Ramblings-that for a variety of reasons, a succession of Tar Heel coaching staffs have done a poor job recruiting, developing and maintaining a quality blocking front. There have been some outstanding players come through-centers Jason Brown and Jeff Saturday in particular-but the percentage of all-stars and future pros churned out along the offensive line over the last two decades has paled compared the output on defense and the offensive skill positions.
Davis and staff signed four quality players last February, though one of them is in prep school, in a haul that line coach Sam Pittman termed a "jackpot." They have a tackle on the commitment board already for this year who is listed as one of the top players in the nation. They believe that previous signees Cam Holland, Carl Gaskins and Jonathan Cooper will be excellent players.
But along the offensive line, it takes a mature body and a precise, battle-tested mind to function on all cylinders.
"We have been beleaguered for two straight weeks where we have turned guys absolutely loose in the hole at the point of attack," Davis says. "A guy was mid-identified and instantly he was right in the quarterback's face or right in the backfield at the point of attack. We are seeing new fronts, new stunts, new blitzes, new alignments. Guys who have a wealth of experience and knowledge, they can handle those things. Brand new guys can struggle."
Davis has a track record of successfully recruiting his way out personnel deficiencies like the one Carolina is currently enduring. There's no reason to think he cannot do the same thing again. It's a song we've all heard before.