Extra Points: Amp It Up

By Lee Pace

Pre-snap and the first second and a half of a football play is on the coaches. How have the Tar Heels on the defensive side of the ball evolved since last season in terms of speed, strength and technique? What call are they in? Have they lined up correctly? Have they been schooled in recognizing the offense's tendencies and the clues that signal what might be coming? Are they communicating effectively among one another?

With those thoughts in mind, head coach Mack Brown and defensive coordinator Gene Chizik have made a number of adjustments since the 2022 season ended with the Tar Heels posting a 9-5 record and ACC Coastal Division championship. Jason Jones comes from Indiana to reunite with Charlton Warren coaching the secondary. Ted Monachino, a 17-year NFL coaching veteran, has joined the staff as an analyst, bringing an additional set of eyes, ideas and perspectives. The coaches have traveled to visit the staffs of other programs running similar defenses for ideas and critiques. They have put every game plan and call from 2022 under the microscope.

"We're going to amp up the aggressiveness on defense, we have to produce more sacks and tackles-for-loss and turnovers," Brown says. "We have to be more aggressive on early downs and play more bump coverage and force some chaos.

"We have to change the narrative," he continues. "The narrative is we're soft on defense and can't stop the run. You don't have enough tackles-for-loss, not enough sacks, not enough turnovers. Those things will not happen until you stop the run. We haven't done that for four years. It's time to step up and do that."

After that first 1.5 seconds, it's all on players. React and go find the ball, make a stop.

Toward that end, the Tar Heels hope that the maturation of younger guys, rehab of injured players and the influx of new faces through the transfer portal will provide a deep enough talent pool to bolster the production of those sacks, tackles-for-loss and forced turnovers Brown is talking about.

End Des Evans is limited in spring practice but is expected to be full speed by August. Tomari Fox is back on the interior line after missing 2022. Sophomore tackle Travis Shaw has lost some 20 pounds and has gained some agility and stamina and Kedrick Bingley-Jones, a prize lineman who has never been injury free over his three years at Carolina, is finally at full-go. Sebastian Cheeks, a highly regarded linebacker from Chicago, missed all season due to injury but will return this fall.

"It's great to have Tomari back," Brown says. "He's so quick, he's a penetrator. Some of the issues we had up front, we think he can help us."

"Tomari has got really good short-area quickness, toughness, and he brings a presence to the middle of the defense," Chizik adds. "He's a really effective pass rusher, a tough guy that is really hard to move and plays with great leverage. He was a great wrestler so you expect that. He's been coming on in the spring."

Shaw was an early enrollee in 2022 after coming from Grimsley High School in Greensboro as a five-star recruit. He played in 13 games as a freshman, posting 18 tackles.

"I'm really proud of the progression for Travis," Chizik says. "He can be a dominating inside player. He's definitely shown flashes this spring of what we want. He's still growing as a player. But he's got exactly what you want down there. He's got size, he's got strength, he's got short-area quickness, he just needs to continue to learn the game."

Adds linebacker Power Echols on Shaw: "It's crazy to see what Travis can do, he's agile as a deer."

Two of the most visible additions from the transfer portal are defensive end Amari Gainer from Florida State and Alijah Huzzie from East Tennessee State. Gainer played four years for the Seminoles and had the most career tackles of anyone on the roster after the 2022 season (210 stops with six sacks and 19 tackles-for-loss) and will play the "Jack" outside linebacker slot along with senior Kaimon Rucker. Huzzie had 12 interceptions and 30 pass break-ups at East Tennessee. He's projected to bolster the secondary at cornerback and can also play the nickel position Chizik and Warren call the star.

"Amari's played a lot of football and he's got a high football IQ," Chizik says. "I love his effort, he's a violent football player, you can tell he loves the game. He will be a really good addition."

"I'm glad he's here," Rucker adds. "He's lightning-quick. He tackles very well in space. He's explosive. He's fast and physical and adds an edge to the defense that we need."

Brown marveled at an interception Huzzie made during the first week of spring drills and halfway through the month of spring ball was more effusive in his praise.

"Alijah 'gets it,'" Brown says. "He has tremendous instincts, has outstanding ball skills. He'll be a real factor in the secondary. We have not played the ball very well at corner, that's an issue and something we have put an emphasis on. Those instincts are hard to teach. He's very confident. He came in with a chip on his shoulder like so many FCS players do, he wants to prove he can play here."

Huzzie, in fact, was the anchor around which Chizik made the observation of that first 1.5-second window being the domain of the coaches and the rest being up to the players.

"There are certain things you can't teach a DB," Chizik says. "We tell the players we're responsible for the first second and a half of the play—what you are looking at and putting you in the right spot. The player is responsible for the last three, four five seconds of the play, making a tackle, making a play on the ball in the air. He does a great job of finishing, a great job of feeling things in the secondary that we can't teach. He's got a sixth sense for the ball in the air."

Throughout the off-season, Rucker has been motivated by the last series of the last game—Oregon's game-winning scoring drive in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. The Ducks moved the length of the field in the last two minutes for the game-winning score and collected a 28-27 victory.

"That was the low point, not being able to finish the end of games, especially the bowl game against Oregon," says Rucker. "That hit me in the heart. Time after time, we'd be in the game and not finish as a defense. That's given me more motivation as a player and being a leader of the defense that we've got to learn how to finish, how to attack balls in the air, how to pass rush better, how to stop the run. It's constant motivation.

"I have to hold myself accountable and hold everyone else accountable."

Rucker is one of a handful of veteran leaders committing to "changing the narrative," as Brown has preached. Myles Murphy, Cedric Gray and safety Don Chapman are seniors, and Echols is a junior. Their careers are winding down and 2023 might be their last hurrahs to play the kind of defense encompassed on the first-floor hallways of Kenan Football Center near the training, equipment and locker rooms. Life-size images of players like Vonnie Holliday, Robert Quinn, Quinton Coples, Ryan Sims, Ebenezer Ekuban, Greg Ellis, Brian Simmons and Marcus Jones line the hallway.

And then in a central intersection of hallways side-by-side are the biggest, baddest dogs of them all—Lawrence Taylor and Julius Peppers.

"Sure, I'm very familiar with the history here," Rucker says. "We know the shoes we have to fill."

Chizik for his part has preached about playing to a standard that the Tar Heels didn't hit last year.

"The urgency is high and they have to produce," he says. "We as coaches have to coach better and we have to produce. All of us have to own the ugly parts of what we presented last year. My job is to fix it, and it will get fixed."

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace is in his 34th year writing features on the Carolina football program under the "Extra Points" banner. He is the author of "Football in a Forest" and reports from the sidelines of Tar Heel Sports Network broadcasts. Follow him at @LeePaceTweet and write him at leepace7@gmail.com

Players Mentioned

Kedrick Bingley-Jones

Don Chapman

Sebastian Cheeks

Power Echols

Tomari Fox

Amari Gainer

Cedric Gray

Alijah Huzzie

Myles Murphy

Kaimon Rucker

Travis Shaw

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