Five Instead of 15 Is Foundational To Chizik's Approach

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CHAPEL HILL – Directive: Be really good at five things instead of okay at 15.

That was one of the first messages Gene Chizik told his defense at North Carolina last January after arriving for a second tour of duty with the Tar Heels.

Succinct, clear, and to the point. Chizik doesn’t want any over-thinking on the field, he wants highly talented and skilled athletes to be smart in pre-snap and reactive upon the ball being snapped. There is no method to the madness with him, unlike under previous defensive coordinator Jay Bateman. Chizik wants everything as simple as possible, provided it’s also effective.

“What he likes to do is simple, and we’re going to get after it,” said senior jack Chris Collins, who is now playing for his third coordinator at UNC. He was under John Papuchis in 2018.

Collins and his teammates on that side of the ball have embraced Chizik’s words and mandates. They were stressed under the previous approach. They lost belief in the scheme and method to which Bateman directed. So, with the coming season kicking off August 27, Collins says the entire mood of the defense has dramatically changed. And it begins with confidence in the approach.

“Chiz is big on us having a simple defense but us having a lot of answers,” he said. “When we get into the season, there’s going to be a lot of different checks offenses will try to do with us, but we have a simple defense, so we’ll be able to get to the sideline and correct the problem right away.

“I feel like sometimes last year, we’d run into a problem and wouldn’t have an answer. This year, we definitely have an answer.”

The method is quite simple: Chizik wants his guys excellent at five things on the field instead of being so-so at fifteen. With Carolina’s volume of talent on that side of the ball, Chizik and his assistants can insert players situationally given their strengths, but they can also unleash them geared toward what they do best.

Chizik doesn’t believe trying to out-wit and out-scheme modern offenses is the best approach to slowing them down. Instead, staying basic, winning individual battles, and being strong fundamentally are the keys. So, getting guys to play efficiently at five things will carry a ton of weight onto the field.

“That’s what creates good defense, right,” Chizik rhetorically asked. “Indecision creates bad defense. Bad communication because you’re not sure what’s going on because you have too much in there, that creates bad defense. And it doesn’t allow you to be in positions to tackle and make plays.”

Furthermore, players will succeed more if they truly know who they are on the field. A thinking he can do fifteen things is more apt to make mistakes because he doesn’t fully understand his personal range of effectiveness. But a player knowing he is borderline exceptional at five elements of his position isn’t going to stray from his base.

This allows for more confidence across the board, because teammates know others will stay in their lanes, so to speak, thus the possibility of catastrophic plays are diminished. Long drives, too.

UNC allowed 32 drives of 75 or more yards last season, 31 of which ended with opponents scoring touchdowns. Knowing roles and main responsibilities equates to fewer pre-snap and on-the-snap mistakes. If football is a game of inches, it isn’t difficult to recognize how Chizik’s mandate can make a discernable difference in the scoreboard.

“We talk about searching for inches all around us,” he said. “When you see a guy miss a tackle because he has only one arm out, if he were to change that by moving over this far (hands gestured several feet) because he understood where he needed to be, then that tackle might be a four-yard gain instead of a 40-yard gain.

“So, there’s inches all around us that we’re trying to find, and that’s a daily challenge.”

The simplicity in Chizik’s approach requires his guys develop new football habits, which is an on-going part of the process. They are elementary, however, relieving players their gameday duties are somewhat minimized.

The entire scaling-down approach by Chizik can be found in many realms with what the Tar Heels are doing on that side of the ball. Being really good at five things instead of so-so at fifteen is absolutely a mandate, a mission, and part of the new culture.