CHAPEL HILL – Mack Brown said Sunday he and the rest of North Carolina’s coaching staff have challenged the offense for leaders to step forward. It’s a request they’ve made multiple times out of necessity and is ongoing.
“I’m still challenging them,” Brown said.
The Tar Heels aren’t exactly a grizzled bunch on offense. Unless things change, UNC will start a redshirt freshman with no game experience at left guard in the opener versus South Carolina. In addition, Marcus McKethan (no starts, 46 snaps) and Jordan Tucker (no starts, 79 snaps) will also start along the offensive line.
The wide receiver group is fairly young and Brown announced Sunday true freshman quarterback Sam Howell is now taking reps with the blue (first) team, and it’s probable he will start versus the Gamecocks. Collectively, UNC has just 86 career starts among the players currently on offense, with 36 of those from senior linemen Charlie Heck and Nick Polino.
By and large, this is a young group, but it still needs leaders to emerge.
“The offensive line’s really quiet. You can hear a pin drop in their meetings," Brown said. "Charlie Heck, as good a player as he is, he’s not a talker. (Nick) Polino is not a talker – they’re the two oldest guys. And the other guys are young guys trying to learn what to do…
“We’ve got two senior tight ends, we need them to step up, and they’re not talkers. Very quiet, but they need to take a more active role.”
Brown did say junior running back Michael Carter and senior running back Antonio Williams have done a solid job, but the unit needs more. None of this is lost on Heck, who’s well aware of what he must do, even if it means extracting a more vocal approach from deep within,
“It needs to come from the seniors on offense,” he said, before offering up some accountability. “There’s a lot of quiet players, including myself. I’m not a very loud, boisterous person so I need to find it in myself to pick up the o-line because I’ve got a lot of young guys in that room looking up to me.”
Some of this might not really be an issue if the Tar Heels had a vibrant, infectious leader at quarterback such as Marquise Williams, whose will was integral in the Heels winning 11 games in 2015. But this roster simply isn’t comprised with a hardened vet such as Williams barking the cadence.
Howell was in high school 12 months ago and the two guys currently chasing him – Jace Ruder and Cade Fortin – are redshirt freshmen with two starts in five games played between them. So Howell absolutely must develop into some kind of leader.
Maybe making him the blue team guy right now also gives Howell some time to feel his oats and begin that process before the Tar Heels take on South Carolina on Aug. 31.
“I feel like whoever we put with the ones would feel better about themselves and start leading better because the coaches have given them a voice with the blue,” Brown said. “So, we think that will help.”
Senior tight end Carl Tucker believes Brown is beginning to get his wish.
The defense dominated the offense is many respects in UNC’s first scrimmage in practice number eight, but after a sluggish start in the second scrimmage this past Saturday, the offense found a groove.
The veterans, including Polino and Antonio Williams, said the group previously lacked energy, a clear sign of missing leadership, but they picked it up. Hence, Tucker’s optimism.
“All that took was the coaches calling it out and showing us how close we are to being a great offense,” Tucker said. “After that first scrimmage, he really pulled us together and explained what we need to do to be the offense we want to be. That following practice we just turned it up, it was probably the best practice we’ve had, and from there we built off of it.”
Carolina still has more than a week before taking on the Gamecocks, so there’s time to make progress answering Brown's demand. But it’s also likely the Hall of Fame coach will keep pushing it. The need is that great and the apparent vacancy is that significant.
