CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina defensive coordinator Gene Chizik met with the media Monday at the Kenan Football Center to discuss what was learned watching film from his unit in the Tar Heels’ loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday, the development of some individual players, and also look ahead to NC State.
The No. 18 Tar Heels host NC State on Friday afternoon to close out the regular season. Carolina is coming off a 21-17 loss to Georgia Tech, and will enter the game versus the Wolfpack at 9-2 overall and 6-1 in the ACC.
State is 7-4 and 3-4.
The game kicks off at 3:30 and will air on ABC.
Above is the video from Chizik’s presser, and below are a few notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
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*UNC Coach Mack Brown said earlier Monday that cornerback Storm Duck played his best game Saturday night since arriving in Chapel Hill. That’s a big statement given that Duck was really good as a freshman but two injuries since really hampered his game. But he appears to have fully overcome them and is back in form, to which Chizik agrees.
“It’s been nice to see,” Chizik said. “I feel like Storm’s definitely ascending right now in terms of his production. I think he’s got a good grasp of what he needed to do to improve, and he’s really worked on his craft every day at practice.
“It’s showing up, and it’s not just in the passing game, it’s also in the run game. We put a premium on corners being able to tackle. This day and age, that’s what offenses do, they get the ball out to the perimeter and they end up ultimately make corners have to tackle. And I think he’s done a good job with that.
“I think his game is kind of coming along in a lot of ways. He had a really nice pick, he’s able to tackle now, and be able to tackle on the perimeter better than he did earlier in the year.”
*On the other side of the field, former 5-star corner Tony Grimes has shown some signs of improvement, but he is behind Duck, Chizik says.
“I think Tony is continuing to improve,” Chizik said. “As everybody on our defense, we all have to play better, he’s in that category for sure. He’s constantly trying to improve his craft as well. He’s done some nice things in coverage the last couple of weeks, and he’s coming along.
“He’s gotta be like everybody else on the defense, just keep working every day and improve.”
*Chizik has used a full dime package a lot this season, and at times he’s had the group on the field on third downs with less than six yards to go, and at times he hasn’t put them on the field on third downs with more than six yards to go. He explained his philosophy about when to swap player groupings.
“Especially on third down, those are critical moments in the game,” Chizik said. “And in those moments, you have to decide, ‘is there a high probability of pass? Is there a 40-percent chance of run? What does it look like?’
“So, there’s a lot of ingredients that go into that. What I just said would be the main one. People usually have great tendencies on what they do, that’s why we break down the percentages. When it comes to third-and-three, third-and-four, third-and-seven, nine or ten, a lot of people have different ideas in those down-and-distances.
“Based on what we think probability-wise we’ll see, what’s when we make the determination whether we’ll whole-sale sub, put a lot more speed, more cover guys on the field. We don’t have to do that. There were a lot of times Saturday night when we didn’t.
“So, it’s based on percentages, it’s based on gut-feel, it’s a feel thing in the moment what we think we need to do.”
*Georgia Tech beat Carolina using its third-string and fourth-string QBs. And NC State will be down to its third and fourth guys Friday, as well. The Heels are preparing to face Jack Chambers and Ben Finley, the latter of whom they faced some two years ago at Kenan.
Finley played 52 snaps in State’s loss at Louisville this past weekend, and Chambers played 24. With respect to Finley, do they look at all at the film from two years ago, or is it what has only happened recently?
“We essentially just took Louisville,” Chizik said. “You’ve got to look at the entire picture. There’s a new center playing, there’s some new guys around him, what does it look like this year with this football team with these receivers, running backs, (and) everything that goes with it. So, that’s where we’ve spent the lion’s share of our time.”
