CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina defensive coordinator Geoff Collins met with the media Monday at the Kenan Football Center to discuss his unit’s performance in the loss to James Madison and look ahead to Saturday’s game at Duke.
The Tar Heels lost, 70-50, and were scorched for 611 total yards by JMU. The Dukes had numerous explosive plays, especially through the air.
Above is video of Collins’ presser and below are some notes from what he had to say:
*Collins’ first question was what was it like in the 24 hours after the JMU game ended.
“It’s a lot more fun when you win and you play really good defense, which I think we did the first three weeks. When you don’t win and you don’t play good defense to the standard that we have around here, it’s a sleepless night and probably has been for the last two.
“When we play really good defense, it’s all because of the players. We’ve got great players, they compete, they execute at a high level. And when you don’t perform to the standard that we have, then I blame myself. What could I have done better?”
*There was almost a domino effect with Carolina’s defense against JMU.
“When things started to go sideways, some guys tried to do too much.”
*There are games in which one or two groups on a defensive unit struggle and aren’t on their A game, and then there are games where everything goes wrong and the unit as a whole is on its Z game, like what happened with the Tar Heels against the Dukes. How does that happen and is there a connection with guys trying to do too much when that happens?
“One of the things that we’ve stressed since we’ve been here is the put-the-ball-down mentality. Regardless of the situation, regardless of what’s happening, put the ball down and play. Having a couple of sudden-change opportunities, I don’t think we responded the right way. And then I’ve got to do a better job of whenever the guys’ controllers start rattling being able to give them a simple call, let them play with poise.
“We’ve got great players and I can’t compound the issue by giving them a complicated call to execute. Simplify things, let them go play because we have great players.”
*Was there a leak in the dam he can point to that led to the implosion that if it didn’t occur, maybe the other issues wouldn’t have been as damaging?
“Whenever you have explosive plays, the biggest piece was communication from sideline to the field, and then on the field, the communication has to improve. We stressed that a great deal (Sunday). I thought it had been pretty good for three weeks, then it just kind of wasn’t what we expected.”
*JMU had a lot of receivers in wide open space all day, and its running backs got into open space a lot, too. Collins says those plays were usually the result of broken down communication.
“When there are rotations that start to happen, somebody’s got to rotate down, somebody’s going to rotate back. We had two that that didn’t happen, so it’s just making sure that a side of the defense has to communicate that’s how it works. But the cross communication has to be that way as well.”
*With a secondary as experienced as UNC’s, how can there be so much poor communication in one game? Also, was that what was most disappointing in the game?
“I think so, Just the communication piece of it. One side seeing one thing the other side seeing another thing, we’ve got to work together.”
*Collins continued about how poor the communication was in the secondary. He also said, “I don’t know that I always had them in the correct spot.”
*In addition, Collins spoke more about allowing 12 explosive plays, getting the problems fixed, not allowing the poor performance against JMU beat them a second straight week, and about Duke’s offense.
