*************************************************************************************

THI Special Promo: 30 Days FREE - offer good through Nov. 9 so act now!

Come try out THI for FREE for 30 days NOW! Promo code HUBERT21

*******************************************************************************************

CHAPEL HILL – The elephant in the room right now with respect to North Carolina’s football team resides on the defensive side of the ball. And it is almost impossible to miss.

If one were to itemize the issues plaguing UNC’s 4-4 season, defensive problems would stand as the initial entry point, and might occupy the first several spaces.

And it appears things have gone from intermittently bad to worse as the games have gone by. Mediocre teams and/or offenses have whacked the Tar Heels off the rails too often and for lengthy stretches. This was especially so in concerning losses to Georgia Tech and Florida State, and most recently in what was a winnable game at Notre Dame, a contest over the weekend the Tar Heels dropped 44-34.

There are positives, however, though not many.

“The thing I do like about them Saturday night that I didn’t see all the time is there was great effort and they had confidence at all times…,” UNC Coach Mack Brown replied, when asked what has improved on defense since the opener two months ago.

“I like the fact that they’re continuing to compete. I like the fact that we’re missing fewer tackles, but we’ve still got to get sacks, which we’re not getting like we want, and we’ve still got to force turnovers.”

Effort certainly wasn’t an issue in South Bend, but performance and execution were. Though, it wasn’t simply a unit veering off into uncharted waters, it was a chapter serving a trend. According to the numbers, UNC has gradually declined on defense over the past three seasons.

In 2019, playing almost exclusively players brought in by the previous regime, the Tar Heels ranked 49th in total defense allowing 373.2 yards and 44th in scoring defense giving up 23.7 points per contest. Last year, UNC was No. 58 in total defense surrendering 400.9 yards and 65th in scoring yielding 29.4 points per outing. This fall, the Heels are 78th in total defense giving up 396.6 yards and 100th allowing 30.8 points per game.

The total yardage number for this season is aided because the unit has put forth some terrific stretches, which makes its seemingly per-game derailments even more maddening. Either way one looks at it, in year three of a somewhat complicated system with 10 starters back and an influx of highly touted prospects, though many are still sewing their football oats, the defensive trajectory is headed in the wrong direction by every measurable.

"I'm concerned about everything," defensive coordinator Jay Bateman said Monday, when asked what most concerns him about his unit. “We haven't played as well as we're capable of. I think the number one thing that I do think improved the last couple of weeks is communication in the secondary. I still think in the secondary, there are some of the coverage issues, some of the leverage issues that we’ve had that need to be better."

At times, the unit appears disorganized in pre-snap situations. Senior captain Jeremiah Gemmel has cited multiple times communication as the problem, though following the loss to the Irish, he went in another direction. Clearly, there is more to what ails the Tar Heels’ defense.

“It’s just staying in our gaps,” Gemmel said. “I think we did a great job of stopping the run in the first half, (but) in the second half, I think guys were getting nosey jumping out of their gaps, not staying disciplined and just staying in their gaps…

“Guys just need to play their 1/11 and stay sound in what they're doing and not get nosy and try to help other people out. Because when things start to fall apart and things start to go the wrong way, I think that's when guys start to think, like, ‘maybe I should play my job but also try to help another guy out’ just because things are starting to go downhill.”

As much as UNC struggled for stretches against Virginia, Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Miami, perhaps the most alarming sign regarding the defense’s lack of growth came Saturday night. Notre Dame plays in the most historic stadium in the nation, has the most prestigious program, and its shiny helmets actually have real gold flakes in the paint, but the Fighting Irish are hardly an offensive juggernaut. Yet, the Tar Heels allowed them to evoke memories as if Johnny Lujack, Paul Hornung, The Four Horsemen, and Tim Brown were roaming the field.

Notre Dame entered the contest averaging 370 yards per game but finished with 523. The Irish entered averaging 31 points, aided by several non-offensive touchdowns, and finished with 44. The Irish went into Saturday’s tilt ranked No. 115 in the nation rushing the football averaging 107.7 yards per outing, but racked up a whopping 293 against the Tar Heels. Even removing Kyren Williams’ 91-yard scoring dash, the Irish were still at 202 yards, which is 95 above their season average.

Twenty-eight first downs, a 21-yard rushing touchdown by quarterback Jack Coan whose season rushing total went from minus-88 yards to minus-60 during the course of Saturday’s game, and that’s on 41 attempts!

The Fighting Irish had five scoring drives of 73 or more yards and a sixth that amassed 62 yards. They scored on a 91-yard run, a 21-yard run, and a 21-yard pass. Notre Dame had five runs of 14 or more yards and 10 runs of nine or more yards, plus it had five passing plays that went for 20 or more yards.

Brown consumes the film of each game three or four times before meeting with his team the next day, so when he spoke to the media afterward, he hadn’t yet had the advantage of thoroughly knowing every element of his team’s defensive struggles in South Bend. But he was certain of one thing when asked what stood out the most about the unit’s issues versus the Irish.

“They scored too easily,” the Hall of Famer replied. “I know that.”

So where does Brown and the program go from here? With No. 10 Wake Forest heading to Kenan Stadium this weekend, the Tar Heels are tasked with facing by far the best offense on their schedule, a team that scored 53 points and amassed 606 yards in Chapel Hill last season. Most of the Demon Deacons’ offensive parts are back, including quarterback Sam Hartman.

If recent trends hold, it will be another difficult day for Bateman’s defense. But he has the backing of Brown, a topic that came up during Monday’s weekly press conference.

“I’m never satisfied with the job I’m doing – and again a cliché – or the job any of our coaches are doing because it’s not a perfect world, not a perfect business,” Brown said. “There’s always things that we can improve…

"Are they all good coaches? They all looked like great coaches against A&M and Notre Dame last year. So yes, they know what they’re doing, they’re really good at it.”

This is a results-oriented business, and it’s clear the trajectory of UNC’s defense must change. That, and winning two more games to reach bowl eligibility, are on tap right now.