CHAPEL HILL – Antavious “Stick” Lane is about as experienced a player as there is on North Carolina’s football team.
A three-time All-Sun Belt performer at Georgia State, Lane transferred to Chapel Hill for his final two years of eligibility, which included a Covid year.
As a Panther, Lane played in 37 games, recording 226 tackles, 6.5 tackles-for-loss, and 11 interceptions. He holds the Georgia State record for career interceptions (11), the single-season record for interceptions (11), and is the only Panther in program history to return two interceptions for a touchdown.
In his first year with the Tar Heels last fall, Lane appeared in 11 games tallying 62 tackles, three tackles-for-loss, and one forced fumble. His 409 snaps logged were the fewest since his true freshman season at Georgia State, where he appeared in just four games before redshirting.
His PFF grade of 73.8 ranked first among the Tar Heels’ secondary and his run defense grade of 82.0 put him second on the roster.
As part of a deep group at safety, Lane has high expectations for Carolina’s evolving defense, one that will approach the game with a different attitude and degree of aggressiveness under first-year coordinator Geoff Collins. Lane met with the media following practice Monday to discuss that and more.
Above is video of his Q&A session, and below are some notes and quotes from what he had to say:
*The safety room is deep and experienced. In fact, the four primary players back there, as the Tar Heels will use all four with regularity, has played a combined 5,925 defensive snaps in college. Even with so much experience, chemistry is still vital.
“We all have great chemistry. It don’t matter if it’s me and Will in, me and Jakeen in, we all have great chemistry. And Coach Collins has been putting a big emphasis on talking a lot more, and that’s what we’ve been working on, just communicating and making sure we’re all on the same page and we all are playing the same call.”
*Yet, with Carolina using a lot of disguises on defense, that will stress communication some, especially in the back of the defense.
“It’s just more communication. It hasn’t changed (much), we talking a lot more and (are) all on the same page.”
*Collins said last week they were still looking at either a safety or linebacker wearing the ear piece to make the calls. It appears that the staff has settled on the very back of the defense using the ear piece, which is now allowed by the NCAA. One player on each side of the ball can use one.
“The ear piece, right now the strong safety has it. (Linebacker) Power (Echols) had it before, but now they’re working it in with the strong safeties because they have to talk to the star as well as the Will, and as far as the corner, too.
“I haven’t had it just yet. I feel like the strong safety would need it more than the free safety because he has more people he has to talk to.”
*With starting linebacker Amare Campbell out with a broken right hand, it has opened up room for other players in that room to get snaps with the first team alongside Echols. Campbell isn’t expected to miss much practice time, and he is expected to play in the opener August 29. But Lane was asked what other players have stepped up there and what he’s seen from them.
“I’ve been seeing a lot from Caleb LaVallee. I’ve been seeing a lot from Ashton (Woods) as well. Michael Short has been getting his name out there a little bit. All those guys. Ashton has stepped in for Amare since he’s been down. And I call him ‘Head Hunter’ for sure.
“It’s self-explanatory. He has bad intentions like when he comes in he’s not trying to fake tackle you, he’s trying to get you on the ground and he’s going to do it by any means.”
*More praise for Kaleb Cost, who will start the Minnesota game at the star position.
“He’s a dawg for sure. He’s definitely going to be a big player in our defense there this year at that position. He flies around, he’s very physical, he can blitz off the edge, he’s a great blitzer, and he can cover. That’s the most important thing. He can cover, lock guys down. I feel a lot of big things coming from him.”
