Fall Camp Report, Practice 8: Defense (Grimes & Echols)

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina held its eighth practice of fall camp Saturday morning inside Kenan Stadium, and it was the Tar Heels’ first scrimmage of the preseason.

Carolina first donned full pads for half of its practice Thursday, but was back in shoulder pads and helmets Friday. Saturday was full-on everything.

Afterward, two defensive Tar Heels met with the media inside the Kenan Football Center to field questions about their personal games, position groups, the team’s mentality, and much more. So below are the videos plus notes and some pulled quotes from what junior cornerback Tony Grimes and sophomore linebacker Power Echols had to say:

Note: Tar Heels have four more practices before breaking camp and getting settled for classes, and then practice two more times before classes start August 15.

The 6-foot, 195-pounder from Virginia Beach started all 13 games in which the Tar Heels played last season. Grimes was fifth on the team with 47 tackles, two of which went for a loss of yardage. He finished with nine PBUs, 11 STOPs, which are plays that result in failures for the opposing offense, and was targeted 60 times in coverage allowing 32 receptions for 435 yards, and three touchdowns.

An early enrollee one year ahead of his class, Grimes started the last four games of the 2020 campaign, playing 313 snaps on defense. He was a 5-star prospect in high school considered the top cornerback in the nation.

*Grimes arrived at UNC with plenty of high expectations in himself and by others. And the way he played at times last in that first season fueled it even more. So, what is his mindset going into year number three, as the expectations are still there, and this being such an important season for him given his career goals of getting to the NFL, perhaps by next spring?

“My mindset going into year three is I’ve still got to do what God placed on me here to do,” he said. “I’ve still got to play football, I’ve got to get better every day. The corners and the team look up to me, so I’ve got to make sure I do my job. I’ve got to help them in every way possible I can.”

*Grimes just missed grading out at 60.0 by PFF last season, so what elements of his game did he focus on improving in the offseason leading into fall camp?

“Offseason, I worked every day (with) strength and conditioning,” he said. “I got my trainer and worked on my foot placement. This fall camp has been helping me with my tackling, just knowing the playbook well, being more nasty on the field; making more plays on the field.”

*The emphasis on getting better across the board with fundamentals on the defensive side of the ball has been perhaps the biggest theme of fall camp so far. Grimes echoes what many of his teammates have said over the last week, that it’s helped him a great deal as well as the others on that side of the ball.

“The fundamentals is key,” he said. “You keep working fundamentals; it separates you. Your fundamentals separate you. So, what I like to tell my corners is, ‘Every day we’ve got to work on fundamentals. We’ve got to work press, we’ve got to work off, we’ve gotta work bell, we’ve gotta to know when to stay inside leverage, when to stay outside leverage.”

*The players say communication on defense is much better than last season for several reasons, many of which we have noted in various content items at THI. But also because the corners and safeties are in the same meeting rooms now, they are more one unit. Add that to the Chizik effect and manner Charlton Warren goes about business have significantly impacted the uptick in cohesiveness in all forms in the secondary.

“Definitely because of Coach Warren and Chiz, they stress communication,” Grimes said. “When they got here in the spring, they stressed communication, so in the spring we got the communication down. Now in the fall, communication is easy. That’s the first thing we do is communication.”

A true freshman last season, Echols didn’t play much on defense until Jeremiah Gemmel was ejected early in UNC’s upset of then-No. 10 Wake Forest in November, and then Echols played most of the Tar Heels’ loss to South Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.

In all, Echols played 107 of his 155 defensive snaps in those two games, overall finishing with 25 tackles, one for a loss of yardage, plus he had an interception, and two QB hurries. Echols finished with five STOPs, and was targeted seven times in coverage allowing four receptions for 79 yards and a TD.

He is slated to start alongside Cedric Gray at inside linebacker.

*UNC is Eight practices into fall camp, meaning the Tar Heels have approximately 11 more practices until they are essentially in game-week mode. Thus, they are nearly mid-point. Echols says the defense is coming along really well, especially the inside linebackers. The guys on that side of the ball have learned Gene Chizik’s defense and are in deep into the process of getting it game-ready.

“I feel like we are light years ahead of where we were in the spring when Chizik first got here,” Echols said. “Fundamentally, communication-wise, we’re all on the same page, (and) I would say, personally, just know the game, knowing where everyone’s at, knowing the stunts, knowing what we’re doing up front, and knowing what we’re doing in the back end.

“The linebacker room, from the standpoint of physicality and effort and all around just being smart and tough (with) linebacker creed, we’ve all come together and we’ve all just built this great bond, and we all know what it is every time we step on the field.

“We all give our all every day, and at the end of the day, even if it’s an off day or slower day, we still go 110 percent in everything we do. Always on our details and always paying attention to what’s going on. I feel like we’re in a good spot right now.”

*This time a year ago, Echols was still feeling his way around as a true freshman. It was his first fall camp and everything was new. A year later, however, he has changed, physically, how he deals with the media, and the absolute self-assuredness in how Echols carries himself. He sees the difference a year makes, too.

“I’m definitely so much more comfortable,” he said. “I just feel like coming in early was a great help, then going through for a whole year and coming back is tremendous. (Linebacker) Coach (Tommy Thigpen) has done a great job teaching me and teaching all of us.

“Coach Chizik came in here and changed the culture for us. I’m light years ahead of where I was when I first got here last year this time of year.”

*Gene Chizik spoke earlier in the week about how much they have stressed fundamentals on defense, noting it was lacking a year ago. Carolina was so scheme heavy, the fundamentals were clearly lacking. Not anymore. Echols says you have to be able to see what you must see in order to properly react.

“Our eyes, just our eyes,” Echols said. “What you’re seeing out there. What you’re seeing when the play is going on, how things are going to hit, what gaps are going to be open, just know what’s going on at all times.

“I feel like our eyes and just overall knowledge of the game, we’ve all gotten better.”