Gemmel, Collins Talk Their Units, Depth & Much More

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina senior linebacker and team leader Jeremiah Gemmel and junior outside linebacker Chris Collins met with the media following Friday’s practice to field questions about themselves, their groups, and the defense as a whole.

Friday was UNC’s eighth practice of fall camp and the third since the Tar Heels could wear full pads and have full contact. Note that Carolina will hold its first scrimmage of camp Saturday morning. The media is not allowed to attend, so the only reports we expect to have will come afterward with some player interviews.

Here are the full videos of Gemmel’s and Collins’ Q&A sessions along with some notes and pulled quotes from what they had to say:

*Chris Collins played 239 snaps last year registering 13 tackles, including three sacks. He is in a loaded room that includes Tomon Fox, Tyrone Hopper, Desmond Evans, and Kaimon Rucker, so there is plenty of depth and talent in there, with Collins being a part of the rotation. So what parts of his game has he focused on improving now that fall camp is nearing the midpoint?

“Definitely my emphasis has been pass rush,” Collins said. “Getting to the quarterback is the number one thing that Coach (Jovan) Dewitt and Coach (Jay) Bateman have been preaching to us. Working on different pass-rushing moves with Tomon, Hop, some of the older guys looking at finding different ways at getting to the quarterback.”

*How does having a much better and fresher defensive line help Collins and the other guys at outside linebacker?

“It helps with gap responsibilities tremendously,” Collins said. “Just from if somebody’s in the B gap and I’m in the C gap, I have trust know that Murph (Myles Murphy) or any of the big d-tackles are going to stay in their gaps and I’m going and they have trust I’m going to stay in my gap. Having that trust down the line helps with run defense.”

*So how does Collins see himself fitting in with this hybrid group this season?

“I myself fit in wherever coach needs me,” he said. “I’ve seen this offseason and in training camp they’ve used me everywhere, whether it be from the 4-I or SAM where I’m split out on number two. Wherever coach needs me, I feel like I can make plays. I feel like that’s one of my upsides of being an outside linebacker in this system, I’m very versatile.”

*Gemmel talks like a coach, so why not see what he has to say about what the improved DL does for the rest of the defense as far as the kinds of things it can employ more than previously now that he’s seen the big guys for eight practices?

“It allows us to get in different fronts and run our different multiple blitz packages with he guys,” Gemmel said. “Last year, later in the game we started getting into a lot of base defenses because when we tried to penetrate and get a push with the defensive line we’d run the blitz, but their push wasn’t the same as the first or second quarter.

“Along with that, I think (strength and conditioning) Coach (Brian) Hess did a great job with us in the offseason having the d-line and o-line and getting them stronger. I think that’s going to help us overall as a team on defense.”

*Tommy Thigpen spoke a lot about sophomore ILB Cedric Gray earlier Friday, so what are Gemmel’s thoughts about Gray, who is the third most experience middle linebacker even thought he played just six defensive snaps a year ago.

“Cedric Gray right now is learning the MIKE and the WILL positions,” Gemmel said. “He’s playing super fast at the MIKE and the WILL position…

“I think he’s become a lot more comfortable. I think playing the MIKE and the WILL position actually helped him because I think he’s starting to learn more, not just about what the WILL has to do but playing the MIKE position you start to understand what other guys have to do: the nickel position, the safety, and then you’re always setting the front, so you’re starting to understand your front and where your leverage and where your help is.

“I think that helped Ced so much throughout this camp and throughout this spring, and him learning what other people have to do – defensive line and the safeties – I think that helped him get more vocal. I think he’s taken huge steps from last year.”

*We recently heard Sam Howell and Phil Longo discuss how the junior quarterback has reached a comfort point where he can suggest to Longo certain plays, request some be taken out, and have a role in game planning. What about Gemmel? Has he reached a similar point with defensive coordinator Jay Bateman?

“Absolutely,” Gemmel said. “I’ll give him suggestions if I think we maybe should add something to help benefit the MIKE and the WILL to make it a little bit easier on them or to maybe to throw something out the window.

“Like, if we have a Tuesday practice, our first day of practice (in a game week), and some things aren’t looking too good and it’s complicated for the MIKE and the WILL or the boundary safety and we’re having problems with it on Tuesday, I can tell it’s going to be problems down the road and is going to be a three or a four-day fix, I’ll go to him on Tuesday after practice and be like, ‘I’m not too sure about this call; there’s a lot of moving parts in this call in this call, not just for me but the boundary and the WILL, and I feel like that can be a problem on a Saturday or a Friday night.’

“And he listens and he understands and we usually make that adjustment.”