Mack Mid-Week: Plenty, Plenty, Plenty About Facing Hartman, Wake's Offense
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Mack Brown met with the media via zoom following practice Wednesday morning to discuss his team’s week of preparation for a key game Saturday at Wake Forest, and to field questions about his team, the game, and more.
The No. 15 Tar Heels and Demon Deacons kickoff at 7:30 PM (ESPN2), and with a win, UNC will outright capture the ACC Coastal Division title.
The report here will focus on the game, and in particular, how Carolina will defend Wake quarterback Sam Hartman and its mesh RPO offense.
UNC is 8-1 overall and 5-0 in the ACC, in addition to being 5-0 on the road. The Deacs are 6-3 and 2-3.
Above is a video of Browns Q&A session, and below is what he said about how the Tar Heels will defend the Demon Deacons:
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*Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman is 173-for-276 passing with 2,423 yards, 24 TDs and nine INTs. Over the last two games, however, Hartman is 49-for-83 with three TDs and six INTs. But Carolina is expecting the prolific QB to play at a much higher level Saturday in Winston-Salem.
“Sam Hartman (is) one of the best quarterbacks to ever play college football,” Brown said. “It’s funny, you start looking at (Virginia QB) Brennan Armstrong last week and the records that he’s set for the ACC, Sam Hartman’s the same. He’s very, very accurate. He’s won so many games.
“Here’s what he’s done to us the last two years: In 2020, he threw for 429 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. And then in 2021, he threw for 398 yards, five touchdowns, and two interceptions. So, he’s thrown nine touchdowns and nearly 900 yards on us the last two years. So, that’s very, very impressive.”
Brown then noted that Hartman quickly overcame his medical condition that forced him to miss fall camp and Wake’s opener, and that he won a state championship in high school.
“I’ve got tremendous respect for that young man and what he’s done at Wake Forest over the past two years.”
*Wake has a fast receiver unit and often looks to take the top off of defenses.
“They throw it deep about 20 times a game, and that has not been one of our strong suits,” Brown said.
How deep is deep?
Hartman is 29-for-62 with 920 yards, 10 touchdowns and four interceptions on passes thrown 20 or more yards downfield. However, he throws a lot of stuff in the 15-18 yards range. So, those might be considered “deep” balls because many are designed to hit a receiver in stride, so the pass may travel 17 yards, but the receivers may then add another 8-15 yards on top of that, if not more.
Also note: Wake has the top-rated pass-catching group in the nation according to PFF with a composite grade of 86.4. Five guys have been targeted at least 40 times, and five have at least 27 receptions. Their grades start at 68.0. Wake’s receivers have just 11 drops on the season
Wake’s loss at home to Clemson is the performance Brown’s team is preparing to face this weekend.
“To take Clemson to two overtimes and get beat 51-45 at home where Sam Hartman threw six touchdown passes is really impressive,” Brown said. “I sat there and watched the game and said, ‘Wow, these guys are really good.’”
*UNC has 15 sacks and 91 hurries on the season, and to throw Hartman off, the Tar Heels must up their games rushing the passer and in coverage. This will be their pass defense’s biggest challenge of the season.
Now, while the Heels aren’t racking up a lot of sacks, their pass rush grades out at No. 39 nationally, which isn’t bad. But that also factors in numbers from when Ray Vohasek, Noah Taylor, and Des Evans were healthy and playing. All three are out for the season.
So, the importance of generating a conventional pass rush in this game is key because Hartman scorches teams that blitz.
“That’s something that we’ve got to do, and we’ve got to do better, and we haven’t,” Brown said. “I’ve been talking about pass rush for four years and we haven’t gotten it. It’s just really frustrating. It used to be 50-50 balls deep, now it’s 80-20.
“You’ve got to win some. And their receivers are really good, our corners have got to continue to grow and get better. But that’s a huge part of this game this weekend. They are going to throw deep in one-on-one situations, and you have got to make plays to have a chance to beat this team.”
*Teams choosing to blitz Hartman have paid a dear price this season. He has dropped back to pass 141 times when blitzed and is 73-for-111 (65.8 percent) with 1,047 yards, 17 TDs, and just four INTs. He has been sacked 24 times, with 20 coming on those blitzes, but he gets rid of the ball otherwise. Hartman has scrambled 10 times when being blitzed.
So, given that UNC doesn’t blitz a lot, it’s unlikely to expect the Heels to pick up their frequency this weekend.
"Gene’s blitzed a bunch this year,” Brown said, referring to defensive coordinator Gene Chizik. “We are not getting there. That's what I told the kids, ‘it's not fair to your secondary who gets yelled at when they leave someone wide open and you're not getting there.’ So, we have to get there when we blitz and we are not.”
*NC State is one of the top defenses in the nation, and certainly showed it by picking off Hartman three times last weekend, sacking him four times, and limited the Deacs to an average of .7 yards rushing on 25 attempts.
Now, four of those were the sacks totaling 20 yards lost, so in 21 runs in its mesh RPO offense, Wake managed only 37 yards on 21 attempts, which is 1.8 yards per attempt. The Deacons converted just one first down on the ground.
"The biggest thing is State is playing great defense,” Brown said. “They are not letting people run the ball. They are just doing a great job with it. (NCSU defensive coordinator) Coach (Tony) Gibson has done an amazing job with that defense this year. They are talented, confident, and they are playing hard. I think that is the biggest thing. No one is running the ball on them this year."
In other words, that was much more about State being State and not about Wake having any issues in its run game.
*Maye Versus Hartman Hype? Why not, though it has lost some of its luster with Hartman being picked six times in the last two weeks. But this is still a monster matchup, and perhaps the best in the ACC this season.
"I think it will be one of the best quarterback matchups in the country this weekend," Brown said.
UNC has faced Hartman twice in his career. Both games were in Chapel Hill and UNC won both.
"I didn’t realize they both wear the number 10, and Sam seems like he has been around forever. We don’t play them next year so I hope he comes back." Brown said with a chuckle. "I was hoping he would go pro last year."
In the two games against UNC, Hartman threw for 827 yards 12 total touchdowns and only two interceptions.
"He is so successful against us." Brown said about Hartman. "You can’t be a coach and like the game and love the kids without admiring what that young guy has done. When you look at what he has accomplished, I mean, he's one of the best ever to play in the ACC…
"He’s been so good, he's so accurate, and I just love to watch him play. He competes, he competes all the time."