CHAPEL HILL – Wanna know what went wrong with North Carolina’s offense in last Friday’s 17-10 loss at Virginia Tech to open the season?
Just ask the coaches and players. They aren’t running from it.
The Tar Heels did not exactly move the football to near the regularity it did last year when they set a school record averaging 41.7 points per game and were fifth in the nation in total offense racking up 537 yards per contest.
In Blacksburg, however, Carolina got next-to-nothing going in the first half, amassing a paltry 125 yards, 29 of which came on a counter play right before the half expired. For the night, the Tar Heels finished with just 18 first downs and 354 yards.
Not to mention six sacks allowed and three interceptions thrown by ballyhooed quarterback Sam Howell. The mantra this week as the Heels prepare for a visit from Georgia State is to simply get better. But where does this process begin?
“This week really for us, regardless of who we are playing, is gonna be a lot more about us maintaining our focus and minimizing mistakes on an individual basis, so that we can just execute and go do what we do well,” offensive coordinator Phil Longo said Monday.
The heart of the issue, however, begins up front with the offensive line. And anyone who has either played there in the trenches or has a keen enough understanding of what goes on will acknowledge that individuals along the o-line are parts of a unit. Chemistry is paramount for success.
If each individual lineman does his job and his trusted by his linemates, things will work smoother, especially for a group as talented as the Tar Heels.
Only they weren’t in sync Friday. Far from it, and they know it. Rule number one up front: Communicate.
“There was a lot of times where the defense didn’t beat us out, but as an offensive line we beat ourselves out with miscommunications and stuff like that,” senior offensive tackle Jordan Tucker said Tuesday. “It was another opportunity to learn from it, but not how we wanted it to be for the first game.”
That will be put to test this weekend against a Panthers team coming off a 43-10 loss at home to Army. But the Heels have probably already forgotten that score, though they do respect a GSU program that has been to bowls in three of the last four seasons and two years ago won at Tennessee, a team that included current UNC running back Ty Chandler.
Truth is, it really doesn’t matter who the Tar Heels are playing this week. The mission is to clean up some messes that hurt them at Virginia Tech, fine-tune them, and proceed forward. Complete and full identification is key, though.
“There’s no blame to out on one person, you can’t pin it on one person, I think we all played a role in it with maybe confusing signals,” Tucker said. “The crowd definitely didn’t allow us to hear each other talking on the field as much as we do in practice.”
The crowd won’t be as much an issue Saturday night inside Kenan Stadium, even though the game is sold out and a full house is expected. But still, this is a veteran group, even with graduate Quiron Johnson filling in for Brian Anderson at center. The other four guys started last season and three of them – Tucker, Joshua Ezeudu, and Marcus McKethan – are third-year starters.
They didn’t deal with hostile environments during the COVID-plagued 2020 season, but they did in 2019.
At issue is not just one player calling out blocking assignments based on whatever looks the defense is giving. Some teams rely solely on the center to make the calls, but UNC’s offensive line, under the direction of Stacy Searels, requires that everyone talks.
Not at the same time, of course, but defenses shift a lot in pre-snap, and there are times the left tackle can see something before the right guard, so he needs to make the call. And given Carolina’s experience within this unit, the staff trusts the players’ judgments. But there was some discombobulation going on Friday, and it led to spots of poor play throughout the night.
So, they hit a big snag last week. Quite a few, actually, but they also clearly know what to fix. Sometimes the Heels were simply beaten by a Hokies’ front that played at a high level. And sometimes, the Heels simply laid a more challenging foundation for themselves by being all over the place when trying to get onto the same page.
That is why this weekend’s contest is crucial for the unit to take a step forward. Georgia State entered the season considered a dark horse to make noise in the improving Sun Belt Conference that incudes Appalachian State, Louisiana, and Coastal Carolina, and it has all 11 starters on defense back from its bowl game.
“(Communication is) going to play a big role within our season, the next game, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” Tucker said. “We’re going to treat every game like it’s a game regardless of who’s on the field. We have to communicate at home, away, big crowd, small crowd, it doesn’t really matter.”
