Offensive Line Much Further Ahead From A Year Ago

When North Carolina lined up to run its first play against Appalachian State's defense in the fourth game of last season, the Tar Heels’ offensive line collectively had 10 combined career starts among them.

Ten.

That was the one game left tackle Charlie Heck missed and it was two weeks after center Nick Polino went down with an injury he didn’t return from until November, so the Tar Heels were quite inexperienced and it showed at times.

Offensive line coach Stacy Searels scrambled to find five guys that could put on a relatively cohesive effort, but there weren’t that many options. Carolina lost that day, too.

Now a fwe months away from the 2020 season and even with spring practice cancelled, the staff doesn’t have the plethora of concerns about the unit it held this time a year ago. And if a few players go down this coming September, the Heels will be better equipped to handle such adversity.

“The magic number for me has always been eight. I would like to have three tackles that we feel like can start at any point in a football game, we want three guards that can start at any point in a football game, and you obviously want to have at least two centers," offensive coordinator Phil Longo said in a recent virtual press conference. "So, in a perfect world, in my mind, you want to have eight guys you feel comfortable with playing.”

Five players return who played offensive snaps in each of UNC’s 13 games. Jordan Tucker (13 starts), Brian Anderson (11), Marcus McKethan (12), Ed Montilus (8) and Josh Ezeudu (7) combined to start 51 games and 3,714 snaps last fall, and it’s possible that could be Carolina’s starting line when the Tar Heels open up at Central Florida on Sept. 4.

Only Heck and Polino had much experience when Mack Brown’s staff took over 17 months ago, and it showed, and then some.

“I always try to be positive, (but) I don’t know if we could have been any worse off than we were at o-line last spring,” Longo said. “And I don’t feel that way now. We have a lot of things we want to get better at on an individual basis at that position, we had some things we want to continue to improve on as an overall unit when we’re out there.

“But it was not an impressive unit when we got here, not athletically, not strength-wise, and obviously, we were teaching them a new offense.”

Longo and Searels want eight guys, though, they can trust starting a game, and they need to be somewhat interchangeable. A player that can back up and both tackle and guard spots will bolster the unit and likely see the field quite a bit.

Injuries are a given along the offensive line, plus Longo wants to keep his guys fresh. Just as much as they want to reduce the workload for the wide receivers, as an example, believing they can get the same production from Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome in 60 snaps a game they can in 85 snaps a game, that theory also applies up front.

“We want to keep our tackles and our guards fresh and we want to make sure that if something happens to our starting center, much like it did last year, we have another guy that can play without losing any momentum offensively,” Longo said.

“Anything above eight is icing. Anything above eight gives us more depth.”

And he’s confident the group is headed in that direction.

In addition to the Heels already noted, Longo said third-year sophomore William Barnes, who played three games in 2018 and in 12 games at guard and on special teams last season, sophomore Asim Richards (47 offensive snaps plus 13 games on extra point and field goal units last fall), redshirt freshman Ty Murray (20 snaps a season ago) and true freshman Jonathan Adorno are strong candidates to find a home among those coveted eight spots, Longo said.

An older, more experienced, stronger, more agile, quicker group has Longo believing the Tar Heels will be in terrific shape this fall.

“What I do like is we have a number of offensive linemen who I think are getting close to the standard that we need them to be at that position,” he said. “We’re not going to play a guy because he’s the next guard if he’s not good enough, we’re going to play the next best lineman and make sure he can play guard.

“We always want our best five on the field at all times, and this year I think we have a chance to hit that eight-player mark and be in a legitimate situation to have a real two-deep at each position. That’s the goal and I think we have a shot at getting there.”