Players-Only Meeting Paid Off For Heels, After All

CHAPEL HILL – As it turns out, the players-only meeting last Sunday had a significant effect on North Carolina’s defense.

Sometimes, meetings among players don’t amount to much. But UNC’s airing of grievances allowed the guys on that side of the ball to shake the tree some, and what they re-learned was that each has similar personal and team-related missions.

They were on the same page, but just needed more accountability and to center the focus of their deep frustrations. The punching bag for the Tar Heels’ defensive rebirth was Virginia Tech, as Carolina cruised to a thorough 41-10 thumping of the Hokies on Saturday at Kenan Stadium.

And it was that meeting, called by linebacker Power Echols and defensive end Kaimon Rucker, that triggered the righting of the ship.

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“The biggest message that we had in the meeting is we’ve gotta be better,” junior linebacker Cedric Gray said following UNC’s win over the Hokies. “We can’t be a liability as a defense, that was one of the big things.”

UNC (4-1, 1-0 ACC) was coming off a poor performance in a home loss to a Notre Dame team that had been struggling offensively. The Fighting Irish scored 45 points, leaving some on the field, gained 567 yards, and twice racked up 13 first downs in a quarter, accumulating a whopping 35 for the game.

The Heels woke up Sunday morning rated No. 126 out of 131 FBS teams nationally in total defense, including No. 123 in points allowed at 39.5 per contest. The players finally had enough, so they did something about it.

“It was calm, but you could tell everybody was tensed up, everybody was kind of pissed off about what we did,” Gray said describing the meeting. “It wasn’t no arguing or nothing. I think everybody was on the same page.”

UNC forced seven punts among Virginia Tech’s 11 possessions, with five punts coming on consecutive series. The Hokies (2-3, 1-1) managed only 273 total yards and 14 first downs, including just 92 and five after halftime. Nine of Tech’s 14 second-half running plays went for three or fewer yards.

It would be an understatement suggesting the Heels took something out on the Hokies.

“When you feel like you’re better than (the stats), you definitely have some frustration that builds up,” Rucker said. “Football’s one of those games where it’s legal to hurt somebody; it’s one of those things where if you want to take anger out, go ahead and take it out on the opposing player, of course within the rules.”

The edge players left the meeting with carried into practice, but it wasn’t just them. UNC Coach Mack Brown had some intense meetings with his staff as well, demanding the same accountability from them the players were of each other.

The mood around the team all week was about meeting mandates. Nothing else would suffice.

“How can you sit here and tell me you’re coaching when your guy isn’t in the gap,” Brown said, offering an example of how discussions with his assistants went. “How hard is that? There’s three gaps, how hard is that?

“So, what we’ve all done is taken out the sensitivity because it’s so important that we win and try to understand we are trying to help each other. That’s what I’m trying to do with the coaches when I’m really hard on them.”

Sensitivity gone. Full-on football and focus stays. Really, perhaps it just arrived.

And the door that opened paving its way was the players-only meeting on defense last week.