Players Tuesday: Williams, Fox, Anderson & Gemmel

CHAPEL HILL – Five Tar Heels met with the media via zoom Tuesday morning following practice to discuss what they learned from the loss at Florida State, how to fix some things they’re struggling with, like tackling, pass protection and drops by receivers, and to talk about this week’s game against NC State and what it means plus much more.

North Carolina is coming off a 31-28 loss at FSU and is No. 14 in the nation while the Wolfpack is No. 23. UNC and State kick off Saturday at noon at Kenan Stadium.

Five Heels met with the media, but we are focusing on four of them in this report, as we are running what quarterback Sam Howell had to say separately. So here are the full video interviews with some notes and pulled quotes from what Javonte Williams, Tomon Fox, Brian Anderson and Jeremiah Gemmel had to say:

*Javonte Williams has carried the ball 63 times for 402 yards and seven touchdowns this season, plus he’s caught nine passes for 200 yards and two more scores. Williams is quicker and faster this season than a year ago and is one of the more bruising running backs in the ACC. So what running backs have been an influence on how he plays the game?

“My favorite running back is probably Todd Gurley,” Williams said. “I like how he runs and, being that he's from North Carolina, I watched him a lot when I was in high school and growing up. So, that's probably who I watch the most."

Gurley attended Tarboro High School and has run for nearly 6,000 yards in his NFL career.

*The story of Williams’ recruitment to UNC has been told before, though he revealed some details Tuesday morning that haven’t been reported. He attended Wallace-Rose Hill High School in Teachey, NC, and was way under the radar well into his senior season. In fact, Rivals listed him as a safety because he was seen as a defensive player, but after exploding in the state championship game in his senior year, everything changed for Williams. The game was at Kenan Stadium and several members of UNC’s staff saw him play. Then this happened:

“We played here and, after the game, coach (Larry) Fedora came in the locker room and was like, 'Do you want to go on your official (visit) like right now, after the game?' And I said, 'Yes,'” Williams said.

“So, after the game, I went to the hotel and stayed. We played on Saturday, so when I woke up the next day, he invited me to his office and he just offered me because I had to go to the Shrine Bowl the next day."

*State has a two-back tandem UNC is focused on slowing down. Zonovan Knight and Ricky Person are combining to run for nearly 140 yards per game for the Wolfpack, and with starting quarterback Devin Leary out for this game, the pair likely will carry even more of a load this weekend. So, what has Fox seen from the NC State pair?

"They have a big o-line, they have a strong running back, just like they do every year,” Fox said. “They try to focus on being tough, so they try to have a good run game. We've just got to make sure we set edges, everybody fit stheir gaps and do their job this week."

*Mack Brown warned after the first two games that the Tar Heels weren’t really tested to stop the run in wins over Syracuse and Boston College, but they have been big-time over the last two weeks, as Virginia Tech and Florida State combined to run the ball 84 times for 501 yards, which is an average of 5.96 yards per attempt. So, what must the defense do to make progress? Fox emphasized the need for a better pass rush that could make for more favorably run situations for the defense.

“First of all, we have to get ourselves in position to pass rush, talking about first, gotta do a good job on first (and) second down just to get them in third-and-long,” Fox replied. “And then we have to do a better job up front of just communicating what we’re about to do and making sure we’re going to keep the quarterback contained.”

*Pass protection has been an issue at times for the Tar Heels, as the quest for consistency continues. The Heels fared well protecting Sam Howell versus Virginia Tech’s respected pass rush, but were so-so against Syracuse and poor at Boston College and FSU. So what does it take for the pass rush to improve and become more consistent?

"I guess it just comes down to your fundamentals and techniques,” Anderson said. “So, if you have an issue in pass protection, there's likely a fundamental issue there."

Is it a fairly correctable thing?

“Yes,” Anderson replied.

*On the flip side, UNC’s run game has been outstanding, to which Michael Carter and Javonte Williams get deserved credit for, but so should the offensive line. The o-line has opened numerous massive holes for them to run through, sustained blocks, very few missed assignments and the receivers blocking downfield have been excellent. Why are they having so much success opening those holes?

"I think we're really just coming together as an offensive line, playing together,” Anderson said. “Practice today, we're just really starting to come together. We have our inside run period, we're really just getting hip to hip, moving guys off the ball. And whenever you have great backs like Javonte and Mike (Carter), you can only just give them a little bit of sliver of space and they're gonna bust it open."

*Saturday night was somewhat a tale of two halves for UNC’s defense. After allowing 280 yards on 28 snaps (10.0 average) in the first half, the Heels gave up 152 on 27 plays in the second half, which is an average of 5.6 per play. The run defense still allowed 143 yards (6.8 per attempt) after halftime, but the most important number was 0, as in zero, as in the Heels shut out the Seminoles after the intermission, outscoring them 21-0.

So, what was the difference for the defense in the second half that it can build on?

“I think it was just everybody on the defense doing their job,” Gemmel said. “It’s something we talked about at the beginning of the game and the first half wasn’t what we talked about at all. Coming in at halftime, there was no ink drawing up at halftime, it was strictly everybody doing their job.

“We didn’t have any schematic flaws at halftime. We came in and found out people were mis-fitting gaps and try to do too much instead of just doing their job… And in the second half I think you saw that everybody was doing their job and we were able to get a lot of stops on defense.”

*NC State will be without starting quarterback Devin Leary, who has been one of the main reasons behind the Wolfpack’s surge into the national rankings. Bailey Hockman started the first two games before being replaced, but he will be back in there for State on Saturday and the Heels have plenty of film on him.

“He has a really strong arm,” Gemmel said. “He’s not as maneuverable as the other quarterback, but he still buys time with his feet to get his receivers open. He lets his blocks set up for him instead of him scrambling away outside the pocket… He’s not as elusive as the prior quarterback, but also the prior quarterbacks we’ve faced haven’t had an arm like him.”

*Jacob Turner contributed to this report