NOTE: Full Monachino press conference posted below.

CHAPEL HILL – Through the first two full weeks of the college football season, North Carolina defensive tackle Jahvaree Ritzie is second in the nation in sacks with 5.0. He is off to an outstanding start to his senior season.

The remarkable surge in Ritzie’s game has a lot to do with being healthy, UNC Defensive Line Coach Ted Monachino says, and that the Kernersville, NC, native has simply put everything together.

Entering the season, Ritzie had just 2.5 sacks and 4.0 TFLs to his credit. In 1,329 snaps, of which 644 came in 2022, his best season by far, Ritzie had only 34 STOPs, which are plays that result in failures by opposing offenses. He has five in 64 snaps this season, which is an average of one every 12.8 snaps. The average before the Minnesota game was one STOP every 39.1 snaps.

Ritzie entered the season with 98 tackles and has eight so far this fall. Of his 54 pressures, seven have come in the first two contests.

Monachino met with some of us in the media Tuesday afternoon at the Kenan Football Center to discuss Ritzie’s performance eruption so far. Here is everything Monachino, who has coached 16 years in the NFL, had to say:

NOTE: Full trancript of what Monachino said about Ritzie below the video.

On why Ritzie is playing at a much higher level this season:

MONACHINO: “I think the biggest thing is Jahvaree is finally healthy, which has made a huge difference in his approach and the number of reps he gets in practice. And because he’s healthy, he’s a problem when he’s healthy. He’s athletic and strong and long and does a lot of things that other guys at 295 pounds can’t do…

“He hasn’t made a quantum leap, but what he has done is he’s been healthy enough to go out and perform in practice, and he’s taking those practice reps to the game, and that’s made a huge difference in his production.”

On the sack at Minnesota when he ran down Brosmer, the athletic ability he showed. Monachino says he sees that athlete in Ritzie all the time:

MONACHINO: “Every single day. And the guys in the weight room see it every day, I see it every day in practice and individual and small group work and in team. He’s different than a lot of them are. He’s not your typical grunt defensive tackle. He’s a guy that is a problem in a one-on-one pass rush situation, he’s a problem on a line movement in the run game, and he’s athletic enough to do his job early in the down and make plays late in the down, which is what you’d hoped from the very beginning with Jahvaree. It’s great that he’s healthy and he’s able to do it now.”

On if it’s been a challenge for figure out where he fits best, because Ritzie has played defensive end, tackle, and so on?

MONACHINO: “No, it hasn’t been because we’ve got a really strong room. Across our depth chart is a strong group, so we’re doing everything we can to make sure we have dour really good players on the field for every snap that we’re out there. Right now, I can’t put Des Evans on the bench. Beau Atkinson has earned hos opportunities and Jacolbe Cowan is earning his opportunities, and the best place for Jahvaree to impact games right now is in there as a three technique. And he’s impacting games. He’s changing plays and then he’s impact games, which are the two things our three techniques need to do.”

On Ritzie saying Saturday he’s getting off the snap quicker, so aside from health, what has he done to improve at getting off the ball quicker?

MONACHINO: “I know this, I think a lot of times guys get really nervous about making a mistake. We’ve tried to take some of that pressure off of guys. We want to make our mistakes full speed when we do make them. I’ve encouraged them to study cadences and snap counts and anticipate snap counts and see different things than maybe they’ve seen in the past. His get-off is better, but I think it’s… because they’re able to anticipate some snap counts, they’re able to anticipate based on body position, based on motion, timing things up.

“And he’s done a great job with that. I think that’s improved his get-off. I think some things from run-pass pre-snap tells standpoint has helped him. But I think there are several factors that come in. Number one, I think he’s healthy; number two, I think we’ve taken some rocks out of his pocket and allowed him to play faster, which is huge.”

On Ritzie saying in Minnesota that his family is very important to him. His mother, grandmother, girlfriend and her friend were there for that game, and they’ve helped him through some tough stretches over the last year. Monachino was t about that part of Ritzie’s life.

MONACHINO: “He’s got a tremendous group of people in his life, and we don’t get to see them as often as we’d like to. They are continually involved with him. Part of it, he’s had some things happen over the last six months that he needed that support, and they’ve been there for him every step of the way, and they are special people. It doesn’t surprise me at all that he would include them in his success because they’re his support system and they are his why. I don’t think Jahvaree has a selfish bone in his body and I think that he’s doing everything for everyone else, and it just happens to be he’s getting a ton of credit for it.”