The second stint of Gene Chizik’s tenure at North Carolina came to an end Wednesday.
UNC’s defensive coordinator the last two seasons is out after another poor season on that side of the ball in which the Tar Heels finished 95th in total defense and lost their final three games. In fact, Carolina lost five of its last six contests versus Power 5 teams, with the defense performing poorly each time.
Even in UNC’s lone win over a P5 opponent in the stretch, it allowed Duke 45 points (36 in regulation) in a double-overtime win.
UNC announced the news earlier in the day in conjunction with defensive line coach Tim Cross being let go, defensive analyst Ted Monachino replacing Cross, and defensive backs coach Charlton Warren was promoted to Assistant Head Coach for the defense
The move with Chizik was something many saw coming, but it wasn't a decision UNC Coach Mack Brown made until after Carolina's loss to West Virginia in the bowl game, he said the day before facing West Virginia.
Brown met with a couple of reporters, including from THI, and discussed the future of his defense and the possibility of having to make some changes.
“I’ll do the same thing I do every year,” Brown said. “I’ll look at what we did well, why did we play great defense for six weeks and then we were inconsistent the last six. We weren’t as bad as everybody thinks, but we were that bad at times.
“We were horrible in the fourth quarter at Georgia Tech. Why? Lost us the game. If you score 42 points, you should win. We were horrible in the fourth quarter against Duke, (and) it nearly lost us the game.”
And that is where the line of demarcation was. The fourth quarter in Atlanta tipped Chizik's future in the wrong direction, and it only picked up traction.
Carolina (8-5, 4-4 ACC) is No. 95 in total defense, as noted, but also No. 89 in rushing defense, No. 95 in passing yards allowed, No.72 in scoring defense, and No. 123 in first downs allowed.
Most at issue with the defense was how it falling apart coincided with UNC's overall collapse. The Tar Heels played well on that side of the ball early in the season starting out 6-0 and ranked 10th in the nation.
They entered the Miami game ranked 35th in total defense, and through the third quarter that night, Chizik’s unit had surrendered only 13 total points in the second halves versus Power 5 opponents South Carolina, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, and Syracuse, plus the third period versus the Hurricanes. That is an average of 1.4 points per second-half quarter. But everything changed after that.
Miami scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, and offenses for Virginia, Georgia Tech, Duke, Clemson, and NC State totaled 105 points in 11 second-half quarters, an average of 9.5 points per period.
Chizik met with the media after practice nine days before the Duke’s Mayo Bowl loss to West Virginia and was asked if he deserved to be back at Carolina.
“Fair question,” Chizik replied. “For me, I’m probably different than almost every coach maybe in America, or at least there’s a few in my spot; I’m very blessed to be able to look at every season, and after every season decide what is the best for me, what is the best for the university, what is the best for everybody. And then the universities have to do the same thing. They have to look at the overall picture, and they’ve got to decide what’s best for them.
“To answer your question, I don’t know all of what will happen at the end. We know this is a big man’s sport. Everybody’s got to assess and evaluate. And in the end, we will come up with whatever is the best for the university. We will come up with whatever is the best for this program.”
Asked if he preferred to continue as UNC’s defensive coordinator, Chizik replied, “Yes, yes.”
Chizik spent 2015 and 2016 under Larry Fedora in the same role with much better results. The Tar Heels also won 19 games over those two seasons. He stepped away to watch his son’s last year in high school and to spend more time with his family.
Part of that was a five-year gig with the SEC Network. But Brown brought him in two years ago to replace Jay Bateman, whom he fired, also after an ugly loss in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. The Tar Heels struggled tremendously in both seasons, and the climate around the program, in particular from a fan base that showed its unhappiness by barely turning out for the bowl game even though it was in Charlotte, was working against Brown, Chizik, and the Tar Heels.
“Right now in college sports and pro spots, everybody wants blood firings,” Brown said the day before the bowl game. “That’s gets rid of everything. Let’s fire them. We don’t know who we’re bringing in, we don’t even care, but if we can get rid of what we’ve got…
“Now, people want blood. It makes them feel better. I’ve got to make a decision of what’s best for our program.”
What is best, the Hall of Famer ultimately determined, was to change course on that side of the ball.
