THI TV: Chizik On Snap Distribution, Rucker, Duck, Wake & More
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina defensive coordinator Gene Chizik met with the media Monday at the Kenan Football Center for his weekly press conference to discuss more from his team’s win at Virginia over the weekend, field a variety of questions, and look ahead to the Tar Heels’ game Saturday at Wake Forest.
Carolina is coming off a 31-28 win at UVA winning its fifth consecutive game, plus moving its road record to 5-0. Overall, the No. 15 Tar Heels are 8-1, including 5-0 in the ACC.
UNC and Wake Forest (6-3, 2-3) kick off at 7:30 PM at Truist Field.
Above is video of Chizik’s presser, and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
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*With Noah Taylor out for the season, Kaimon Rucker was moved to jack to help out senior Chris Collins, who started and played 59 snaps. UVA ran 74 plays. Rucker played 42 snaps rotating between jack and power end, a spot that opened up with Des Evans out for the season.
Chizik said Rucker had a lot on his plate rotating, and also coming off an injury himself since he didn’t practice much last week.
“You know, it was tough on him,” Chizik said. “Doing both to be honest with you, there’s a lot of moving parts. Looking back on it, we probably put a little much on him at the jack position. But I thought he handled it really, really well. I think the more he plays a little bit of the jack role, I think the more consistent he will be in terms of performance.
“He’s a really, really good player and we’ve just got to make sure we don’t overload him at both. He will obviously be able to play both. We have to have him in that role now that Noah (Taylor) is out. We’ve got to make sure the reps on game day correspond percentage-wise with the same amount of reps he would get at the power end or jack position in practice.
“Meaning, if he’s going to play eighty percent in practice at power end, we got to make sure we’re really good at getting him eighty percent of those reps in practice and twenty percent of the other. And I think we did a little more of 50-50 work over the last week. So, we need to back off that a little bit, but he’s a productive player no matter where you put him. We just have to be very judicious about how we give him reps and get him ready.”
*Power end and jack are different enough that any player toggling back and forth between the two will be challenged mentally. But Rucker is highly cerebral, which helps him playing two positions.
“Yeah, that’s huge,” Chizik said. “He is a really very smart football player, and it is different. There are some things that are very similar. But just starting from the obvious, you have one hand on the ground and one you are standing up in a two-point stance. So, that itself makes it different.
“And then in the job descriptions, some are the same, there’s carry over and some are a lot different. You got some coverage elements in there that you don’t necessarily always have at power end. So, that makes it a little bit different.”
*Staying with Rucker, and including Jahvaree Ritzie to the conversation, as he went back and forth between power end and the three-technique tackle spot, Chizik was asked if perhaps simplifying both of their roles: Rucker star at one spot and Ritzie at the other.
“Those are definitely conversations that have happened without a doubt,” Chizik said. “Sometimes, you have to go against what you know to be great and it would be great to have that luxury. Sometimes, you don’t have that. Sometimes, you go out there with a plan and like moving guys and making them play a couple of positions. And then you start realizing we might can tweak that and get them more efficient at one role more so than two roles.
“So, we always have to go back and evaluate that, but those are definitely discussions. Obviously, you would love to have the luxury of just putting players at one spot. And we always try to do that to the best of our ability. But, in the same sense during game weeks, sometimes it just requires you just to move some guys around. Our case was with injuries obviously and then you kind of move from there. You adapt and adjust based on the production you see. But those are all valid discussions that have happened.”
*With the defense depleted losing three starters for the season over the last couple of weeks, and each of them part of the unit’s front line, Chizik and the position coaches have had to plan out snap counts in advance more. Some players are getting many more reps now than they did a few weeks ago, so monitoring that during the game, and in accordance with pre-game plans, is important.
“Every week, we have a plan on what we think numbers-wise is going to be the best advantage for us in terms of keeping guys fresh,” Chizik said. “I think it starts with the defensive line first. Those are the guys that have 650 pounds of double teams on them a lot of times on the inside, right? So, we start with how many reps we want those guys to be able to take and be able to keep them fresh.
“We go into this game plan, typically pretty close to what we want to do with the interior guys. Defensive end, power ends, and the jacks we have to balance that out now with injuries that happened. Before this past week, we had a set number that we felt good about and now we kind of had to recalibrate that because of obvious. And at linebacker and in the secondary, we do the same thing. Like how many plays can we expect these guys to still be productive and keep them healthy.
“There is a fine line in there particularly at linebacker. It’s just a position we are thin at for sure. We would like them to play less reps, if possible, but that’s a hard one. So, we are able to get Power Echols off the field sometimes in the dime world. Ced (Gray) been the one, the iron man. I mean he’s played a lot of plays and we have to try to find ways to get him some relief. There is always a pitch count so to speak in pretty much every position.”
*UNC Coach Mack Brown said after the win at UVA that cornerback Storm Duck is playing much like he did before the injury because he has full confidence he is no longer hindered. Chizik agrees.
“I think Storm is playing with a lot of confidence and I’m really glad to see that,” Chizik said. “He played well in this game and a lot of people will point to a ball that got away on him, a deep ball that got away. I think overall, he’s been really productive and obviously had a pick Saturday. He played really well in coverage. Again, you know the one deep ball got out on him.
“But when you look at the way he finished the Pitt game. You look at the way he played 95-percent of the time Saturday, I think he is gaining the confidence that he needs. He really starting to come along and this is a great time of the year for him to be gaining that confidence. He has been playing better and I’m really proud of him.
“And hopefully, he going to continue to do that. He needs to this week for sure with great receivers, so we are going to need him to be hitting on all cylinders this weekend.”