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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina defensive coordinator Gene Chizik met with the media for his weekly press conference Monday at the Kenan Football Center to field questions about his unit’s performance in the loss to Notre Dame and the struggles it’s had all season.
In particular, UNC’s issues stopping the run, the linebackers’ role in that, not making fits by everyone on defense, frustration boiling over, his conversation with UNC Coach Mack Brown on Sunday, and much more.
The presser lasted 26 minutes and Chizik was asked quite a few probing questions.
Above is the video of his Q&A session, and below are some notes, pulled quotes, and time markings from what he had to say:
*1-min mark: The first question Monday was what was most disappointing about the performance Saturday, and how fixable is it?
“Probably the most disappointing thing was the inability to stop the run. We knew going into the game that would have to be a priority and we weren’t able to do that consistently.”
Chizik said the unit played well in the first quarter. The other disappointment was they didn’t stop Notre Dame tight end Michael Mayer, who had seven catches for 88 yards and a score.
“Going in, we felt like we had a good plan to do that, and we didn’t execute it all the time to get it done. And those were the two lead-in goals to win the game, and we didn’t get that done.”
He continued: “Obviously, the performances (have been) underwhelming on our defense, and we know that. So, we’ve got to do a better job coaching, and we’ve got to do a better job playing… Right now, we’re struggling. The players know, the coaches know it, and that’s where we are.”
*2-min mark: Is the problem a matter of fundamentals that need work, is it a physicality issue, both? Where does the crux of it reside? What can be adjusted in the coming weeks and what are some things that may take a lot longer?
“When you look at the run game when it’s not clicking, it’s kind of a mixture. Sometimes, it’s one guy out of a gap. It all comes together with the defensive line fitting and staying in their gaps. The linebackers and safeties, or whoever, are responsible for fitting those gaps. Everybody fits those gaps, accordingly.
“So, one guy can be one, one guy can jump his gap and be out of his gap, and that really allows poor defensive performance when it comes to the run game.
“Sometimes it’s physicality. Sometimes it’s a guy out of his gap, sometimes it’s a pressure-on that somebody’s going to have to overlap and account for the potential open gap somewhere else in the defense.
“There’s several things, all fixable. But I think to answer your question, it’s a mixture of things.”
*4-min mark: What has Chizik seen in practice? Improvements? Progress? “Their attitude is great, they continue to practice really, really well… We’re seeing some spots where practice is carrying over into the games. Do we see that as a total defense all the time? No, we don’t.
“That’s probably the most frustrating part. I think everybody’s frustrated. Sometimes, the players get frustrated, sometimes, the coaches get frustrated. But everybody’s on the same page. Everybody’s continuing to work.”
*5-min mark: Can Chizik draw from any previous defenses he’s coached that started a season similarly to this one but turned it around?
“I can’t think back that far. The bottom line is, we can’t compare this to anything else in the past. This is a different team, it’s a different era, there’s just a lot of difference.”
*6-min mark: Mack Brown mentioned a bit of a disconnect between practice and the games, and while he later backed off using the word “disconnect,” Brown maintained his concern about this issue. Chizik was asked to explain it in more detail and why it’s a problem each game.
“I think it’s kind of isolated. We’re playing the same defense; we are adjusting as well. In run defense, everybody’s responsible for a gap. In pass defense, everybody’s responsible in coverage… What’s happening is there’s isolated incidents that keep popping up where one guy is not necessarily doing his job and others are.
“That’s what’s kind of the frustrating part is the repeat offenders – not that it’s on a guy or a group, it’s kind of everybody. So, as coaches, that’s our job to look at our groups and look at our segments and players and figure out why this is happening and where the disconnect is that on game day we can’t necessarily see it… You can’t put it on a player or a position, it starts with coaches, me first.”
*8-min mark: Chizik likes generating a pass rush from the front four and doesn’t blitz a lot. UNC did blitz the Irish 11 times Saturday, but with little success. Chizik explained his philosophy.
“Number one, bringing pressure on the quarterback has to do with a couple of different things: How they move protection, how’s the quarterback when he’s getting pressure in his face with most types of blitzes, and how are you in coverage? Ho do you feel about holding up in the secondary versus the opponents’ receivers?
“All of that goes together. There’s not really a cookie-cutter in, ‘I believe in bringing seven, I believe in bringing six.’ I believe in bringing pressure on downs we feel like it can affect the quarterback, and you can get off the field.”
*11-min mark: Many coaches believe using the bench can be their greatest form of motivation to players, so with that in mind, it’s interesting that UNC didn’t play a lot of guys in wins at App State and Georgia State, but did Saturday versus Notre Dame.
Personnel changes are often the result of a team struggling, or unit struggling, but Chizik said that really isn’t the answer to UNC’s problems.
“That’s a very fair question, to be honest with you. When you go through times of struggle in anything, sometimes there’s a tendency for people to start wanting to re-create and re-invent, and maybe in some things in life that works. In football, it doesn’t necessarily work that way.
“We have to believe in what we’re doing. We have to believe in our players. We have to believe in schematically that there can be tweaks and adjustments in there, both schematically and personnel to (the) point, that gives us a chance to be more consistent.
“But I’m not one of these guys that looks at final results and says, ‘Oh my gosh, nobody is ever right, everybody’s wrong,’ because that’s not what’s happening. It’s our job as coaches right now to make sure that we be realistic. Nobody’s happy with the performance, player or coaches.
“But in the same sense, we’re almost in the middle of the season, so looking at other guys that can contribute, obviously that’s always a valid point. Who can help us? Who’s coming along in practice? We evaluate them to feel like we can put them on the field and help us.
“But I’m just never going to be that guy that I’m not happy with the results so let’s blow it up and start over.”
*14-min mark: Chizik said in the summer the defensive line jumped out at him when he took the job, saying it was loaded with talent, they could go eight-ten deep, and that it was the strength of the defense and a major strength at all. So what has been the problem?
“Let me just say this, I’ll never put that on a segment because when you play poor defense, it’s disappointing in general. You can't point to a group that at times is not disappointing. Do we need more production on the defensive line? Yea. We need more production at linebacker, we need more production at safety, we need more production at jack, we need more production at corner, so we need more production everywhere.
“But I don't think there is any segment on our defense right now where the coach of that segment, me or that segment feels like they have arrived. Everyone has to play better, everyone has to be more productive. That's the bottom line. So that's our charge, starting with me. We got to get them there.”
*17-min mark: With all of what was discussed Monday, and how the defense has played, Chizik still expects the unit to play very well when Virginia Tech visits Saturday.
“I expect us to play much better Saturday. We spent a lot of time yesterday going back looking over the film and looking at all the minded details of when we weren’t good and why. I expect us to play much better Saturday against Virginia Tech.
“We had four games to look a lot of things. We had four games to evaluate some poor performances. But we also had the time to evaluate when we were playing well and playing good and why.
“So, we spent a lot of time on that yesterday, went out and practiced and we put that game behind us. The good news is we are 3-1 going into conference play. Our guys have not lost confidence. Our guys are 100 percent all-in in meetings and practice every day. I am proud of them for that because if you listen to the outside chatter, that I am sure is out there, young guys could get discouraged. But I don't think our guys are.”
*19-min mark: Brown and Chizik met for a while Sunday, and Brown said it was an honest discussion about where the defense is. Chizik agreed.
“The coach is very disappointed like we all are. We have conversations about what's next and how we are going to fix it. He's frustrated, rightfully so I have been in his seat. I've known him for a long time and he expects more and should get more, we are not giving him what he deserves and what University of North Carolina deserves as far as results on defense.
“We are not giving him that right now. That falls on me, I'm a big boy and I can handle it. So we have had some very candid conversations about where this is going and what we need to do. Again, I'm not going to say there is a sense of panic whatsoever, but there are very candid conversations on how we can get better and we can do that because we have been in this a long time and we previously been together.
“I think it's frustrating. I feel responsible to get this thing turned around for Mack Brown and the University of North Carolina. That's what the conversations are, there is no magic, there is no, of course we talked personnel, that's an obvious discussion. We talked schemes, we talked what happened, we talked inconsistency, we talked all the things you guys see. We have very candid conversations about it, we always will. He's frustrated and rightfully so.”
*20-min mark: Stopping the run is the top priority.
*20-min mark: Frustrations were high during the game Saturday. There was bickering on the bench, some on the field, and there was an incident involving Noah Taylor and Tony Grimes. What is the level of concern about that?
“Football is a crazy game, and it’s really interesting. Guys want to win, they put in a lot to win and sometimes you see some frustrations boil over. I don’t think it's really any different than your family. One of the things our guys absolutely truly do is they love each other, that doesn't mean they all hang out with each other on the weekends. But I think they truly love each other and respect each other as competitors and they all want to win.
“When you're not doing as well as you hope, sometimes those things happen just like they happen in my own family with my daughters and my sons. You move forward and you get past that because there is a true high level of care and trust and love for each other in there. That's what makes coaching these guys so fun for me because they really do, do that. You're gonna see that happen.
“It happens with coaches. I've seen it happen with coaches on the sideline, I'm not saying its happen with us but you see that in the competitive world of sports. One thing i can confidently say, it's our job as leaders when things are not going well, and I'm not just talking about defenses i talking team, when you a coach of a team. Your job as a leader is to make sure through tough times chaos and bad times those things don't happen. I feel really good about that, I think you can see some brush ups here and there. We see them in practice, it happens in practice when there's not everything on the line.
“That's football, that's what happens but there is not going to be any finger pointing, you can't. If you're going to start pointing fingers, you have to start pointing fingers at every single human involved. That's not a realistic deal, but I think our guys have really handled this very well. The fact there is a brush up here and there, it happens. We had absolutely zero concern about that.”
*24-min mark: The final two questions were about the snowball effect for the defense, which we will address in a piece later this week.
