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CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina defensive coordinator Gene Chizik met with the media Tuesday morning at the Kenan Football Center to give a full review of what he learned about his unit during spring practice.
The Tar Heels concluded spring practice April 9, so the staff spent the last week combing over what they learned from the 15 practices and game, some of which Chizik hit on Tuesday.
Above is the full video of Chizik’s presser, and below are some notes and parts of some quotes from what he had to say:
*Everyone was “100 percent all in” to the new schemes and concepts of the defense. The players have said for the last two months everything was simplified on that side of the ball, which they embraced from the outset.
Chizik said it took several practices and some live reps before the guys really started getting it, but they eventually did and he is “extremely pleased” with their progress.
*The beginning point of simplifying the defense begins with communication in pre-snap. Chizik says “you see it fast” when that is an issue. But he also noted the importance of post-snap communication.
“I think the great thing about our guys was it’s not just pre-snap communication that they really improved on, there’s a lot of things that our offense does that strains defenses, and a lot of that happens post-snap as well, where you have to see and communicate and point things out.
“One of the things that we like to do for the players, is when the ball is snapped, part of the communication process is – because we can’t hear them when we watch the film – but we can see them point at it. So, if they’re trying to communicate post-snap, and we see them point, that means that there was some post-snap communication going on as well.
“That tells us they saw it, they recognized it, they pointed it out, which means, more than likely, they were actually communicating it with their buddies.”
*Chizik in more detailed description of the concepts of his defense: “It’s not about the volume of defense, it’s about whatever defense you’re running within that defense executing everything well at that point. We didn’t have a lot of defense. We had several concepts that we built that you can then take the defense and do a lot of different things within those concepts.
“But we didn’t anything with rope memory. So, nothing was rope-memorized, it was, ‘here’s the concept, this is what the concept is, this is how we play it, these are all the communication things that have to happen within these concepts. And we only gave them a few of those.
“But within those requires a good amount of communication.”
*When Chizik took over UNC’s defense in 2015, he slowing installed elements of what he wanted, and it went well into that season before everything was in. The key, however, is using the talent to maximize the talent: “take our talent and make sure they’re in the right spots and let them play.”
*Among the things Chizik inherited on that side of the ball was true freshman defensive tackle Travis Shaw. “Awesome,” Chizik replied when asked his thoughts of the former 5-star stud. “I love working with Travis Shaw.”
“I think he is mature beyond his age, to be honest with you. He’s a guy that understands as highly recruited as he is, he’s got a lot of work to do to be where he needs to be... When he decides to turn it on and go, he’s pretty hard to stop.”
*Chizik on the Jack position: “There are a lot of similarities between the two positions. Sometimes they can have their hand in the dirt. Sometimes they could be standing up. One of the things that we really require at the position is for the player to have a pass rush trait...They have to have the ability to play in space, if in the event we did drop them into coverage, which is rare. They have to be physical at the point of attack on 330-pound tackles. It's very similar to the defensive end position...Long athletic edge guys that can rush the passer is pretty much the main trait we are looking for when we recruit that position.”
*Chizik on the Star position: “DeAndre (Boykins) and Obi (Egbuna) worked mainly at star for the lion’s share of the spring. What was hard for us is we have so many DB’s we would like to play and experiment at that position... We are very satisfied with where those two are at, and if some new guys come in that will be healthy in the fall, we will throw some other guys in there.”
*Some players that jumped out at Chizik this spring:
---Malaki Hamrick: “If you’re talking about young guys, Malaki Hamrick is another guy that really popped up.”
---Myles Murphy: “If you’re looking at older guys that have been here, Myles Murphy had a really, really good spring.”
---Noah Taylor: “I feel like Noah Taylor is really going to be a great addition to this football team.
---Power Echols & Cedric Gray: “Power Echols and Cedric Gray every day came to work, and they worked and improved and started to learn the defense and the ins and outs of it.”
---Sebastian Cheeks: “Sebastian Cheeks is another young guy who came in… he really, really progressed well from practice one to 15.”
*Chizik says the goal is to play eight guys up front and 22 on defense. That means playing four linebackers, something he is committed to. UNC’s last couple of DCs – John Papuchis (under Larry Fedora) and Jay Bateman – rarely substituted at linebacker. Chizik insists he will.
*Another player Chizik was asked about is Des Evans, who came along during the spring.
“I was really proud of Des, I thought he did some good things. We kept him at one position, didn’t move him around, let him zero in on his job, which was one of three or four things, and that was it. And I think he definitely prospered from that. As the spring went on, I think you saw him start to produce, start to get some sacks, start to get some tackles for loss.
“What Des has to do is focus and concentrate on execution of the defense when we call it. He’s a talented young man, and I’m really proud of his work ethic.”
*Brandon Peay contributed to this report.
