Tuesday Defense Report: Duck & Vohasek

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CHAPEL HILL – Tuesday evenings at the Kenan Football Center means some of North Carolina’s football players are made available to the media, and the defensive Tar Heels this week were Storm Duck and Ray Vohasek.

They were asked a lot of questions about the Notre Dame game, what the defense must do to improve its play, and some about Virginia Tech.

UNC hosts the Hokies on Saturday at 3:30 PM.

Below are videos of their interviews along with a few notes, pulled quotes, and time markings from what they had to say:

*1-min mark: The Tar Heels ranks No. 126 nationally in total defense, and No. 123 in scoring defense. So, what has been the focus of the defense the last few days?

“The conversations have really been execution,” Duck said. “Going out there and doing what we’re taught. At the end of the day, the players out on the field, coach gives us a task to do, a job to do, we have all the tools for it, so we have to go out there and execute.”

The primary issue the first four games?

“Focus,” Duck replied. “A lot of the guys were talking to some of the teammates (and) it makes everybody locked in. We had a good practice today. We're just building off of every week trying to get better and doing what we’re taught.”

*2-min mark: Does Duck sense a snowball effect with the defense when things start going poorly?

*2-min mark: Can he also sense frustration among his teammates on the field when things aren’t going well?

*2-min mark: Is there something about the schematics of the defense that hasn’t clicked yet?

“I honestly don’t think so,” he said. “Like I said, we have all the tools we need, and we’re the guys out there playing. So, we need to do a better job of communicating and doing what we’re taught and following through with what we’re taught.”

*2-min mark: If the Heels have all of the tools, as Duck says, why isn’t it working?

“It’s life, we have lots of ups and downs, things aren’t going to go the way you plan all the time,” Duck said. “Our main focus going into the next game this coming week is focus and relax and play ball.”

*3-min mark: What is the players’ morale right now?

*4-min mark: Brown says they can still be a good defense, so do the players draw some confidence from him saying that?

*5-min mark: Was Brown’s message and tone different Sunday from what it usually is?

*7-min mark: ACC play begins this week, can that be a fresh start for the Heels?

“That’s the goal,” Duck said. “We’re 3-1 right now, the other thing aside (from) that is we have to go 1-0 this week.”

*8-min mark: How does Duck assess his own performance so far? He said the first three weeks he didn’t play well, but was a little better for Notre Dame. He also said he’s fully healthy.

*8-min mark: Duck was asked about Tony Grimes, who got into it a little with Noah Taylor on Saturday and had an incident at Georgia State. What has Duck seen from Grimes that has put him in some of those situations?

“Tony’s a competitor,” Duck said. “Everybody on the defense is a competitor. When we saw that, really it was just guys wanting to win.”

*1-min mark: The biggest problem with stopping the run versus Notre Dame was about fitting the gaps and how that trickles with different responsibilities.

“It’s a combination of everything when it comes to stopping the run,” Vohasek said. “And one thing we’ve really emphasized this week is setting the edge. We’ve got to set the edge better, and really control that and make it hard on teams to get the edge on us.”

*1-min mark: How do they get all 11 on the same page when it comes to stopping the run?

*2-min mark: Brown said they were just flat beaten, so how can they counter being whipped when things are not going well and they continue losing those battles in the trenches?

“I think it’s a mentality,” Vohasek said. “I said that last week going into the game, it’s got to be a mentality. It’s tough to say what we can do to flip it. One thing we’ve really got to do is we’ve got to get them down on first contact. That’s always been a thing here is tackling.

“I don’t know who told me this, I think Bill Belichick said he wants the best 11 tacklers on the field. Tackling is super hard, especially with the athletes we (face). We haven’t gotten in conference yet, but everybody’s got good players and great running backs.

“We’ve got to really hone in on getting guys down on first contact and playing as 11.”

*3-min mark: Does he sense a snowball effect when things aren’t going well defensively?

*4-main mark: Vohasek discussed rushing four, dime packages when rushing three, etc.

*6-min mark: Is there anything in Chizik’s defense that’s surprised him it’s taking as long as it has for the team to become effective executing?

“I think in terms of when we’re in the meeting room and understanding the defense, and what we have to do, I don’t think that’s an issue,” Vohasek said. “But paper doesn’t move, so it’s a little bit harder when you get out there and wide receivers are running and you’ve got pulling offensive linemen and things like that.

“You’ve got things the offense has put in you haven’t seen from prior weeks. I don’t think it’s an understanding thing, offenses have thrown a lot at us and we’ve struggled. We just have to get on the right foot this week.”

*7-min mark: What is the mood of the defense?

“I hate to say it is what it is, but we took a L, they executed very well,” he said. “They came in here dominated, played well in all phases – offense, defense, special teams. Really, all we can do is learn from it. We lost. Even if we won we had to learn from it.”

*8-min mark: Virginia Tech scouting report.

*The rest of the interview we reported on earlier, and it has to do with the players-only meeting Sunday.