UNC Training Camp: Chizik’s Presence Looms Large Over Schoettmer, Defense

Since Larry Fedora’s arrival as UNC’s head football coach in 2012, the Tar Heels have never struggled to score points. However, the results on the other side of the ball have been a bit shaky under the offensive guru.

So for 2015 Fedora landed his most talented recruit yet—a defensive coordinator by the name of Gene Chizik.

Just four days into training camp, Chizik has already made his mark on the team.

In 2005, Chizik was a co-defensive coordinator for Mack Brown’s national championship team at Texas. And then in 2010 as the head coach at Auburn, he picked up another national title led by quarterback Cam Newton.

From the first day Chizik stepped on campus, Coach Fedora and his team couldn’t help but show respect for him and his impressive resumé.

“Guys were excited,” Fedora said. “I mean, his reputation precedes him. So everybody, whether they had met him or not, they already knew what he had accomplished. That gave them a sense of confidence, and a swagger about them, from the very get-go. And I think that’s continued through to this point.”

Senior linebacker Jeff Schoettmer, who comes into the year as the team’s unquestioned leader on the defensive side of the ball, says Chizik is exactly what the doctor ordered for this particular team.

“His presence is just something that our team needed,” Schoettmer said after practice on Thursday. “The leadership he shows, the background, the experience that he has—it’s great for our team.

“The defense can learn a lot from him, but he helps the offense as well. He was a head coach at one point. He’s coached in national championships. He’s been there, he’s been to the highest level. So that experience and knowledge–and just the swag he brings to our defense–is really what we needed.”

Although he’s seen as the man who is supposed to clean up the mess left behind by last year’s squad, Chizik sees his challenge a little differently—especially with the switch in schemes from former coordinator Vic Koenning’s ‘4-2-5’ to a more conventional ‘4-3’, which uses three linebackers instead of two.

“I don’t think you can look at last year’s [film] and really compare,” Chizik said. “It’s just two different ideas totally. Not that one idea is right and one idea is wrong. They’re just different. So it’s comparing apples and oranges”

Listening to Chizik talk football is something that immediately captured his players’ attention, especially for Schoettmer—the quarterback of the defense.

“He’s very smart,” Schoettmer said. “He’s the most intelligent football mind I’ve been around in my life. In the time he’s been here, I’ve learned more about football—about the game, about what my role and responsibility is, about how to read the offense, how to read the lineman, how to read running backs, how to read routes and stuff. Just listening to him day in and day out, you can pick up something every day.”

But Chizik’s not just doing it with his words out on the practice field. So far during training camp, he’s also made his presence known just as much with his actions.

“He’s going around to each position group and coaching every one of them,” Schoettmer said. “He’s not just, you know, coaching the DB’s, or the linebackers, or the D-line. He’s bouncing around during practice and really coaching everybody. And his knowledge, and the confidence that he has and instills in us—it’s great.”

For all this talk, though, it’s still just the first week of camp.

Chizik has just under a month left to prepare for his debut against one of college football’s great offensive minds—Steve Spurrier and the South Carolina Gamecocks—in Charlotte on September 3^rd.

Up Next:

WCHL will be back out at training camp with the Tar Heels next Monday, with a look at how the offense is progressing.

Camp Notes:

• When asked about the team’s uncertain situation at kicker, Coach Fedora said the only thing he knows is that he has “fewer days to make a decision.”
• Fedora singled out true freshman Aaron Crawford as someone showing great potential on the defensive line.
• Malik Simmons, a senior cornerback, was not at practice Thursday. He was in court for a pair of misdemeanor charges from earlier this summer. Fedora reinstated Simmons to the team on Monday after a brief suspension.