Football is a long game. Over a span of 60 minutes of game time, even the stoutest defenses will give up long plays. Look at Georgia, which for years has been the god of defense in major college football. The Bulldogs were cut up to the tune of 41 points against Alabama and a 17-year-old star receiver last weekend.
For defenses like Carolina’s that are statistically mere mortals, the struggles have been even more trying: a 70-point humiliation against James Madison followed up by a blown 20-point lead in the second half at Duke. As physical a game as football is, these losses put the mental side of the sport into hyperfocus.
For a coach like defensive coordinator Geoff Collins, making sure one explosive play doesn’t snowball into two and three and four is at the top of his list of priorities. That effect has led to both of Carolina’s last two losses, and stopping it may be the key to stopping the losing streak against Pittsburgh this weekend.
“We get them together on the sideline and try to get that corrected,” said Collins this week. “We talk about playing one play at a time and not letting the previous play affect us. But that is a learned skill that we’re continuing to try to build on.”
But ultimately, Collins isn’t the one lining up on the field. He can only do so much. Meanwhile, defensive lineman Kevin Hester is crouching down in one of the most physically demanding positions on the field. The benefits of a short memory are much more front-and-center to someone like him.
“If you let the last play affect you, you’ve got 600 pounds coming at you next play,” Hester said. “So you have to have short-term memory, or you’re gonna get gored. That’s what [defensive line coach] Ted [Monachino] always says. You’ve gotta stay focused. You’ve gotta stay locked in.”
Hester and his fellow defenders would do well to forget the second-half performance against the Blue Devils, when Star Thomas and a host of other running backs gashed the Tar Heels for nearly 200 yards amid the 20-point comeback.
The Carolina offense isn’t blameless either, scoring only three points in the second half after leading 17-0 at halftime. The Tar Heels did limit the turnovers which sunk them against James Madison – until the final minute. Jacolby Criswell’s only interception of the night sealed the win for the Blue Devils.
Criswell, whose father coached him in high school, said the lessons learned from him have been put into practice this week in preparation for the Panthers.
“I would get so tough about losses,” Criswell said. “And he’s like, ‘You’ve gotta move on. That game’s in the past. You just have to play the next one, play the next one, play the next one.’ It’s the same thing in a game: play the next play. You can’t worry about the last play.”
Perhaps it’s that attitude which has head coach Mack Brown convinced this year’s Tar Heel football season will play out in reverse compared to the last two: a shaky start followed by a strong finish. And as always, the 73-year-old translated the football benefits of a short memory into a lesson for any walk of life. After all, as Brown loves to say, playing for him is not a four-year decision, but a 40-year one.
“It’ll be preached all day today and all day tomorrow and at practice: they’re gonna make some plays,” said Brown. “But in your life, when things are happening bad in your life, you’ve gotta step up and change it. You’ve gotta stop it and turn it into a positive, and that’s what we’ve gotta do right now.”
Undefeated Pittsburgh, which has its eyes set on a run at the ACC title in a wide-open league, will have no sympathy for a Tar Heel team it lost to in blowout fashion last season. Should the black cloud of the last two weeks darken what is forecasted to be a lovely Saturday afternoon in Chapel Hill, Carolina may end up fulfilling Hester’s prophecy, and find itself gored.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati
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