The 2021 UNC football season could be best described as disappointing. A preseason top-10 ranking gave way to a 6-6 regular season and a blowout loss to South Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. After the dust had settled from that disheartening finish, dominoes understandably began to fall within Mack Brown’s coaching staff.
Several new faces are now part of the program, and Wednesday’s program media day provided the first real opportunity to speak to those new members.
Charlton Warren is back with Carolina after spending several seasons as a defensive backs coach in the SEC. Warren previously held that same position with UNC in 2015 and 2016, and takes over that role again in 2022 with a veteran-laden group.
Warren, who is a graduate of the Air Force Academy, said he believes his players are extremely motivated.
“For everything they want, their drive and passion to get better matches that,” Warren said. “I think that’s when you have a good room. You can’t want a lot of things, but not want to put the work in. And this group wants to put the work in. If I asked them to go run through this brick wall, they probably would do it, and say, ‘Why’d you want me to do that?’ after they did it, which is awesome.”
On the offensive line, Jack Bicknell, Jr. takes over as coach after the relatively abrupt departure of Stacy Searels for Georgia earlier in the spring. Bicknell will oversee an offensive line with several new players, including five-star freshman Zach Rice and transfers Corey Gaynor and Spencer Rolland. Bicknell and Rolland both bring a New England flavor to the trenches, as Bicknell is an alumnus of Boston College and Rolland arrives from Harvard.
Bicknell jokingly said while Rolland’s esteemed education is certainly an asset, it also puts a little more pressure on the coaches.
“The problem with Spencer is if he screws up, it’s gonna be on me,” Bicknell said. “We all know he graduated from Harvard, so nobody’s gonna really blame him… that’s a lot of pressure on me, and I already told him that… he’s done a great job. I love him. What an unbelievable presence about him. He’s gonna be successful in whatever he does.”
Pat Suddes is also in his first few months as general manager of the football program, taking over for Billy High. As GM, much of Suddes’ responsibilities involve roster management, recruiting and all the intricacies of NIL. Suddes acknowledged the art of recruiting is quite different than it was just a few years ago.
“Ten or 15 years ago, they barely even put on a jersey. Now it’s a full production,” Suddes said. “You’re doing a video for them, now you’re taking pictures with cars, you’re doing streetwear. It’s just changed. So with that, you need bigger staffs to handle those recruiting pieces, because the coaching staff doesn’t want to do that. I think as the rules have changed and evolved, you’ve seen the staff sizes, the roles like mine change along with it.”
But the most high-profile of the new assistants is defensive coordinator Gene Chizik. Like Mack Brown a few years ago, Chizik is back for a second stint at UNC after spending several years at ESPN. Chizik has won national championships as both a defensive coordinator and a head coach, and will attempt to turn around a UNC defense which struggled mightily in 2021. He said the key to that is removing the gray.
“Everything’s about consistency, right? We talk to them all the time about great teachers and great coaches who just have the ability to remove the gray,” Chizik said. “And so really, that’s what we’re focusing on this summer. Going back through spring practice, looking at the things that we did, and their job as players is to ask the questions that remove the gray, let us know when they’re unclear on something, and then our job as coaches is to be able to deliver the information so that we can remove the gray.”
It’s not quite a season rallying cry, but if removing the gray gets the Tar Heels a few more wins, Carolina fans will be all in for 2022.
Featured image via Inside Carolina
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