It’s no secret that this year’s UNC football team is lacking the star power of recent seasons. Sam Howell, Javonte Williams, Dyami Brown and others are all now in the NFL, leaving the Tar Heels with fresh, unproven faces at nearly every position.

Head coach Mack Brown had plenty to talk about following the Tar Heels’ first intra-squad scrimmage of the fall season last weekend. While the injury to receiver Antoine Green – which will keep him out for at least six weeks – was no doubt a disappointment, Brown said there was still plenty to like from the scrimmage.

“I like the team. I like where we are,” he said Monday. “We’ve got a lot of things we’ve gotta fix. Defense only had one penalty on Saturday. Offense had too many penalties, but one guy had two penalties and another guy had three penalties. So we slid them down the depth chart and told them, ‘You played hard, but you didn’t play good.’”

The Tar Heels ranked 116th out of 130 in the country last season in penalties per game with 7.7. The 2020 season wasn’t much better, as Carolina averaged 7.5 penalties per game.

“We’re not having penalties anymore,” Brown said. “We’re not gonna put up with that many penalties per game. So we’re working really, really hard in leadership and toughness and accountability and playing the game.”

Leadership in particular is a talking point being emphasized throughout fall camp. With so much uncertainty as to the Day 1 starters, Brown said he has looked for leadership qualities in the roster to make his decisions easier.

“We’ve got a lot of unsettled questions right now about who’s gonna play,” he said. “And we’re trying to find the guys who play hard every day. You can’t say, ‘I had a bad day.’ Then you lose the game. Can’t say, ‘My bad.’ We know it’s your bad. So play.”

Assistant Head Coach for Defense Gene Chizik, one of numerous additions to Brown’s coaching staff, came to Chapel Hill with an intention of removing gray areas within his unit. Since practice began in late July, Chizik said leaders such as defensive lineman Kaimon Rucker and linebackers Cedric Gray and Power Echols have helped him work toward achieving that goal.

“I think our leaders have been great. They’re great sounding boards,” Chizik said. “I listen to the players. What do you understand, what do you not understand? I need to teach you. And we have to remove the gray: what do you not understand? And that’s how we communicate. Removing the gray is huge, because the leaders of the defense will come up to me immediately and say, ‘Coach, I think we’re not real clear on this,’ and we can clear it up. I think they all kind of intertwine and mix together.”

“Just being a quote, ‘Old head’ now,” the 20-year-old Rucker said of his leadership. “For the d-linemen that’s coming in, just always [being] available when they’re asking questions.”

While the team still has yet to hit the turf at Kenan Stadium, Brown said the Tar Heels have checked the boxes of accountability and playing hard.

“I really like the leadership so far,” he said. “We haven’t played, but every day in the spring they practiced hard. And that wasn’t the case last year. And they’ve competed the eight practices we’ve had. They’re not pouting, they’re not griping. They’re competing.”

While the days of being ranked in the preseason top 10 seem like ancient history, Brown’s optimism for 2022 is hard to miss. He has consistently lauded the team’s loaded freshman class and the current group’s chemistry. If the Tar Heels can put the disappointment of last fall behind them, better days could be on the horizon. Those aspirations will be put to the test on August 27, when Florida A&M visits Chapel Hill to kick off the regular season.

 

Featured image via UNC Football on Twitter


Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.