UNC Football Gameday: Tar Heels vs Elon Preview
By Matt Hamm
The North Carolina Tar Heels take on Elon Phoenix in the 2012 season opener at Kenan Stadium. Despite being about 40 miles down the road, this is the first time UNC has faced Elon. The game marks the beginning of the Larry Fedora era in Chapel Hill. Fedora brings with him new systems on both sides of the ball. The Tar Heels will employ the no-huddle spread offense and the 4-2-5 defense.
The Tar Heels 4-2-5 defense is very unconventional and could lead to some tough growing pains at the beginning of the season as the players adjust to their new assignments. This defense is all about swarming to the ball and making the most out of the teams speed. The new bandit and ram, hybrid positions are there for specifically the purpose of adding speed. A lot of Carolinas defensive fortunes lie with how those two positions play today.
A very inexperienced UNC secondary will have to watch out for Elon wide receiver Aaron Mellette who has 207 career catches and 26 touchdowns. With so much inexperience in the secondary, combined with learning a new scheme, UNC may be wise to utilize Tre Boston over the top to protect against the big play. Here’s what Fedora had to say about Mellette:
"“He’s an All American wide receiver who could play anywhere in the country,” Fedora said. “He’s 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, can run, make you miss and catch the ball in traffic. That’s a problem.”"
Elons passing game is overall is pretty good and they have not ranked any lower than 23rd in the nation in passing offense over the last six seasons. Other than Mellette, Elon doesn’t pose much in terms of a threat to Carolina. By all measures, this match up against the 1-AA school shouldn’t be more than a tuneup for UNC.
The competition level simply isn’t there in this match up to take much away from the game, no matter how it goes. UNC should win this game by 25 plus points easily. But even if they do, it doesn’t mean much when your playing a 1-AA team. The key in this game is establishing tempo, paying attention to detail and executing assignments correctly and learning from their mistakes for the UNC players.
I’m most interested in how the offensive pace will look. Fedoras team averaged 74 offensive plays last season, 17 more than UNC, keeping up with the pace will be a challenge. How quarterback Bryn Renner handles the offense, how quickly he gets the team in their sets and how much he is in tune with his thin wide receiver core will be interesting to see.
Look for Carolina to run the ball a lot on Saturday. Fedora has said that returning star Giovanni Bernard along with Romar Morris and AJ Blue will all get the ball and coach has said he will give it to the hot hand this season. With Bernard returning punts and the inferior competition, look for Morris to get his first extended look. UNC has three very talented RBs, how each players talents are utilized this season will be an interesting storyline to follow this season.
On defense I’m not necessarily looking for who makes the most plays on the field. I’m looking for who steps up as a leader of the defense. Who gets the younger players in position when confusion sets in, who is vocal out on the field when they see something at the line of scrimmage and who has the best grasp of this new defensive scheme.
The real main goal for Carolina has to be avoiding injury. In a game that shouldn’t pose much competition on the field, keeping players off the injury report will be the real victory on Saturday. UNC already has depth issues at several positions and cannot afford to have players miss time due to injury.