UNC Football First Impressions: I Like the 4-2-5 Defense

UNCs new defensive scheme the 4-2-5 featuring hybrid positions the bandit and ram debuted in Kenan Stadium for Carolina on Saturday against Elon Phoenix.  The defense played terrific football all game long shutting out the 1-AA Elon team.

Personally I was pretty worried about a few things with the implementation of this new defense.  The defensive backfields youth, which remains a concern but one that was eased with a great day against a good passing team with NFL talent at the wide receiver position.  Jabari Price had a great day with an interception and good coverage on his man all day long.

Elon wide receiver Aaron Mellette came into the game with 207 career catches and 26 touchdowns.  He’s a big, fast receiver who runs his routes well, catches the ball in traffic and is dangerous in the open field.  Basically a recipe for disaster against a defensive backfield that features four freshman of the eight DBs on the roster.

UNC neutralized Mellette and made him a non factor in the game by putting a safety, mostly Tre Boston over the top against him no matter where he lined up.  Price did a great job all day of anticipating where the QB was going with the football and making plays.

Elon finished the game with just 128 yards passing and two interceptions.  Elon is a 1-AA school and you can’t judge the Heels on this game.  At the same time, Elon is a very good passing team and the Heels shut them down.  The idea of this defense is to utilize the team speed and swarm the football.  The bandit and ram positions are there to put more speed upfront around the football and it worked well.

UNC for the most part looked like they knew what they were doing on the field.  No small victory considering this is a vastly different defense than any of the players on this roster have ever played in.  Players fulfilled their assignments and got to the football in a hurry.

UNC also played hard for four quarters which is sometimes difficult to do when you are playing with such a large lead for most of the game. The defensive line was probably the most impressive unit on defense, tackle Sylvester Williams looked awesome all game long harassing the QB in the backfield and making plays on the ball carrier.

The front end of the defense looks like it has a lot of potential to be very good this season as long as they can stay away from the injury bug.  The pressure is still on the backfield, although they had a good game against a good passing team, they need to prove it against better competition week after week.  Expect teams to challenge UNCs passing defense and put pressure on the young unit.

Kevin Reddick looked the part of being the Heels new leader up front.  The linebacker is the most talented defensive play maker left on the roster and must step up big and be a consistent rock out there.

It’s just one game and it was only a 1-AA opponent, but if the Tar Heel players can play the type of mental game they played on Saturday against Elon, this defense can get the job done.  If they can continue to play together, swarm the ball and most importantly, fill their assignments as the scheme gets more complex against better competition, they could really surprise some people.

What did you think of the UNC defensive performance?  What do you expect to see from them the remainder of the season?