UNC Football: Can Tar Heels defense play better in 2016?
Will UNC’s defense improve again in 2016?
If there is one thing that has held UNC back in football, it has been defense.
In 2014, the Defense was bad. I mean really bad. Like flag football bad.
In 2014 the Carolina defense allowed opponents to score 36.9 points per game. They allowed teams to pass for 257.4 yards per game and rush for 240.5 yards per game while allowing teams to total over 500 total yards per game seven times.
The only thing the defense did well was get turnovers, forcing 23 that season.
In 2015, the defense was better. They allowed opponents to score only 24.5 points per game, while only allowing 183.7 passing yards per game. They also forced three more turnovers last season and only allowed over 500 yards of total offense four times. The only area the defense didn’t improve was against the run where it allowed 255.2 yards per game.
In fact the defense would’ve looked better overall if not for the last three games of the season. Three of the four games they allowed over 500 total yards came in those three games, including the only two games they allowed over 600 total yards.
In those three games they allowed their opponents to score 128 points and gain 1878 total yards, including a whopping 1272 yards on the ground. If you subtract those three games from the season, the defense allowed five less points and 51 less total yards (46 of those on the ground) per game.
So what made the difference as most of the players were the same? The obvious and most impactful change was the hiring of Gene Chizik to coach the defense.
The first thing Chizik did was switch the team from a 4-2-5 defense to a 4-3 defense.
The 4-3 defense on the whole is less complicated and the roles of the players are more defined. This led to better tackling and sounder fundamentals.
The other thing that helped the defense was the offense.
The offense improved its drive lengths. This helped cut back the number of times the defense took the field. Last season Carolina played one more game and held teams to the same number of drives as the season before.
That works out to almost one less drive per game. That one less drive for the defense to contain the offense can be huge in winning the game.
Actually that extra game also worked against the Heels as well. As has been noted, due to the penalties from the Butch Davis area, Carolina’s team was thinner due to scholarship restrictions.
That lack of depth caught up to Carolina at the end of the season which can be seen in the defensive discrepancies. That wear and tear is one of the reasons Naz Jones got injured, which had a huge impact on Baylor running all over the Heels defense.
So the question becomes, can Carolina improve on defense again in 2016? There are definitely some positive signs to believe that they will.
The first is that Chizik has another full spring with the defense.
Terminology and plays only get better with consistency. Last season Chizik wanted to focus on tackling and the fundamentals. This season he can take most of that same group and had some nuances that change the way they do so basic football plays.
The second sign is that not only does Carolina return six starters from the defense, they also return a lot of the backups, some of whom will be starters and rotational players this season.
Carolina has 19 defensive players returning who played in at least five games last season. In 2015 that was a lot of inexperience. In 2016 that is a lot of depth. Depth will allow the defense to play solid for much longer in the season.
Carolina still has one major weakness. Most of the players on the team were originally recruited to play in the 4-2-5 hybrid defense Fedora had installed when he arrived. This is why Carolina’s strength is in the secondary and weakness is in the LB core.
This can lead to poor tackling and hurt the chances for quick three and outs that get defenses off the field.
Despite this Carolina’s defense has a great chance to improve in 2016. The defense needs to continue to develop quality depth and keep teams out of the end zone.
Those improvements could be the difference on whether UNC repeats as Coastal Champions and dark horse playoff contenders again this upcoming season.