UNC Football: Five x-factors for Carolina in 2017
By Alec Lasley
Defensive Consistency
Gene Chizik is no longer the head of the defense. John Papuchis takes control and looks to make the Carolina defense the great defense it has the ability to become.
Over the past two seasons, they have jumped up 60 spots in total defense, while still having glaring holes.
Yes, the Tar Heels lose two of their leaders in Naz Jones and Des Lawrence, but they return a lot of their star players.
Led by senior cornerback M.J. Stewart, the Carolina secondary once again has all the skill to be a terrific passing defense. Senior Donnie Miles and sophomore Myles Dorn return, after starting most of last year, to their respective safety duties.
Dorn who had his struggles as a freshman, showed flashes of greatness at times and will look to build on those memories.
For Miles, he returns after having a great RS junior year when he had three games with 11 tackles, finishing the year third with 102 tackles.
In the middle of the defense, returns Andre Smith.
The junior finished second last year with 113 tackles and ranked seventh in the ACC with 8.7 tackles per game.
Cole Holcomb is also back for the Tar Heels. The former walk-on led the team with 115 tackles and ranked fifth in the ACC with 8.8 tackles per game.
There is no doubting the talent in the second and third tier’s of Carolina’s defense but the question marks come up front.
With Naz Jones gone, the leader of the front-four will be Malik Carney who looks to build off of his team-high 5.5 sacks last season.
Names who will look to step up are Jalen Dalton, Dajuan Drennon and Tyler Powell.
There is no doubting the skill and talent on the defensive side of the ball, but do they have what it takes to play a full 60 minutes? Carolina has shown flashes of greatness at times the past couple of years on defense, but are always hurt by their seemingly always inconsistent play.