UNC Football: Jay Bateman shoulders blame for loss to Georgia Tech

UNC football defensive coordinator Jay Bateman is shouldering the blame for the Tar Heels’ embarrassing loss to Georgia Tech.

The North Carolina Tar Heels turned in another terrible performance last weekend en route to an embarrassing 23-point loss to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Their record fell to 2-2 in the process, and basically any hope for them to accomplish anything of great magnitude this season went down the drain.

That is, if you had the kind of aspirations for the Tar Heels that they began the season with. Hopes of a potential College Football Playoff appearance, ACC supremacy and even a junior quarterback’s bid for Heisman, all quickly fell apart within the first month of the season.

Even after their sluggish and disappointing season-opening defeat to Virginia Tech, the Tar Heels had an opportunity to do some damage in the ACC Coastal Division that could have potentially led to a conference title game. But even with most of the conference struggling and seemingly leaving the door open for anyone to come in and take the crown, North Carolina hasn’t given anyone any reason to think that they can.

It was bad football all around for the Tar Heels, from the offensive line, to Sam Howell’s inability to hold on to the football, to receivers that can’t get open and even the play-calling. But the defense looked especially bad against the Yellow Jackets, and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman said following the game that the loss is on him.

"“We had some major, major errors,” Bateman said. “There were three runs for about 150 yards [for Georgia Tech], and on all three we had a guy not execute the way we want him to execute. So I think that’s part of it. And that is on me. That’s my job to make sure they’re in the right gap and they’re doing their job. And I think that’s where we’ve got to make strides.”"

At this point, two losses in and apparently in a tailspin, it doesn’t fall on just one unit for the Tar Heels. Pretty much everything has been bad. But if they have any hopes of appearing in a bowl game this season, they’re going to have to get it together. They face an upstart Blue Devils squad on Saturday that hung 52 points on their opponent last weekend. A victory over their arch rival would send them to 4-1 on the season, and further frustrate a floundering UNC team that’s already reeling.

We’ll find out which North Carolina team takes the field this Saturday when they welcome rival Duke to Kenan Memorial Stadium for a noon kickoff. Check back with Keeping It Heel for that, and everything UNC football.