CHAPEL HILL – UNC defensive coordinator Gene Chizik met with the media following Wednesday’s practice to talk about his units performance in the win at Georgia Tech and other things.
Here is what the coach had to say:
Q: After Georgia Tech’s third possession the other day, did you see the D starting to get it even though we weren’t seeing the results on the field?
Chizik: I felt like with each possession, as bad as the results were, I felt like we were starting to get a feel for the speed of the game, because that’s the biggest challenge. You work it out here, and the speed that your scout team can provide is not the same. I think it was a combination of them seeing the game better and getting a feel for the speed of the game better with the quarterback and what the offensive line was doing coming off the ball and cutting and things like that. It was a little bit of that and a little bit of some tweaks here and there that we had to do to get things back under control.
Q: Was there a moment or a sequence where you thought, ‘Okay, I think they’ve got it, now’
Chizik: There were a couple of disappointing series in the first half where I thought we could have gotten off the field where they just made the plays and we didn’t. There were some other instances where we were out of position. So it was kind of a scramble at that point to get everybody settled down. At halftime it was more, ‘Look, these are the two things that are hurting us, this is how we have to go back and adjust and play them.’ Just tweak it, we didn’t make any overhauls, wholesale changes, and they got it. They understood it. Because the last thing you can do, especially against a team like that, is to panic and do all kinds of things that you don’t have a comfort level with. So we had to stay within the realm of what we did and just explain to them what was happening and how to fix those couple of things, and then I thought it showed up at the beginning of the second half. And I think they had more confidence as well once they could see it in play.
Q: Did you notice any panic in those guys when they were down 21-0?
Chizik: I really didn’t, I really didn’t. Now, I’m up in the box but I’m always in tune to what do they look like, what’s their body language like, the whole deal. So I’m always in tune to that. Being able to come down at halftime and look in their eyes see their demeanor, and things of that nature, and that’s one thing I’ve got to give these guys a lot of credit, and we’ve talked about this since day one: Focus through the chaotic moments, cause there’s going to be plenty of them, and lets get back to fixing problems. Lets not get all discombobulated mentally, lets zero in on the problems, and fix the problem. That’s not just Georgia Tech, that’s everybody. But my point is that I’ve seen that different times in the season that have been encouraging, this game particularly, because if you’re ever going to tank it, it’s going to be when you’re down 21-0 and they did not do that. They weren’t even close to that look or that body demeanor, one of that. That’s been encouraging.
Q: What has been the biggest change you’ve noticed since you arrived here?
Chizik: Um, they’re very attentive, they’ve very focused and locked in on what we’re asking them to do. It doesn’t mean that it’s perfect, but what’s encouraging is that I feel like we’re building a foundation of concepts that they understand. And every defense is not going to be perfect for every offense. So, as I tell them all the time, ‘If I call a bad defense and you execute it well, we have a chance to survive. If I make a great call and we execute it poorly, we have no change to survive.’ That’s the basic premise of defense. So they understand concepts, and you can apply that to just about every offense. If there’s any outlier it would be Georgia Tech. But concepts are what we’re trying to do. They understand it, even when things are going bad. Because if you don’t understand the concept and where it’s going wrong you can’t fix it. And that’s what’s been good with these guys as a whole group. If that makes sense. And, I think week by week we’ll continue to understand and build concepts more, but up to this point in time I think they’ve done a really nice job with it.
Q: For Junior (Gnonkonde), who committed to Georgia Tech, how do you think the way he played meant to him?
Chizik: I wasn’t aware of that (committing to GT). Well, now that you told me that I’m sure it meant a lot. So that’s a good thing, I hope it meant a lot to him. He’s been banged up and he hasn’t really had all of the practice time in the last couple of weeks, so it was nice to see him do some things, especially the fumble recovery was a game-changing play. He’s doing well, he’s progressed, he needs to continue to stay healthy. But I’m sure he felt great about it being a part of a really great win. Because you know, like I tell these guys all the time, it’s not always just that you in, that is the bottom line, but a lot of times during seasons it’s how you win. O I told the team in the defensive meeting I’m prouder of them after coming back from 21-0 – I don’t prefer to do that very often – I’m more proud of them being able to accomplish that than if we started from the beginning and dominated the game the whole way. Now, I would prefer that, but when you’re able to pull out something in the fashion when you’re down 21-0, the percentage of teams that can do that across the country is probably less than 2 percent. It just doesn’t happen. So I was really proud of the way the win unfolded, especially when things didn’t look good.
Here is what the coach had to say:
Q: After Georgia Tech’s third possession the other day, did you see the D starting to get it even though we weren’t seeing the results on the field?
Chizik: I felt like with each possession, as bad as the results were, I felt like we were starting to get a feel for the speed of the game, because that’s the biggest challenge. You work it out here, and the speed that your scout team can provide is not the same. I think it was a combination of them seeing the game better and getting a feel for the speed of the game better with the quarterback and what the offensive line was doing coming off the ball and cutting and things like that. It was a little bit of that and a little bit of some tweaks here and there that we had to do to get things back under control.
Q: Was there a moment or a sequence where you thought, ‘Okay, I think they’ve got it, now’
Chizik: There were a couple of disappointing series in the first half where I thought we could have gotten off the field where they just made the plays and we didn’t. There were some other instances where we were out of position. So it was kind of a scramble at that point to get everybody settled down. At halftime it was more, ‘Look, these are the two things that are hurting us, this is how we have to go back and adjust and play them.’ Just tweak it, we didn’t make any overhauls, wholesale changes, and they got it. They understood it. Because the last thing you can do, especially against a team like that, is to panic and do all kinds of things that you don’t have a comfort level with. So we had to stay within the realm of what we did and just explain to them what was happening and how to fix those couple of things, and then I thought it showed up at the beginning of the second half. And I think they had more confidence as well once they could see it in play.
Q: Did you notice any panic in those guys when they were down 21-0?
Chizik: I really didn’t, I really didn’t. Now, I’m up in the box but I’m always in tune to what do they look like, what’s their body language like, the whole deal. So I’m always in tune to that. Being able to come down at halftime and look in their eyes see their demeanor, and things of that nature, and that’s one thing I’ve got to give these guys a lot of credit, and we’ve talked about this since day one: Focus through the chaotic moments, cause there’s going to be plenty of them, and lets get back to fixing problems. Lets not get all discombobulated mentally, lets zero in on the problems, and fix the problem. That’s not just Georgia Tech, that’s everybody. But my point is that I’ve seen that different times in the season that have been encouraging, this game particularly, because if you’re ever going to tank it, it’s going to be when you’re down 21-0 and they did not do that. They weren’t even close to that look or that body demeanor, one of that. That’s been encouraging.
Q: What has been the biggest change you’ve noticed since you arrived here?
Chizik: Um, they’re very attentive, they’ve very focused and locked in on what we’re asking them to do. It doesn’t mean that it’s perfect, but what’s encouraging is that I feel like we’re building a foundation of concepts that they understand. And every defense is not going to be perfect for every offense. So, as I tell them all the time, ‘If I call a bad defense and you execute it well, we have a chance to survive. If I make a great call and we execute it poorly, we have no change to survive.’ That’s the basic premise of defense. So they understand concepts, and you can apply that to just about every offense. If there’s any outlier it would be Georgia Tech. But concepts are what we’re trying to do. They understand it, even when things are going bad. Because if you don’t understand the concept and where it’s going wrong you can’t fix it. And that’s what’s been good with these guys as a whole group. If that makes sense. And, I think week by week we’ll continue to understand and build concepts more, but up to this point in time I think they’ve done a really nice job with it.
Q: For Junior (Gnonkonde), who committed to Georgia Tech, how do you think the way he played meant to him?
Chizik: I wasn’t aware of that (committing to GT). Well, now that you told me that I’m sure it meant a lot. So that’s a good thing, I hope it meant a lot to him. He’s been banged up and he hasn’t really had all of the practice time in the last couple of weeks, so it was nice to see him do some things, especially the fumble recovery was a game-changing play. He’s doing well, he’s progressed, he needs to continue to stay healthy. But I’m sure he felt great about it being a part of a really great win. Because you know, like I tell these guys all the time, it’s not always just that you in, that is the bottom line, but a lot of times during seasons it’s how you win. O I told the team in the defensive meeting I’m prouder of them after coming back from 21-0 – I don’t prefer to do that very often – I’m more proud of them being able to accomplish that than if we started from the beginning and dominated the game the whole way. Now, I would prefer that, but when you’re able to pull out something in the fashion when you’re down 21-0, the percentage of teams that can do that across the country is probably less than 2 percent. It just doesn’t happen. So I was really proud of the way the win unfolded, especially when things didn’t look good.
