Tarheels In The Draft

Eric Ebron led the Tarheels parade to the NFL by being the #10 overall pick in the First Round by the Detroit Lions. Ebron and Calvin Johnson on the field at the same time should give defenses in the NFC Central something to think about. Kareem Martin lasted until the Third Round when he was selected by the Arizona Cardinals. The next Tarheels were drafted in the 4th Round. Center Russell Bodine went to the Cincinnati Bengals and Tre Boston stayed local, going to the Carolina Panthers. Jabari Price lasted until the 7th round when he was selected by the Minnesota Vikings. The big surprise was that James Hurst was not drafted at all so the Baltimore Ravens got a steal when they signed him as an Undrafted Free Agent. Bryn Renner gets to try to take the next step in his career with the Denver Broncos. He signed with them as an Undrafted Free Agent and stands an excellent chance of making the team. Who better to learn the Quarterback position from than Peyton Manning?

The 2014 NFL Draft

The UNC Tarheels will be represented in the 2014 NFL Draft. Tarheel Tight End Eric Ebron is expected to go in the First Round, possibly being a Top Ten pick. Defensive End Kareem Martin is expected to go in the 2nd/3rd Round as is Offensive Lineman James Hurst. Quarterback Bryn Brenner has impressed in his pre-draft workouts and is being seriously looked at by the Minnesota Vikings who neeed help at that position. Center Russell Bodine is predicted to go in the last couple of rounds after declaring for the draft a year early. Defensive Backs Tre Boston and Jabari Price and Defensive Lineman Tim Jackson and Running Back A.J. Blue will at least get Free Agent looks after the draft is over. Good luck to all the 'Heels in this years draft.

The Belk Bowl

The UNC Tarheels played one of their best overall games of the year in the season finale against Cincinnati in the Belk Bowl rolling to a 39-17 win. The 'Heels were outgained in total yards by Cincinnati but they were able to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. Special Teams were extra special in this game. Punt Returner Ryan Switzer tied an NCAA record with his 5th punt return for a TD and this one went for 86 yards. This punt return may have been his best of the season. He fielded the punt as Cincinnati Bearcats were all around on him and one of the Bearcats appeared to touch Switzer on the back as he went by. Switzer calmly fielded the punt and went up the middle of the field to the End Zone for his history making return. The return also made ESPN's Top Ten plays for the night. Kick Returner T.J. Logan had a 76 yard kickoff return for a TD that showed off his speed and elusiveness. This kick return came after a Brandon Ellerbe sack in the end zone thqat resulted in a Safety. The Defense had 5 sacks in the game and the 'Heels came from everywhere on the blitz. Cincinnati had only allowed 12 sacks on the season. Tre Boston picked off his 5th pass of the season to finish off the game. The Cincinnati Bearcats 9-3 record was a little misleading. They did not beat a team with a winning record. The 'Heels still had a dominant performance against a team they should have beat. That is something they did not do early in the season. The win gave the 'Heels a 7-6 record on the season after a 1-5 start and because of the 'Heels reliance on Freshmen and Sophomores, the future looks much brighter in Chapel Hill.

The Announcers

I grew up watching college football and listening to the announcing of Keith Jackson, and after listening to the ACC Networks announcing duo of Steve Martin and Tim Brant call the Virginia-North Carolina game today, all I can say is "Damn, do I miss Keith Jackson!" The ACC has worked hard to do it but the ACC has finally found football's version of Dan Bonner. Steve Martin (and he is definitely not The Man With Two Brains, and Tim Brant's play-by-play and analysis of the game was astounding but not in a good way. Here are some excerpts from their expertise: On Virginia QB David Watford "He makes a great throw" right before Tre Boston of UNC was intercepting the ball; he stated that UNC instigated the sideline incident after #49 of Virginia got a personal foul penalty called on him for dumping Boston on his head well after the whistle had blown and they were both out of bounds, and one of the announcing crew then berated UNC for leaving most of their starters in the game when the score was 45-14. I know the UNC roster pretty well and I didn't even recognize most of the players that were in the game. About a minute later he announced that UNC had just about played everyone on the roster. There were several others but those were some of the more noticeable one's.

Speechless

North Carolina's 55-31 loss to East Carolina has left me speechless. They were dominated in every phase of the game. Once again, the Tarheel Defense got manhandled to the tune of over 600 yards. I have spoken out against the 4-2-5 defense and if this isn't proof that it needs to be scrapped after the season, I don't know what is. They gave up ground by the acre rather than by the yard. East Carolina ran 101 plays, had 267 yards rushing and 336 passing. The Tarheels only had 4 Quarterback hurries in 47 passing attempts by East Carolina QB Shane Carden. No sacks. None. One Interception by Tre Boston. The Offense only fared slightly better. Tarheel Running Back Romar Morris missed the game for an undisclosed reason, leaving the bulk of the carries to A.J. Blue. He had 20 carries for 68 yards but the holes were few and far between. The 'Heels only had 67 yards rushing as a team. QB Bryn Renner did throw for 366 yards and 3 TD's but over 200 yards and all 3 TD's came in the second half when East Carolina maintained at least a 17 point lead throughout the entire second half. North Carolina's young offensive line is having some serious growing pains. Some of North Carolina's young Wide Receivers did get in towards the end of the game and make some plays. Johnathan "Bug" Howard and Nic Platt both had TD catches. T.J. Thorpe had a solid game and Quinshad Davis had over 100 yards receiving and a 56 yard TD reception. The 'Heels have work to do to salvage this season.

Middle Tennessee State: The Good And The Bad

There were several good things that happened against Middle Tennessee State. One of the stats I was most impressed with was that 12 different receivers caught passes, including backup Quarterback Marquise Williams, who caught a 23 yard pass from Running Back A.J. Blue. They do have a lot of options at the Wide Receiver position. The 'Heels also had three running backs- Romar Morris, A.J. Blue, and true Freshman Khris Francis- that had ten carries in the game. The top rusher was Morris with 46 yards and none of the three broke any run longer than about 10 yards. Bryn Renner also had a strong game running the offense and as a fifth year Senior and in his second year in this offense, he has shown the ability to take charge of the many options in this offense. The defense came up with three turnovers in the Red Zone including Tre Boston's interception in the end zone. The play of Norkeithus Otis and Darius Lipford deserve special mention as well. I was also impressed with the play of true Freshman Dominic Green from the defensive backfield. The bad had to be the running game on both sides of the ball. The 'Heels only averaged a little over 3 yards a carry while giving up 5 yards a carry. The play of both lines left a lot of room for improvement. Luckily they have a week off before they take on ACC nemesis Georgia Tech.

First Impressions: North Carolina Vs. MTSU

It is hard for me to get excited about the North Carolina Tarheels 40-20 victory over Middle Tennessee State today. I thought their Offensive and Defensive lines got pushed around quite a bit by MTSU. MTSU has some talent on both sides of the ball and has been known to be an ACC killer before. Just ask Georgia Tech about last year's game. It if wasn't for three Red Zone turnovers by MTSU and a failed fourth and goal from the one yard line, it could have gotten very interesting at the end of the game. North Carolina did some good things and their offense and defense made some plays. Tre Boston's acrobatic end zone interception on MTSU's first drive of the game, Romar Morris' 26 yard Touchdown run for the 'Heels first score, Johnathan "Bug" Howard's leaping "Alley Oop" TD reception for their final score, and Norkeithus Otis and Darius Lipford being all over the field making tackles were several of the big plays that were made. Overall, the Offense had over 500 yards of total offense and the defense gave up over 400 yards. Head Coach Larry Fedora was worried about depth on both sides of the line going into the season and his worst fears are now being realized.

2012 Review- Defense

Coach Larry Fedora also brought a new defensive scheme with him, the 4-2-5, that was supposed to contain a "jail break" blitz philosophy. I was picturing a Pittsburgh Steelers type defensive scheme with a lot of sacks and wreaking total havoc on the other teams offense. It did not quite turn out that way. It became a situation where the coaching staff had to try to take the pieces they had and make them fit. Seniors Gene Robinson (Ram) and Dion Guy (Bandit) were put in positions that were new to the defense and had never played in that system before. The Tarheels defense was prone to allowing the big pass play and most of their games were high scoring affairs that never lacked for a dull moment. Depth, especially on the defensive line, was also problematic. They did not really have the depth to run the 4-2-5 system but they plowed ahead but allowed over 25 points a game but if you take out the two shutouts against Elon and Idaho, it rose to over 30 a game. Defensive Back Tre Boston led the team in tackles with 86 and tied for the team lead in interceptions with 4 but anytime you have a defensive back leasd the team in tackles you might have problems. Kevin Reddick was second on the team in tackles with 85 and led the team in sacks with 6 1/2 and had a solid senior season. Defensive Tackle Sylvester Williams was told he was too heavy by the new coaching staff and put in the work to lose 30 pounds before the season started. He had an All-American senior season and was second on the team in sacks with 6 and had 13 1/2 tackles for loss. Several underclassmen emerged with solid seasons. Junior LB Tommy Heffernan, Redshirt Freshmen Safety's Darien Rankin and Sam Smiley, and fellow first year Freshmen Shakeel Rashad, Justin Thomason, and Jessie Rogers all logged quality minutes this season. The off season will be key as Coach Fedora starts recruiting his own style players to fit this system.

A Target On Their Backs

The North Carolina Tarheels two best players are Running Back Gio Bernard and Defensive Tackle Sylvester Williams. With the attention Virginia paid to those two on Thursday night, they sure thought so. Bernard was held to 57 yards rushing but that opened up the passing game and allowed QB Bryn Renner to go 29 for 36 for 315 yards and a couple of TDs. Freshman WR Quinshad Davis was the big beneficiary as he had an ACC record tying 16 catches. He would have broke the record but backup QB Marquise Williams threw him a groundball on the final play of the game. DT Sylvester Williams was the object of double and triple teams and was still a disruptive force. Two plays in particular stood out in my mind with Sylvester Williams. The first was an unnecessary roughness penalty on #72 of Virginia (I didn't even bother looking his name up) in which he tried planting Sylvester Williams into the ground well after the play was over on a double team and the play was well away from him as well. The announcer described it as "finishing the block" and thought it was a bad call. The second play was not called but was a blatant cheap shot by the same #72. On Tre Boston's 36 yard interception return for a TD Sylvester Williams was engaged in a block with another Virginia lineman, and #72 had no intention of trying to tackle Boston on his way by. He singled out Williams and drilled him as Boston ran by. He made no effort to even take a swipe at Boston. #72 was going to make sure he got his cheap shots in.

Versus Georgia Tech- The Defense

There is not alot to say about the Tarheels defensive effort against Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets high powered triple option offense rolled up 312 yards rushing and had several long sustained drives that was the ultimate backbreaker for the 'Heels. They also had about 200 yards passing. I think the effort was there but the Yellow Jackets execution trumped that effort.

Tre Boston is turning into a playmaker for the North Carolina Tarheels defense. He recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass in this game and the 'Heels need to be able to turn defense into offense to be a contender this year.

Midseason report card

I have to give the Tarheels an "incomplete" for the midseason grades and I might as well give them an "incomplete" on the season as well. This grade is a direct result of the NCAA and academic mess that has become North Carolina Tarheel football in 2010. These problems are going to reach much farther than 2010. The 'Heels have been forced to play some freshmen, especially on defense, that more than likely would have been red-shirted this season. Players like Tre Boston, Jabari Price, Tim Jackson, and Kareem Martin could have used a year in the weight room but instead they are logging major minutes on the field. I must admit that coming into the season i believed that Quarterback T.J. Yates would have been supplanted by Redshirt Freshman Bryn Renner by the 3rd or 4th game. I have never been fond of Offensive Coordinator John Shoop's play calling, I think Yates holds on to the ball too long, and I don't understand half-ass play fakes on 3rd and 10, but throw in do everything back Johnny White and their offense has been better than expected. The suspensions have particularly hurt the defense but they have not played badly either. All of this basically adds up to a 4-3 record and makes you wonder "what might have been?" and I really hate that.