UNC football hopes defensive connections pay off in new hires
For all the changes in store for North Carolina’s defense, there sure is a familiar feel from football coach Mack Brown’s hiring of assistant head coach for defense Gene Chizik and co-defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Charlton Warren.
Just don’t call it a comeback — they’ve been connected for years. Both Chizik and Warren served on Larry Fedora’s staff in Chapel Hill for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Brown re-introduced them in a video conference with the media on Thursday.
Chizik, who led Auburn to the 2010 national title, is also a former defensive coordinator under Brown on his 2006 national championship team at Texas. Brown said Chizik was, “one of the best at defense that I’ve ever seen.”
And he was the first person Brown had in mind after the decision to let go former co-defensive coordinator Jay Bateman, who had held the position since Brown’s return in 2019.
“Immediately I picked up the phone and called a guy that I trust and I care about deeply with his family that we won a national championship together at Texas in Gene Chizik,” Brown said. “And I honestly said to Gene, ‘I’m going to make a change. Jay and I mutually agreed to split, would you like this job?’ And he said yes.”
Chizik hasn’t coached since he was last in Chapel Hill, taking a path similar to Brown back to Chapel Hill. He was an ESPN college football analyst primarily appearing on the SEC Network. During that span, Chizik said he was able to be more active in the offseason in meeting with coaches to brainstorm offensive and defensive concepts. That allowed him to keep up with changes in the game.
Chizik is in a small circle of six active coaches — including Brown — who have won a national title as a head coach. Brown said he turned down several opportunities to become a head coach again during his time away from football. Chizik said during his hiring process there was no talk of potentially being a coach-in-waiting for when the 70-year-old Brown retires.
“I want to put a great defense on the field for the University of North Carolina and Mack Brown and that’s all that I care about,” Chizik said. “That’s all I focus on. There’s been zero discussion about that (coach-in-waiting). We will have zero discussions about that. I’m just blessed to be back here.”
Brown said Chizik didn’t ask anything about the job duties, not even the salary, but he did ask if he could bring Warren with him, too. Chizik called Warren, “one of the smartest guys I’ve ever been around.”
Warren, who served as Indiana’s defensive coordinator last season, said his relationship with Chizik began back in 2015 when he made a cold call to inquire about joining Chizik’s defensive staff at UNC. He now considers Chizik to be a mentor who he’s consulted through the years about career moves and defensive philosophies.
“I adopted some of his principles that I learned back then to guide me, so I think we’re really synced up,” Warren said. “There is no ‘get-to-know-each-other’ steps. There’s no honeymoon. We’re going right to it. So I’m looking forward to working with him and hitting the ground running.”
Warren has a similar bond with cornerbacks coach Dre Bly. During Warren’s first stint at UNC, Bly was just trying to get into coaching. Warren said he’d sit in on coaching meetings with Warren and shadowed him during camp.
Warren said although they coach different positions, he planned on having a lot of joint meetings with Bly and the cornerbacks to keep everyone on the same accord.
“Him and I built a relationship back then that sort of got him going in coaching,” Warren said. “And since then, as I left, and he became a coach. We communicated on different things: techniques, scheme, just questions about the business. So we have a tremendous relationship.”
Chizik and Warren join a unit that finished ranked 11th in the ACC in total defense and 13th in scoring defense. Their challenge is to make the Heels more consistent as a defense. The last two games in particular highlighted Carolina’s problems defensively.
The Heels allowed N.C. State to rally from a nine-point deficit in the final two minutes of the game thanks in part to a blown pass coverage. They watched South Carolina roll up a season-high 301 rushing yards in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl while using a receiver who hadn’t played quarterback since high school.
Chizik, who said he didn’t watch the bowl loss, said he is out to earn the players trust while creating a “culture of trust” on defense.
“If you’re not good at a combat, attack mindset, if you’re not good at tackling, if you’re not disciplined and accountable to where and how you fit in the defense, you have no defense,” Chizik said. “... I’m certainly going to tweak add to and change the things that I think need to be done to give us the best chance to win on a weekly basis.”
This story was originally published January 13, 2022 at 6:22 PM with the headline "UNC football hopes defensive connections pay off in new hires."