New UNC football defensive coach Gene Chizik works to help Heels, one drill at a time
Once upon a time, Gene Chizik showed up at the University of North Carolina, schemed a way to plug holes in what had been a porous defense, and helped the Tar Heels find success.
That was seven years ago.
UNC head coach Mack Brown hopes it’s also happening in real time these days.
UNC’s defensive coordinator in 2015 and 2016 for a pair of bowl teams, including the school’s lone ACC championship game appearance in 2015, Chizik is less than a week of practices into his second stint in that job.
His work dramatically improved what had been, statistically, one of the nation’s worst defenses in 2014 into a unit that fueled winning seasons the next two years. After stepping away from coaching, Chizik, 60, answered Brown’s call last January to return to coach the Tar Heels defenders once again.
Just a repeat performance, right? Not exactly, Chizik said.
“That has nothing to do with it,” Chizik said following UNC’s practice Wednesday. “I don’t think about that. This is a new group. This is a new challenge, a new, exciting move for me. So that’s a distant memory. I loved every minute of it. I loved the kids we coached, but that never comes into mind.”
Just as UNC was ranked 120th in the nation in yards allowed per game (497.8) in 2014, the season before Chizik’s first arrival, the Tar Heels were 95th last season while allowing 418 yards per game.
So Chizik is hard at work again, focusing first on fundamentals in drills that carry over into 11-on-11 work in practice.
“I think we’ve gotten better,” Chizik said “I think after five days, it’s really starting to show up. Like I tell them, when we do something out there on a drill, if it’s not showing up in 11-on-11, either we’re not teaching right or you don’t understand what we want you to do. That’s the whole purpose of the drills. But the accumulation of the drills is starting to come alive. I’m seeing it in practice.”
One thing unique to Chizik’s second stint at UNC is a new position in his defense, which is called jack. Think of jack like a defensive end/linebacker combo, a speedy, strong athlete.
“It’s basically an edge rusher,” Chizik said. “He’s got the ability to drop as a pass-coverage guy, as well. But his main job is to set the edges of the defense, meaning nothing gets outside of him.”
Currently standing out at the position, Chizik said, are Virginia transfer Noah Taylor and fellow graduate student Chris Collins.
“When it’s time to rush the passer, we gotta get some miles out of those guys,” Chizik said. “We put a premium, since the day I got here, on being able to impact the pass with a four-man pass rush. We’re not going to live in the pressure world to be able to try to bring the (quarterback) down. We have really big athletic good frames up front. We got to make those big guys work. So jack is part of that.”
Chizik mentioned redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Kendrick Bingley-Jones and junior defensive lineman Myles Murphy as standouts to this point of practice.
The Tar Heels open the season Aug. 27 at home against Florida A&M, followed by road games the next two Saturdays at Appalachian State and Georgia State.
This story was originally published August 4, 2022 at 5:47 AM with the headline "New UNC football defensive coach Gene Chizik works to help Heels, one drill at a time."