‘It’s a big man’s game.’ UNC’s Gene Chizik wants faster, more physical defensive play

North Carolina has adopted a defensive mantra this season: “Violence and speed.”

Be aggressive. Play fast. Make the play. Make big plays.

The Tar Heels did that at times last season but not enough times. While the Appalachian State game was a defensive disaster — 61 points allowed, 40 in the fourth quarter — there were other moments in games where better effort and better defensive execution would have made a difference.

Gene Chizik doesn’t shy away from any of the criticism. Chizik, UNC’s assistant head coach for defense, also expects better play in 2023, saying there’s more of a comfortability among the players with the style of defense and the schemes he wants to play.

Chizik, speaking Thursday to the media, said he noticed it in spring ball and in the early practices of preseason camp.

“We’re you’re now in Year 2, obviously everybody will expect everything to be better, right?” he said. “I think it’s like anything. The more you get accustomed to calls and adjustments and things of that nature, then naturally our expectation is to play faster. I feel like, so far in camp, when you stack the reps from the spring and camp together, we are playing faster.”

There’s not as much thinking, he said. Not as much “analysis paralysis,” as he put it. It’s more about instinctively flowing into the play and making the play.

“I think removing the gray on a lot of things that maybe weren’t clear, or as clear as they might be, has enabled us to play faster, play more violent,” Chizik said.

Chizik’s first year heading up the defense for head coach Mack Brown was not a smooth one. It came after being away from coaching football for five years, spending time as an analyst on the SEC Network. He’s quick to note offenses had changed, with new formation wrinkles and bigger doses of run/pass options (RPOs), and that he had to make adjustments in the 2022 season.

“Gene was behind when he got here. He’s caught up and he’s ready to go,” Brown said last week.

While the final defensive numbers for 2022 were skewed by the App State debacle — a game the Tar Heels won 63-61 in Boone — UNC finished last in the ACC in scoring defense (30.8 points a game) and total defense (436.5 yards). The Heels had 17 sacks in 14 games, the fewest in the league.

Brown said Chizik, who won a national championship as head coach at Auburn in 2010, has been carrying around a “huge chip on his shoulder” after last season.

“He’s tired of hearing how bad we are, and I like that,” Brown said. “I throw it out there every now and then just to make him more mad.”

Chizik, 61, didn’t dispute the “chip,” saying, “I’ve always coached that way. Any competitor, when you don’t like the result, you have an edge, right? You have an edge, the players should have an edge, all the coaches should have an edge. Mack should have an edge. I should have an edge.

“We all should because we’re all responsible for production and results. It’s a big man’s game. You have to have big shoulders, right? When you play bad, you stink. It is what it is and you’ve got to fix it.”

The hoarseness in Chizik’s voice Thursday was evidence he has conveyed all that to his players. There is, he said, a sense of urgency — for everyone on defense. There’s better communication. There’s better technique.

“It’s an understanding on what we want on the details,” Chizik said.

The Tar Heels have talent and defensive playmakers. Senior middle linebacker Cedric Gray — “He’s an alpha,” Chizik said — has been named to the preseason watch list for the Butkus Award, given annually to the nation’s top linebacker.

In the course of a 20-minute session with the media, Chizik also touched on such players as transfer cornerback Alijah Huzzie (“He’s been really exciting to watch and a very talented kid”) and freshman linebacker Amare Campbell (“A very physical player and really, really smart”).

Asked who could take a “big jump” in their play this season, he mentioned Kaimon Rucker, Myles Murphy and Desmond Evans as the Heels look for better, more effective play up front.

“There were times last year when we played bad and we stunk, and there were times when we played good,” Chizik said. “We just didn’t do it consistently. Our job is to produce consistently and put a better product on the field.”