In a season where the North Carolina football team’s injury report is nearly long enough to field a complete team, it’s only natural for production to fall off.
But aside from the obvious loss of on-field productivity — headlined by senior wide receivers Austin Proehl and Thomas Jackson, the Tar Heels have been forced to move forward and allow backups and younger players to step up.
Offensive coordinator Chris Kapilovic is still trying to find the right balance between running his normal offense and finding capable players on a roster that continues to thin.
“With a lot of the different combinations we have right now, we have to adjust some of the things that we do," he said. "Figuring out the guys that can make some plays, that have the experience to do it, and try to get the ball in their hands best we can.”
Kapilovic estimated that the Tar Heels are currently employing 60 percent of the package they would run at full strength, which naturally limits the explosiveness of what has been an elite offense in past years.
But he refused to blame these simplified packages after the 1-4 Tar Heels managed just seven points in Saturday’s loss to Georgia Tech. Instead, he cited turnovers and converting third downs as issues in need of correction.
“Offensive football is execution,” he said. “I don’t care what you run or how you do it. There’s a lot of ways to do it.”
First-year running back Michael Carter echoed his coach, adding that the onus falls on the players on the field to make the plays.
“It’s not necessarily what we run," he said. "It’s how we run it. At the end of the day, a run’s gonna be a run and a pass is going to be a pass.”
