Baylor ran down UNC’s throat 84 times, amassing 645 rushing yards on 7.7 yards per carry. The Tar Heel defense also allowed the Bears to score seven rushing touchdowns.
UNC defensive coordinator Gene Chizik said he watched that Baylor game eight or nine times this offseason. Junior linebacker Cayson Collins said that game, and memories of the poor run defense, stayed with the team all summer.
“We’ve still kind of had that taste in our mouth,” Collins said. “The coaching staff still, we’ve talked about that (Baylor game), and they’ve said that’s something that haunts them every day.”
Junior safety Donnie Miles watched some of the game tape from last season before training camp, and he said it made him sick.
“I needed to see that (Baylor game) and the Clemson game,” Miles said. “I looked at it and broke it down and (have) seen where I could have been better, how I could have made plays for my team to prevent some of the things that happened when things broke down.”
Much of North Carolina’s run defense does fall on Miles when things break down. From the safety position, he makes the tackle when the running back gets past the defensive line and linebackers. That happened all too often last season, as Miles led the team in tackles with 128. Only two were tackles for loss.
This offseason, the Tar Heels lost their next two leading tacklers from 2015 — linebackers Shakeel Rashad and Jeff Schoettmer — to graduation. In to replace them are Andre Smith and Cole Holcomb, along with returning starter Collins.
One of the main priorities for the new linebacking core is cutting down on leaky yardage — what Chizik defines as yards the opposing running backs get after contact. Finishing tackles could save two or three yards per run, and that adds up over the course of a game.
