Q&A: A conversation with Matt Liberman ahead of UNC-Syracuse football matchup

The North Carolina football team (1-4, 1-2 ACC) will travel to Syracuse on Saturday Oct. 19 to take on the Orange (4-2, 1-2 ACC) in the Carrier Dome. Ahead of the matchup, Assistant Sports Editor Jack Frederick spoke with The Daily Orange football beat writer Matt Liberman about how the team's match up. 

The Daily Tar Heel: The Orange defense has struggled with the run the last few games. How do you see the UNC rushing attack matching up with them?

Matt Liberman: I think it matches up pretty well. I was looking at the offensive linemen for UNC and it seems to be pretty strong. The reason why Syracuse struggles so much in the run defense isn't necessarily that they're being overpowered by the offensive line, it's just they're missing gaps, they're not tackling. It's a lot of just simple things in terms of the angle that some linebackers and some of the safeties are taking when they're going for tackles. They get fooled by a lot of motion plays as well. Whenever there's a (run-pass option), they seem to always seem to get tripped up by it. 

Looking at the linebacking unit specifically, it's pretty rough. Whenever they play three linebackers, of the three linebackers, Andrew Armstrong is the only one who has played linebacker every year that he's been at Syracuse. The other ones, Ryan Guthrie was a defensive end when he transferred here, and then Kielan Whitner was a safety. So they're really still trying to get acclimated and they're not exactly prototypical linebackers.

DTH: Who are some key Syracuse players to watch for?

ML: Definitely Eric Dungey. I mean, he's a guy who can win a game on his own. Really at times he can be spectacular. Defensively, Kendall Coleman and Alton Robinson, the two defensive ends, — Robinson goes on the weak side, Coleman goes on the strong side — they're still top-10 in the country in sacks. Those are both guys that will likely play in the NFL, if I had to guess. Chris Slayton too, the defensive tackle, is a big body. He just commands double teams. 

Andre Cisco is top-five in the nation in interceptions, he has four on the season, and he's only a freshman. And it may seem weird to hear, but looking at special teams, Syracuse has the top special teams unit in the country and their kicker is No. 1 in the country right now in total points and in all field goal kickers with at least 10 kicks. And their punter Sterling Hofrichter might be the best punter in the nation.

DTH: What would it take from the UNC defense to slow down Dungey?

ML: Well it wouldn't necessarily be slowing down Dungey, it would be slowing down some of the wide receivers. They don't necessarily have a standup guy that they have in past years. It's a lot of mix and match. Yes, it's difficult to have to stop five to six guys they might go to, but if you can prevent one guy from having a big game that really is the key. 

In each game that they've won, they've always had one guy that would go off for 95 yards and a touchdown, or 120 yard on seven catches. Basically, I would say, taking out throws across the middle because he struggles when he has to go over the top sometimes on his deep route. If you can take the middle of the field away, that's when he sometimes struggles to throw and relies on his legs too much. 

DTH: With special teams as a real strength, how could that unit come into play in the outcome of the game?

ML: Their punting unit is dangerous. Sterling Horfichter has only had three touchbacks the entire season and they all came against Clemson. I mean, he pins guys inside the 5-yard line regularly. I'm pretty sure (nearly) half his punts have been inside the opponents' 20 and Syracuse started doing this thing with Jamal Custis, who is probably the team's top wide receiver. He is 6-foot-5, 220 pounds and he plays gunner, so he's the guy coming after you when you're trying to run a punt. It's not easy. A lot of guys have fumbled from it. Amari Rodgers from Clemson fumbled twice when Custis ran at him.

And then Syracuse can also kick field goals from 50 yards with really solid consistency. Syracuse can keep going beyond third down because they're so dangerous in both the punt and field goal unit. You've got to stop the run game right at the forefront and really limit Dungey's ability to go over the middle because then you can't use special teams nearly as much as you normally could.

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