UNC football leaders issued challenge of accountability to defense — and it worked
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina's defense turned a month's worth of frustration into the first complete performance of the 2022 season Saturday.
The Tar Heels entered the dreary, rainy, post-Hurricane Ian afternoon at Kenan Stadium giving up an average of 495.2 yards and 39.5 points on defense through four non-conference games. But those trends were drastically reduced in a 41-10 rout of Virginia Tech that kicked off UNC's ACC schedule.
The Hokies (2-3, 1-1) gained just 273 yards of total offense and only 92 after halftime. The Tar Heels (4-1, 1-0) also limited Tech to 99 yards rushing, which was a significant improvement for a defense yielding an average of 193 in its first four outings.
"Defensively, we saw a (complete) game where we've been seeing quarters,'' UNC coach Mack Brown said after Saturday's win, which was his 268th overall and 94th with the Tar Heels. "They put a whole game together.''
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The performance was somewhat unexpected in the wake of North Carolina's demoralizing defensive effort the week before against Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish rattled the Tar Heels in a 45-32 win by running through and passing over their defense for 35 first downs, an average of 5.6 yards per rush and 576 total yards. Things got so bad in the second half for UNC that cornerback Tony Grimes took a swing at linebacker Noah Taylor after he confronted Grimes following a blatant late hit penalty.
The situation led to a players-only meeting among the defense Sunday. Junior defensive lineman Kaimon Rucker and sophomore linebacker Power Echols organized the meeting to discuss the team's problems.
"It was about accountability among players,'' Rucker said.
"The biggest message we had was we have to be better,'' said junior linebacker Cedric Gray, who led UNC with eight tackles and had an interception. "We can't be a liability on defense. That was one of the big things. And we just talked about what we need to do better.
"It (meeting) was calm, but we could tell everyone was tensed up. Everybody was pissed off about what we did. I think everybody was on the same page that we have to get better.''
And they did, coming up especially big in the third quarter when they surrendered just 33 yards while the offense scored 17 points to a 24-10 halftime lead into a 31-point advantage.
"I think not allowing them to score in the first five minutes of the second half changed the tempo of the game for Virginia Tech,'' Rucker said. "We saw their confidence go down and they started hanging their heads. So stopping them in the third quarter was very important.''
The Tar Heels aren't ready to proclaim their defensive problems solved. After all, Virginia Tech isn't exactly an offensive juggernaut. The Hokies were only averaging 18.2 points and scored just 10 for the second straight game.
But they'll head into next Saturday's game at Miami (4 p.m., ESPN2) having taken a positive step on defense after weeks of frustration.
"There have definitely been some games this year, even some that we won, that left a little sick feeling in your stomach,'' Gray said. "I don't have that today. I'm happy.
"I think if we can keep building on this the rest of the season you're going to see a really good defense out there.''
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: UNC football Cedric Gray says improved defense due to accountability
