All-22 Review of the 'Canes defense vs. UNC

[E1k]

What’s crazy is we had similar problems last year but we had players who just transferred here so they weren’t fully indoctrinated with what our scheme calls for, but now? The scheme is fully getting exposed

We blitzed a safety just as much last year, he did the same at Minnesota. Did this basic soft cushion spot drop zone coverage last year too, so not much has changed schematically.

Remember late in the notre dame game we almost let them back in the game because we were in a soft zone coverage, indiana took advantage of it, Louisville did it, a&m had some success but it was super windy and our dline dominated, ole miss had success…

None of these are new problems, im sure we self scouted because mario talks about it alot but if you self scout and things are playing out exactly how your scheme wants it to play out then you probably see no reason to change until it gets exposed even more

So only thing we can hope for fixing now is tackling and thats not a mid season problem you want to have

 

[skyman]

What’s crazy is we had similar problems last year but we had players who just transferred here so they weren’t fully indoctrinated with what our scheme calls for, but now? The scheme is fully getting exposed

We blitzed a safety just as much last year, he did the same at Minnesota. Did this basic soft cushion spot drop zone coverage last year too, so not much has changed schematically.

Remember late in the notre dame game we almost let them back in the game because we were in a soft zone coverage, indiana took advantage of it, Louisville did it, a&m had some success but it was super windy and our dline dominated, ole miss had success…

None of these are new problems, im sure we self scouted because mario talks about it alot but if you self scout and things are playing out exactly how your scheme wants it to play out then you probably see no reason to change until it gets exposed even more

So only thing we can hope for fixing now is tackling and thats not a mid season problem you want to have

Yea the spot dropping country cover 3 has always been there.. Thats why when you listen to Hetherman the main pillars of his defense is violence, physicality, communication, block destruction, swarm and tackling. Plays 3 deep to eliminate explosives, keep everything in front of you and rally to the ball and **** **** up..

Thats not hard to implement with a guy like Jakobe and Keionte, they gonna run to ball and crashout.. We can put the ND game on from last year and guys are tackling the screens and short stuff immediately. Yea Poyser is still missing tackles but you have others to clean up, guys are playing closer coverage and communicating and passing routes.. Now? Those habits are gone, you dont really see it, coverage is wayy looser, guys are bailing soo deep with nobody even threatening.. Idk if you can fix something you have let get to thise level..

 

[E1k]

Yea the spot dropping country cover 3 has always been there.. Thats why when you listen to Hetherman the main pillars of his defense is violence, physicality, communication, block destruction, swarm and tackling. Plays 3 deep to eliminate explosives, keep everything in front of you and rally to the ball and **** **** up..

Thats not hard to implement with a guy like Jakobe and Keionte, they gonna run to ball and crashout.. We can put the ND game on from last year and guys are tackling the screens and short stuff immediately. Yea Poyser is still missing tackles but you have others to clean up, guys are playing closer coverage and communicating and passing routes.. Now? Those habits are gone, you dont really see it, coverage is wayy looser, guys are bailing soo deep with nobody even threatening.. Idk if you can fix something you have let get to thise level..

Exactly I don’t see much fixing you can do. I think our only hope this year was oj being healthy so we could live in man more with him and eoc, that’s what helped alot in the playoffs.

Im hoping for a shift like there was for dawson after smu but dawson is a seasoned vet and one of the most versatile OCs in the country, so his philosophies can shift and the foundation can be the same but heatherman the foundation is leaky idk if you can save it

 

[OBLIVION]

We're eight games into the season, and the injury excuse is officially out the window. Lucas is back, EOC is out there, and on top of that, the guys who were once backups with little to no playing experience have now had plenty of opportunities to get meaningful snaps under their belts. At this point, there's more than enough experience and personnel available to expect better. We can't keep leaning on injuries as an excuse for what we're seeing. At this point, this is a coaching and execution problem.

Four games in a row, and you can throw in the second half against Wake Forest for good measure. This is a major problem. We're hemorrhaging yards and points on the defensive side of the ball, and eventually that's going to catch up with us. We can't expect the offense to bail us out every week, especially if they have a bad half or an off game. We got extremely lucky against Wake, but if this defensive trend continues, I'll be shocked if we make it to where we want to end up. At some point, the defense has to start holding up its end of the bargain.

The OL has had its share of issues, but at least with that group, the problems aren't constant. We've seen progress, even if it hasn't always been consistent. That's where you can point to the coaching and say there's development happening. They're making adjustments, correcting mistakes, and learning as the season progresses. That's what you want to see from a coaching staff. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about what we're seeing on the defensive side of the ball.

 

[SpringsCane]

We're eight games into the season, and the injury excuse is officially out the window. Lucas is back, EOC is out there, and on top of that, the guys who were once backups with little to no playing experience have now had plenty of opportunities to get meaningful snaps under their belts. At this point, there's more than enough experience and personnel available to expect better. We can't keep leaning on injuries as an excuse for what we're seeing. At this point, this is a coaching and execution problem.

Four games in a row, and you can throw in the second half against Wake Forest for good measure. This is a major problem. We're hemorrhaging yards and points on the defensive side of the ball, and eventually that's going to catch up with us. We can't expect the offense to bail us out every week, especially if they have a bad half or an off game. We got extremely lucky against Wake, but if this defensive trend continues, I'll be shocked if we make it to where we want to end up. At some point, the defense has to start holding up its end of the bargain.

The OL has had its share of issues, but at least with that group, the problems aren't constant. We've seen progress, even if it hasn't always been consistent. That's where you can point to the coaching and say there's development happening. They're making adjustments, correcting mistakes, and learning as the season progresses. That's what you want to see from a coaching staff. Unfortunately, I can't say the same about what we're seeing on the defensive side of the ball.

Great post

The lack of adjustment is the biggest concern to me. You have an offense that through 8 weeks can score at will almost everytime. Why not attempt to change or adjust on D? What was their to loose? They and most teams this year were picking at the soft coverage beautifully. They were scoring at will Saturday night so if they scored quickly vs a 8 minute drive itleast you know you get the ball back in mensahs hand quicker.

I’m hoping the reason was a lack of faith and not stubbornness. If it’s option B, we have a problem. It’s feels like this D is the definition of insanity at times and they try the same thing over and over while expecting different results

 

[Ironmanfootball]

What’s crazy is we had similar problems last year but we had players who just transferred here so they weren’t fully indoctrinated with what our scheme calls for, but now? The scheme is fully getting exposed

We blitzed a safety just as much last year, he did the same at Minnesota. Did this basic soft cushion spot drop zone coverage last year too, so not much has changed schematically.

Remember late in the notre dame game we almost let them back in the game because we were in a soft zone coverage, indiana took advantage of it, Louisville did it, a&m had some success but it was super windy and our dline dominated, ole miss had success…

None of these are new problems, im sure we self scouted because mario talks about it alot but if you self scout and things are playing out exactly how your scheme wants it to play out then you probably see no reason to change until it gets exposed even more

So only thing we can hope for fixing now is tackling and thats not a mid season problem you want to have

Yea the spot dropping country cover 3 has always been there.. Thats why when you listen to Hetherman the main pillars of his defense is violence, physicality, communication, block destruction, swarm and tackling. Plays 3 deep to eliminate explosives, keep everything in front of you and rally to the ball and **** **** up..

Thats not hard to implement with a guy like Jakobe and Keionte, they gonna run to ball and crashout.. We can put the ND game on from last year and guys are tackling the screens and short stuff immediately. Yea Poyser is still missing tackles but you have others to clean up, guys are playing closer coverage and communicating and passing routes.. Now? Those habits are gone, you dont really see it, coverage is wayy looser, guys are bailing soo deep with nobody even threatening.. Idk if you can fix something you have let get to thise level..

1- that’s too many core values. He should stick to 3.

2- I thought crash out was bad.

Like I crashed out after Billy Edwards Jr made Poyser look like AJ Highsmith was back there at safety

3- cover 3 isn’t the issue it’s that his country is the the continent of Antarctica vs maybe medium sized one like Germany

 

[Ironmanfootball]

Yea the spot dropping country cover 3 has always been there.. Thats why when you listen to Hetherman the main pillars of his defense is violence, physicality, communication, block destruction, swarm and tackling. Plays 3 deep to eliminate explosives, keep everything in front of you and rally to the ball and **** **** up..

Thats not hard to implement with a guy like Jakobe and Keionte, they gonna run to ball and crashout.. We can put the ND game on from last year and guys are tackling the screens and short stuff immediately. Yea Poyser is still missing tackles but you have others to clean up, guys are playing closer coverage and communicating and passing routes.. Now? Those habits are gone, you dont really see it, coverage is wayy looser, guys are bailing soo deep with nobody even threatening.. Idk if you can fix something you have let get to thise level..

Exactly I don’t see much fixing you can do. I think our only hope this year was oj being healthy so we could live in man more with him and eoc, that’s what helped alot in the playoffs.

Im hoping for a shift like there was for dawson after smu but dawson is a seasoned vet and one of the most versatile OCs in the country, so his philosophies can shift and the foundation can be the same but heatherman the foundation is leaky idk if you can save it

I can tell you Shannon D’s base offense. I can’t tell you what Hetherman’s base defense is anymore.

 

[goblin deez nuts]

120th with 2 top 10 rated cbs because nobody throws to the wr. And for good reason when your lbs and safeties are so bad. Move bryce back to fs. He's basically just getting cardio out there. You've now eliminated the one elite trait he has and the one guy who can make a game changing play. Get poyser back into his role from last year. Limit jj. Get the old guys off the field on passing downs. I dont care if that means they allow another 25-30yds in rushing. I'd rather they break off a few 8-10 yd runs than 25yd wide *** open passing plays

 

[itsacanething]

It's the same CB room as last season. The only DBs we lost were Scott and Thomas. Although both those guys are studs, the fact that we have this much of a drop-off is a head-scratcher. On paper, it should be one of the best in the country

both were great tacklers.

 

[goblin deez nuts]

Yea the spot dropping country cover 3 has always been there.. Thats why when you listen to Hetherman the main pillars of his defense is violence, physicality, communication, block destruction, swarm and tackling. Plays 3 deep to eliminate explosives, keep everything in front of you and rally to the ball and **** **** up..

Thats not hard to implement with a guy like Jakobe and Keionte, they gonna run to ball and crashout.. We can put the ND game on from last year and guys are tackling the screens and short stuff immediately. Yea Poyser is still missing tackles but you have others to clean up, guys are playing closer coverage and communicating and passing routes.. Now? Those habits are gone, you dont really see it, coverage is wayy looser, guys are bailing soo deep with nobody even threatening.. Idk if you can fix something you have let get to thise level..

We dont run country cover 3.

 

[Cribby]

We dont run country cover 3.

We’re pretty much spot dropping so we do

 

[goblin deez nuts]

We’re pretty much spot dropping so we do

Except we fire zone, bring safeties, roll to a man look on deep verticals. etc. Country cover 3 would be rush 4 and just drop everything. And we tend to mostly only spot drop when not blitzing. Rolling the safety down where he can blitz or defend the flats etc isnt a country cover 3 scheme. Its definitely more sophisticated than middle school, which is country cover 3

 

[NCCanefan]

Ok I feel compelled to jump in here. Quick preface - this isn't some sort of defense of Hetherman, the players, their effort, etc. However, when I read about blue chips all over the place and we only lost Thomas and Scott, it's completely disingenuous. It is indeed true that we have blue chippers all over the place. It's also true that we "only" lost Scott and Thomas. That said, a far more truthful statement would be that in addition to losing Scott and Thomas to the NFL, we also lost CB1 and CB 3 for the entire season (thus far) and CB2 for 6 games and while we do have blue chippers all over the defense, most of those blue chips in the secondary are freshmen and/or lack meaningful experience. Thornton has stunk in pass defense. Damari Brown has shown little to nothing during his time here to warrant his blue chip status out of high school.

Feel free to rip the staff, the players,etc. That defensive performance Saturday was pretty pathetic. Please keep it real.

My honest opinion (that no one asked for) is that this is 70% personnel and 30% scheme/coach/tackling. The personnel is what it is at this point. The scheme/philosophy is clearly to stop the run no matter what, try to limit explosives via passing game and deal with the short/intermediate stuff hoping the opponents won't execute at the same rate our offense does. I'm good with the emphasis on stopping the run. I'm good with limiting explosives. I'm not good with just accepting that teams can put their RBs and TEs against our LBs and pass at will. Our LBs are in their 6th and 8th seasons of CFB. They can't cover. Chase falls for eye candy WAY too much. I have to believe that the backups aren't any better. I think Hetherman could mix up his blitzes more. Other than that, I think we are kinda stuck. Feel free to rip this take, but I think it's pretty fair and honest.

I don't get why "stopping the run" is at the top of anyone's priorities in 2026. We don't even know if anyone can run. How about we play pass first and see if they run and how well they do. at a minimum it would at least be a nice change from watching very average qbs complete 75% of passes to wide open average receivers, rbs and TEs.

 

[Jedi Master Cane]

On at least a couple occasions, it looks to me like we're playing an inverted Cover 2, and maybe even some "Tampa 3" as they refer to it at the NFL level.

I liken this to a pitcher in baseball. If you throw the changeup too many times in a row it's gonna get hammered. There's a time and a place to mix in spot drop but it seems to me Heatherman is going through the same **** that Mike McDaniels is going through now with the Chargers. Once there is a good sample of tape and a clear trend in your playcalling, even average players can exploit it.

We HAVE to mix in more match or straight up man. Thing is we did try some cover 2 man against NC and it failed because Ryan Mack apparently doesn't understand that it's CRUCIAL for the CB's to get hands on, redirect, and jam the **** out of your receiver.

I think what we're seeing is correctable. I definitely think this defense has more talent than the Cam Ward season. I want to believe that Heatherman is capable of adapting. He seems like a smart dude.

 

[Cribby]

Except we fire zone, bring safeties, roll to a man look on deep verticals. etc. Country cover 3 would be rush 4 and just drop everything. And we tend to mostly only spot drop when not blitzing. Rolling the safety down where he can blitz or defend the flats etc isnt a country cover 3 scheme. Its definitely more sophisticated than middle school, which is country cover 3

Maybe I misunderstood you but I took it as you said we don’t run country cover 3 as in zero, I’m just saying we do and yes we run match as well. That said his system isn’t overly complicated.

 

[BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati]

I don't get why "stopping the run" is at the top of anyone's priorities in 2026. We don't even know if anyone can run. How about we play pass first and see if they run and how well they do. at a minimum it would at least be a nice change from watching very average qbs complete 75% of passes to wide open average receivers, rbs and TEs.

Here's a list of the 10 worst FBS teams at stopping the run:

and here are the ten best:

I think there are some pretty clear takeaways from this data.

 

[NCCanefan]

Here's a list of the 10 worst FBS teams at stopping the run:

View attachment 379012

and here are the ten best:

View attachment 379013

I think there are some pretty clear takeaways from this data.

What’s the clear takeaway? Drop the run and let them pass at will? Put up our pass D ranking.

 

[BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati]

Here's a list of the 10 worst FBS teams at stopping the run:

View attachment 379012

and here are the ten best:

View attachment 379013

I think there are some pretty clear takeaways from this data.

What’s the clear takeaway? Drop the run and let them pass at will? Put up our pass D ranking.

No. You’re looking for an argument. Look elsewhere.

If you can’t see the clear takeaway it’s because you don’t want to. One list has good teams. The other has really bad teams. .

 

[NCCanefan]

No. You’re looking for an argument. Look elsewhere.

If you can’t see the clear takeaway it’s because you don’t want to. One list has good teams. The other has really bad teams. .

No kidding. We gave up the most points Unc had in 8 games but “ we stopped the run”

At some level you gotta know there’s more to it than comparing horrible teams to good teams and attributing it to stopping the run.

 

[BigDikDaddyFromCincinnati]

No. You’re looking for an argument. Look elsewhere.

If you can’t see the clear takeaway it’s because you don’t want to. One list has good teams. The other has really bad teams. .

No kidding. We gave up the most points Unc had in 8 games but “ we stopped the run”

At some level you gotta know there’s more to it than comparing horrible teams to good teams and attributing it to stopping the run.

You started by asking why shut down the run. I gave statistical reasoning. Now you want to argue like a 12 year old. Find someone else bro. UNC was 4 days ago.

I’ll be at the ND game sitting behind the end zone that looks at TD Jesus.