UNC Football Catch-all | Bill Belichick Era underway

  • Thread starter Thread starter SnoopRob
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies: 5K
  • Views: 121K
  • UNC Sports 
C-Money said:
I don't really see the team improving much next year. What would it take to keep Belichick? Is going 6-6 or 7-5 enough?
Click to expand...
Personally, I think 6 wins gets him year 3. Opportunity to crow about improvement YoY, bowl game, etc. Plus in those 6 wins there will be at least a couple upsets by necessity.
 
heel79 said:
I thought ST was pretty good, except for Wake.
Click to expand...
Duke had roughing the kicker as the guy missed, gave up that big kickoff return, then of course tried to block that super long FG which was a fake. And the onside kick failure. ST kinda lost that game for us.

Honestly if you remove some of the crappy penalties and ST mistakes vs Wake and Duke then i'd feel a little more positive about this whole experiment.
 
gregh1 said:
Duke had roughing the kicker as the guy missed, gave up that big kickoff return, then of course tried to block that super long FG which was a fake. And the onside kick failure. ST kinda lost that game for us.

Honestly if you remove some of the crappy penalties and ST mistakes vs Wake and Duke then i'd feel a little more positive about this whole experiment.
Click to expand...
Oh yes. We found ways to lose. Flip 3 plays and 7-5. But we were not a good football team. I thought kicker and punter were good. Got a lot of getting better to do.
 
Last edited:
GoHeelsweeeehoooo said:
I thought the punting and field goal kicking was improved this season
Click to expand...
that one IC puff piece about Maginness from September is doing herculean levels of work to launder his reputation.

He was 97th in the country in net punting and only slightly better in gross punting. we did not have a good punting unit and the improvement over last year was marginal at best.
 
akillesheel said:
that one IC puff piece about Maginness from September is doing herculean levels of work to launder his reputation.

He was 97th in the country in net punting and only slightly better in gross punting. we did not have a good punting unit and the improvement over last year was marginal at best.
Click to expand...
I’m usually a little wary of punting stats because it can be so situational, but this sounds about right. He just didn’t look very good this season. We also had below average punt and kick return numbers.

Ultimately though Priefer’s undoing was all of the other gaffes. Multiple blocked kicks, failed onside kick attempt, opponent recovering an onside kick, critical roughing the kicker against Dook followed by letting up a fake FG at the end of the game, then letting State convert a fake punt as the cherry on top. That’s just way too many backbreaking special teams mistakes.
 
Serious question...how often do head coaches thrive and survive after being forced to fire coordinators. My sense is that it is nearly always a march toward the cemetary.
 
wmheel1287 said:
Serious question...how often do head coaches thrive and survive after being forced to fire coordinators. My sense is that it is nearly always a march toward the cemetary.
Click to expand...
Typically yes, though off the top of my head, i feel like Harbaugh had to do this after the covid year and then reeled off 3 straight awesome years leading to a national championship
 
Peppers49 said:
I’m usually a little wary of punting stats because it can be so situational, but this sounds about right. He just didn’t look very good this season. We also had below average punt and kick return numbers.

Ultimately though Priefer’s undoing was all of the other gaffes. Multiple blocked kicks, failed onside kick attempt, opponent recovering an onside kick, critical roughing the kicker against Dook followed by letting up a fake FG at the end of the game, then letting State convert a fake punt as the cherry on top. That’s just way too many backbreaking special teams mistakes.
Click to expand...
i generally think it's a mistake to judge STs based on the outlier plays like fakes and onside kicks (especially those) more so than the basic tenets of the phase - that is, are you winning the hidden yards game on KR and PR (given that PK and P are not really affected by an ST coach). As you mentioned, we were below average in both return games on both ends... that said, isn't special teams supposed to be where Bill is a savant? Why and how did he let it get that bad?
 
wmheel1287 said:
Serious question...how often do head coaches thrive and survive after being forced to fire coordinators. My sense is that it is nearly always a march toward the cemetary.
Click to expand...
Great question, you gotta think it is rare. Saban or bama fans kinda claim that Saban has never fired a coordinator, and only fired a position coach once. (Sark was an analyst, and Kiffen left cuz he was distracted by his new HC job).
 
Last edited:
akillesheel said:
i generally think it's a mistake to judge STs based on the outlier plays like fakes and onside kicks (especially those) more so than the basic tenets of the phase - that is, are you winning the hidden yards game on KR and PR (given that PK and P are not really affected by an ST coach). As you mentioned, we were below average in both return games on both ends... that said, isn't special teams supposed to be where Bill is a savant? Why and how did he let it get that bad?
Click to expand...
I agree that the focus should be more on the basics let net yards gained/allowed on kicks/punter and you shouldn’t wring your hands over giving up an unexpected onside kick or roughing the kicker/punter every now and then. Those can still be back breaking plays that lose games though, and I think we had enough of them to say it was a pattern.
 
Peppers49 said:
I agree that the focus should be more on the basics let net yards gained/allowed on kicks/punter and you shouldn’t wring your hands over giving up an unexpected onside kick or roughing the kicker/punter every now and then. Those can still be back breaking plays that lose games though, and I think we had enough of them to say it was a pattern.
Click to expand...
The only thing I'd say about the "back breaking plays" on ST is that we had similar brain farts or undisciplined play in every facet of the game, so it seems a bit hypocritical to hold that against the ST coach.

That said, I have no problem with the program getting a new one because I don't think we were particularly good on ST this year.
 
Interesting that we fired the OC for poor performance but did not fire the DC but putting forth a defensive product that was likewise abysmal. Can’t quite put my finger on the difference between the two guys but it’ll come to me soon. Come to think of it, I wonder why we didn’t fire the QB coach who is making $700K to put forth a quarterback who was a significant contributor to the offense sucking enough to warrant the OC being fired.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top