UNC Football Catch-All Thread | Week 4 - James Madison @ UNC (Noon ACCN)

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Oh yeah, NC State has just as many flaws and vulnerabilities as we do. Grayson McCall sucks. It would’ve been one thing if he was sucking last night against a P4 defense, or heck even against an FBS defense. But he was sucking against an FCS defense. State also got stuffed twice on fourth down and short yardage. They have problems.
 
Ddseddse said:
My main takeaway from the game last night was how much better the game of college football is with a competent officiating crew, instead of the steaming pile of crap we get in the ACC.
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Totally agree. That was a really enjoyable game with good flow. And not only that, Fox’s broadcast production made that one of the most enjoyable games to watch I’ve seen in a while. They are better than ESPN, in my opinion. It’s going to be really difficult to watch games on the ACC network again after seeing that last night.
 
fuheel said:
The only one that really bothered me was Stick Lane just turning into a human missile instead of wrapping up, allowing the receiver to scamper down the sideline. But their players are on scholarship as well and are going to force some missed tackles.

I was more annoyed with our receivers not catching the ball. JJ Jones had one hit him in the chest, and Nesbitt didn't make a good effort on the one that was intercepted in the first half.
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Tackling was still an issue last night, but a massive improvement form the Keystone Cops impersonations that we're used to seeing.
 
The brightest spot to me last night wasn’t even necessarily that the defense appears to be mostly competent, but that the kicking game appears that it is going to be a strength instead of a detriment for once. Punting was such an adventure last year but I thought that Tom hit some really good ones. I don’t believe Boyd gave up any returnable kicks. And of course Noah looked about as good as any kicker as we’ve had since the Barth brothers.

A competent defense and a good kicking game against our schedule can carry us to a pretty decent season by themselves. If our wide receivers learn how to get some separation and our offensive line learns how to pass protect, we can be pretty solid yet in my opinion.

The best part about last night is to discuss all of our potential vulnerabilities and flaws while being 1-0.
 
CFordUNC said:
The brightest spot to me last night wasn’t even necessarily that the defense appears to be mostly competent, but that the kicking game appears that it is going to be a strength instead of a detriment for once. Punting was such an adventure last year but I thought that Tom hit some really good ones. I don’t believe Boyd gave up any returnable kicks. And of course Noah looked about as good as any kicker as we’ve had since the Barth brothers.

A competent defense and a good kicking game against our schedule can carry us to a pretty decent season by themselves. If our wide receivers learn how to get some separation and our offensive line learns how to pass protect, we can be pretty solid yet in my opinion.

The best part about last night is to discuss all of our potential vulnerabilities and flaws while being 1-0.
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Yup. Too many drops, too many missed tackles. In theory that can get cleaned up. I'd like to see the receivers get more separation, but Minnesota was was kinda grabby on D, so I think the jury is still out on that.

Big question is how you flip the playbook for Conner Harrell. I think we're gonna see a lot of triple option, which honestly, given the circumstances, is maybe not the worst thing in the world.
 
Ddseddse said:
Yup. Too many drops, too many missed tackles. In theory that can get cleaned up. I'd like to see the receivers get more separation, but Minnesota was was kinda grabby on D, so I think the jury is still out on that.

Big question is how you flip the playbook for Conner Harrell. I think we're gonna see a lot of triple option, which honestly, given the circumstances, is maybe not the worst thing in the world.
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And something that Criswell could use if he has to come in. Harrell doesn't look built to withstand a ton of punishment.
 
I would feel better about things going forward offensively if
1. Chip lindsey didn’t suck and could scheme guys open
2. Mack didn’t seem so bent up on being conservative and playing “complementary football” and
3. we would play our young receivers like Shipp. We have 3 second year guys that we recruited ahead of Concepcion and i think they got a combined 2 targets yesterday
 
Good points about the officiating and broadcast production by Fox. The game itself wasn’t great, but the officials did a good job of calling obvious penalties and otherwise efficiently managing the game. That should be a given every game, but the ACC seems to lack quality officials.

I think the biggest question moving forward is how can Chip Lindsey adjust his play calling. I was skeptical of that hire and thought he got exposed last season when we started facing good defenses and couldn’t just overwhelm them with Drake Maye’s raw talent like we did in the first half of the year. Granted this was the first game of the season and he had to prepare a game plan for 2 different QBs with vastly different skill sets, but most of the play calling last night was poor imo. Hampton is awesome, but you can only run him between the tackles so many times per game before you have to mix in some variety. Maybe more RPO stuff like the big play that got us into FG range on our last drive to at least give us a chance through the air.

Lastly: what is Criswell thinking today? I feel really bad for Max Johnson getting injured, but he did not look good at all last night. Harrell was a little more mobile, but he was very loose with the ball and also did not look like a competent passer. Can Criswell really be worse than those two?
 
Peppers49 said:
Good points about the officiating and broadcast production by Fox. The game itself wasn’t great, but the officials did a good job of calling obvious penalties and otherwise efficiently managing the game. That should be a given every game, but the ACC seems to lack quality officials.

I think the biggest question moving forward is how can Chip Lindsey adjust his play calling. I was skeptical of that hire and thought he got exposed last season when we started facing good defenses and couldn’t just overwhelm them with Drake Maye’s raw talent like we did in the first half of the year. Granted this was the first game of the season and he had to prepare a game plan for 2 different QBs with vastly different skill sets, but most of the play calling last night was poor imo. Hampton is awesome, but you can only run him between the tackles so many times per game before you have to mix in some variety. Maybe more RPO stuff like the big play that got us into FG range on our last drive to at least give us a chance through the air.

Lastly: what is Criswell thinking today? I feel really bad for Max Johnson getting injured, but he did not look good at all last night. Harrell was a little more mobile, but he was very loose with the ball and also did not look like a competent passer. Can Criswell really be worse than those two?
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Great questions about the QB situation. My concern is that we have three guys but no quarterback. I hope Johnson recovers quickly from whatever the injury, but it's pretty apparent that he's not going to be the guy, IMO. Anytime a guy transfers to three schools in four/five years, I think you've got to be realistic that there is a good chance he's probably just not that good. With Harrell, I think it's starting to become apparent that either *he* doesn't trust himself to make throws, or the staff doesn't, but for the last two years the way that they've called plays with him in the game leads me to wonder. And as you and others noted, he is pretty loose with the ball. With Criswell, again, a guy that transfers multiple times in a short period of time leads me to wonder about his true ability to be "the man" at QB. It's not a knock on him that he didn't start at UNC while playing behind Sam Howell and then Drake Maye, but to go to Arkansas and basically get buried on the depth chart, doesn't lead me to believe that he's got what it takes to be the full-time starter here, either. When he was at UNC before, the staff- similarly to Harrell- never really seemed to trust him enough to call pass plays when he was in the game.

I think our best bet moving forward is to spend these next three weeks- all of which *should* be layups- doing whatever we have to do schematically to design an offense and a game plan that accentuates Harrell's strengths- his running ability- and allows him to gain confidence in his passing.
 
CFordUNC said:
Great questions about the QB situation. My concern is that we have three guys but no quarterback. I hope Johnson recovers quickly from whatever the injury, but it's pretty apparent that he's not going to be the guy, IMO. Anytime a guy transfers to three schools in four/five years, I think you've got to be realistic that there is a good chance he's probably just not that good. With Harrell, I think it's starting to become apparent that either *he* doesn't trust himself to make throws, or the staff doesn't, but for the last two years the way that they've called plays with him in the game leads me to wonder. And as you and others noted, he is pretty loose with the ball. With Criswell, again, a guy that transfers multiple times in a short period of time leads me to wonder about his true ability to be "the man" at QB. It's not a knock on him that he didn't start at UNC while playing behind Sam Howell and then Drake Maye, but to go to Arkansas and basically get buried on the depth chart, doesn't lead me to believe that he's got what it takes to be the full-time starter here, either. When he was at UNC before, the staff- similarly to Harrell- never really seemed to trust him enough to call pass plays when he was in the game.

I think our best bet moving forward is to spend these next three weeks- all of which *should* be layups- doing whatever we have to do schematically to design an offense and a game plan that accentuates Harrell's strengths- his running ability- and allows him to gain confidence in his passing.
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agree. additionally, we need to scheme something so that OH doesn't get hit ever single down, he's a stud and he should get lots of touches, but he's going to take a beating if we can't find someone else to make a few plays. very disappointed in our WRs and TEs inability to get open.
 
CFordUNC said:
Great questions about the QB situation. My concern is that we have three guys but no quarterback. I hope Johnson recovers quickly from whatever the injury, but it's pretty apparent that he's not going to be the guy, IMO. Anytime a guy transfers to three schools in four/five years, I think you've got to be realistic that there is a good chance he's probably just not that good. With Harrell, I think it's starting to become apparent that either *he* doesn't trust himself to make throws, or the staff doesn't, but for the last two years the way that they've called plays with him in the game leads me to wonder. And as you and others noted, he is pretty loose with the ball. With Criswell, again, a guy that transfers multiple times in a short period of time leads me to wonder about his true ability to be "the man" at QB. It's not a knock on him that he didn't start at UNC while playing behind Sam Howell and then Drake Maye, but to go to Arkansas and basically get buried on the depth chart, doesn't lead me to believe that he's got what it takes to be the full-time starter here, either. When he was at UNC before, the staff- similarly to Harrell- never really seemed to trust him enough to call pass plays when he was in the game.

I think our best bet moving forward is to spend these next three weeks- all of which *should* be layups- doing whatever we have to do schematically to design an offense and a game plan that accentuates Harrell's strengths- his running ability- and allows him to gain confidence in his passing.
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I think Harrell is better than our coaches think…I’d rather live with a few more turnovers and an actual downfield passing attack than whatever “gestures wildly” that was last night
 
CFordUNC said:
Oh yeah, NC State has just as many flaws and vulnerabilities as we do. Grayson McCall sucks. It would’ve been one thing if he was sucking last night against a P4 defense, or heck even against an FBS defense. But he was sucking against an FCS defense. State also got stuffed twice on fourth down and short yardage. They have problems.
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But they are better coached.
 
uncjhodges said:
I think Harrell is better than our coaches think…I’d rather live with a few more turnovers and an actual downfield passing attack than whatever “gestures wildly” that was last night
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Definitely agree with that. He has a strong arm and throws a nice, crisp pass from what I've seen. We are definitely going to need to be able to have him throw downfield- even if it results in a few turnovers- or else defenses are going to load the box and Hampton is going to have to break tackles as soon as he gets the ball in his belly on every snap.
 
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