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

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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.
I’m going to give the WRs a slight pass based on last night. I saw multiple open receivers at times but the QB play and conservative play calling, in addition to the physical nature and wet conditions, led to a game not conducive to judging the WR.
That being said Lindsey sucks, particularly with scheming guys open as WR so i think it will be a struggle all year
 
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.
That's a good point. Getting hit on every snap will put a lot more mileage on Hampton a lot more quickly. On paper we have arguably the best TE room in the ACC, so even if the WR room has taken a step back, there's no excuse for Nesbitt, Copenhaver, and Johnson to not be a much bigger part of our offense.
 
But they are better coached.
I actually don't think Doeren is a good coach. He's 11 years in at State and still has a losing ACC record overall. He's just an absolutely masterful manipulator and motivator of his players' and fanbase's emotions as it pertains specifically to UNC so that every single year when they play us, they look like a really good football team. But they lose to teams like Duke, Wake Forest, Boston College, etc. more often than not, which tells me that his strength is hating UNC much more so than it is coaching football.
 
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.
Agree on all fronts. Max Johnson’s career counting stats look pretty good on the surface. In reality, he played on LSU and aTm teams that were stacked with elite talent and he could “manage” them to some easy wins, but there’s a reason he lost the starting job at both places. As I said last night, his style might have worked at UNC if we had an OL that could pass protect, but it’s pretty clear that’s not happening any time soon.

Best bet is to try and put together a patchwork offensive scheme can maximize what Harrell is capable of and hope that the defense can actually be the unit that wins games (which I realize is asking a lot lol).
 
Agree on all fronts. Max Johnson’s career counting stats look pretty good on the surface. In reality, he played on LSU and aTm teams that were stacked with elite talent and he could “manage” them to some easy wins, but there’s a reason he lost the starting job at both places. As I said last night, his style might have worked at UNC if we had an OL that could pass protect, but it’s pretty clear that’s not happening any time soon.

Best bet is to try and put together a patchwork offensive scheme can maximize what Harrell is capable of and hope that the defense can actually be the unit that wins games (which I realize is asking a lot lol).
The schedule is weak enough to where that could theoretically work. At least as much to get us to enough wins that's considered pretty good around here.
 
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.

It’s funny; I commented in this thread the refs seemed to have an aversion to calling offensive holding after seeing what looked like several holds by Minnesota’s offense. Then at the end of the game, our win was essentially sealed by an offensive holding call against Minnesota.
 
Defense showed some improvement. Hope that was not just a one game anomaly but if fear it is since the defense has been poor for years.

As for the offense outside of Hampton?
Oh No Reaction GIF by Laff
 
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?
I don't think they had any intention of playing Harrell last night outside of an injury to Johnson(which, unfortunately, did happen) or a blowout, I don't care what Mack said before the game. It didn't look like they had any kind of package of plays for him and got so conservative it is hard to say what he can do.
 
I don't think they had any intention of playing Harrell last night outside of an injury to Johnson(which, unfortunately, did happen) or a blowout, I don't care what Mack said before the game. It didn't look like they had any kind of package of plays for him and got so conservative it is hard to say what he can do.
no chance they were going to, cause max gave you every opportunity to pull him and “provide a spark”
 
I actually don't think Doeren is a good coach. He's 11 years in at State and still has a losing ACC record overall. He's just an absolutely masterful manipulator and motivator of his players' and fanbase's emotions as it pertains specifically to UNC so that every single year when they play us, they look like a really good football team. But they lose to teams like Duke, Wake Forest, Boston College, etc. more often than not, which tells me that his strength is hating UNC much more so than it is coaching football.
Doron had some very rough seasons early in the first half of his tenure, but I feel like he’s stabilized and honestly has NC State pretty close to its ceiling as a program, so I get why their fans are happy with him.

Overall though State is vastly overrated if you look at places like twitter and Reddit. Their fan base is terminally online and relentless with that red-headed stepchild chip on their shoulder mentality, and it’s like they’ve convinced everyone that the program is some underrated powerhouse while UNC is a doormat. In reality, both programs are operating at a pretty similar level in terms of results. The difference is that State owns the head to head rivalry right now (not to downplay the importance of that), and they have more “signature” wins, mostly by virtue of getting to play FSU and Clemson on an annual basis when the conference was split into divisions and walking out of those matchups with a big win every now and then.
 
Defense looked pretty good overall. Special teams were specially good. Noah obviously was killer.
For first game it was solid pretty much overall and not the ugliness usually associated with first game jitters.
A great road win against B1G. We’ll take it.
Now, if we could just book end it with a big win over a B1G in our last game of the season - sandwiched around 8 other wins. 10 win season and a bowl W.
A man can dream can’t he?
 
Defense looked pretty good overall. Special teams were specially good. Noah obviously was killer.
For first game it was solid pretty much overall and not the ugliness usually associated with first game jitters.
A great road win against B1G. We’ll take it.
Now, if we could just book end it with a big win over a B1G in our last game of the season - sandwiched around 8 other wins. 10 win season and a bowl W.
A man can dream can’t he?
Or hallucinate.
 
Doron had some very rough seasons early in the first half of his tenure, but I feel like he’s stabilized and honestly has NC State pretty close to its ceiling as a program, so I get why their fans are happy with him.

Overall though State is vastly overrated if you look at places like twitter and Reddit. Their fan base is terminally online and relentless with that red-headed stepchild chip on their shoulder mentality, and it’s like they’ve convinced everyone that the program is some underrated powerhouse while UNC is a doormat. In reality, both programs are operating at a pretty similar level in terms of results. The difference is that State owns the head to head rivalry right now (not to downplay the importance of that), and they have more “signature” wins, mostly by virtue of getting to play FSU and Clemson on an annual basis when the conference was split into divisions and walking out of those matchups with a big win every now and then.
Yeah. These were the people who thought the SEC invite was in the mail 12 years ago before expansion.
(Which is funny because now expansion is happening and nobody wants them)
 
Some of yall can’t even enjoy a victory for a single night before moaning and complaining. The overwhelming consensus was that it would be a close “coin-flip” type of game, and shocker, it was.
It was a good win, type of game UNC usually loses. Everyone should enjoy it for the weekend while watching other games despite how ugly it was. This team can win 7 or 8 games and that would be a good season with this offense. With that said..

The good:
- It appears the run defense will be above average. I was impressed with the defensive line. Ritzie looked great but who stood out to me was Josh Harris. Minnesota’s interior offensive line could not move him.
-Special teams play was A+. The block in the back was super close so that doesn’t bother me. Huzzie made one bad decision on a knuckle ball but otherwise looked great on his returns. Noah was perfect and Maginnes looked improved from last season.
-Jakeen Harris is a sure tackler and high iq safety that sured some things up in back end of secondary.
-Hampton rushing over 100+ yards even with Minnesota knowing he was the only option.
The bad:
-Don’t have an outside wr that can take the top off the defense. Minnesota’s corner on Jones was sitting on those deep outs and passes to the sideline. Didn’t respect him beating him deep. Disappointed somebody like Culliver hasn’t stepped up at outside wr.
-Pass protection is concerning to say the least. Would’ve liked to seen some more jet sweeps and quick wr screens to take some of pressure off the line.
-Secondary got bailed out by a few misses by Minnesota qb. Costly missed tackles by Tyrane Stewart, Cost, and Lane had a couple he should’ve made. Allen had a tough game as he was in good position on the PI’s just panicked.
-QB play.
 
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