North Carolina Tar Heels: Spring Forward
The North Carolina Tar Heels took the field for the last before football season starts to show improvement.
Yesterday marked the North Carolina Tar Heels football spring game. The weather cooperated and the offense took on the defense in a football scrimmage. That had a weird offense versus defense scoring system. The offense triumphed, in fact, 74-70.
An offensive win may have been expected with all the talent returning on that side of the ball, but let’s look at the real storylines behind the Spring Game.
- Look at the no shows
The Spring Game is not the most important event in the world and the Tar Heels held several players out of action either due to injury, risk, or caution. Those looking to see Elijah Hood could see him gripping is helmet on the side line.
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Safety Donnie Miles was likewise dressed but saw little action. End Mikey Bart was not even padded and neither was defensive tackle Tyler Powell. Receiver Bug Howard had his arm in what appeared to be a sling.
The result is that the lineups on display during the spring game were not the true first string lineups. Now summer enrollees weren’t there either, but it was hard to get a picture of the starting defense.
- Shining in Opportunity
With that being said, there were some nice performances from players who got the chance. Running back freshman Jordan Brown carried the second string offense at times. The interceptions were snagged by second unit defensive backs.
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- Des Lawrence needs to turn in the offense’s playbook
Lawrence had the only interception on Mitch Trubisky. The thing to notice was that Lawrence was in the right place to prevent completions on several other occasions. The deep ball seemed to be a trouble spot for the team as it seemed to come up short a lot.
- The old one-two
Trubisky looked sharp with a ten for eleven performance. His main target was senior Mack Hollins. Hollins had a hundred and ten yard receiving day on the other end of those passes. Trubisky also looked confident in the shorter throws that Marquise Williams would lose touch on last year.
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The only issue with this is how the Tar Heel receivers looked around Hollins. This is no knock on their performance but it was noticeable how short Austin Proehl and Ryan Switzer are. Howard’s return should help this. So should a bigger role from Brandon Fritts, who saw limited action.
- A good day for the defense
The final thing to note was that the defense did not get blown out of this contest. In fact they had the lead midway through the second half. That has to be good news for the Heels. It helps that they are in year two of Gene Chizik’s schemes and aren’t so much learning as adjusting.
Next: 2016 All Tar Heel NBA Playoff Team
The North Carolina Tar Heels are ready for fall camp, but of course there is plenty of time before that will happen. Then we will see the results when the Heels play the Georgia Bulldogs in the Chick-Fila Kickoff Classic in Atlanta.