North Carolina Football: Leadership Or the 4-2-5?
North Carolina Football is searching for a new defensive coordinator. Vic Koenning is out and the people’s champ Will Muschamp is heading to the Plains to take over the defense at Auburn. Reportedly, Coach Larry Fedora has talked to the man that was behind the Florida defenses of Muschamp at Florida. That guy would be Florida interim head coach DJ Durkin, according to reports by Ben Sherman of Inside Carolina.
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North Carolina Football Without the 4-2-5?
Fedora also addressed the issue at today’s press conference, where he revealed an interesting statement. He claimed he is not wed to the 4-2-5 defense. That is kind of a surprise, but it fits with talking to Durkin. Durkin and Muschamp ran a pro defense based on 4-3 concepts at Florida.
In one sense, I think that giving up on the 4-2-5 is the way to go. A difference scheme will lead to different recruiting priorities and that could help refill the Heels’ depleted ranks on the line and in the linebacking corps. The 4-2-5 did succeed in that sense, the Heels built up a number of defensive backs. There were too many times when the RAM was taken out of action by some offensive decision rather than being the rover back that he is supposed to be.
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A Leadership Gap?
The other revelation from today’s press conference was safety Tim Scott’s revelation that the team just could not get up for some games. That strikes me as a leadership problem, and I think it is a reflection of where this particular team came from.
There were six scholarship seniors on this team by the time all was said and done. These would been the leaders on this team. They simply are not there. That was the work of the first UNC football scandal. Fedora’s first team had some good leaders from the Davis era, but that stream has finally run out. Time will only tell if the Fedora team (all the players now should be his recruits) can supply leaders of its own.