Tar Heels aiming for significant defensive improvement with Gene Chizik
PINEHURST, N.C. -- To hear Larry Fedora tell the story, there was only one choice to turn around what was a disastrous North Carolina defense in 2014. The Tar Heels head coach tabbed championship-winning coach Gene Chizik, a longtime competitor in three different conferences, as his next defensive coordinator in January, joining college football's assistant coaches "arms race" in the process. Splash hires require splash dollars.
North Carolina signed Chizik to a three-year deal worth more than $750,000 per year, making him one of the 25 highest-paid assistant coaches nationally. This is new territory for Fedora's staff. In the most recent USA Today study on coaching staff salaries in college football, UNC ranked last among Power Five conference public schools at just over $2 million prior to Chizik's hire.
However, it was a near-necessity for a school looking to keep pace with ACC heavyweights and break past its eight-win glass ceiling. Along with weight rooms, stadium features and spa-quality training facilities, assistant coaches' salaries are simply a part of the escalating cost of doing big-time business in college football.
Hiring a coach with multiple national titles on his resume, regardless of a coaching hiatus, requires substantial financial investment.
For comparison, take a look at UNC's competitors. Prior to losing highly compensated offensive coordinator Chad Morris to SMU, preseason ACC favorite Clemson had lapped UNC in total staff pay, handing out more than $4.4 million annually. Longtime Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster ranked as the nation's highest-paid assistant last season thanks to a lucrative annuity. When Louisville coach Bobby Petrino put together his new staff at Louisville, the Cardinals handed out more than $1.5 million to grab coordinators Todd Grantham and Garrick McGee. Florida State is paying a handsome sum for a top-tier staff.
UNC's defense demanded a immediate improvement, and the program aimed high. Expectations, however, can outpace the realistic challenges in transforming a unit that ranked 119th nationally by allowing nearly 40 points per game.
At the ACC Kickoff, Fedora addressed whether a 180-degree turnaround was possible.
"I don't know if 180. How do you measure how much better we get? I don't know. I think we'll be a better football team, I really do," Fedora said. "I'm excited about this group. We have some seniors in this group that I know are great teammates, that care about the team, wanting to be successful as a football team more than they do individually. So I think what Gene brings to the table is the renewed confidence in those guys I think is the biggest factor I've seen to this point, is that Gene has a very determined teaching progress of the way he wants to teach the defense and the philosophy of defense."
That's Fedora's way of tempering expectations -- and his cautious optimism is understandable. His Tar Heels were a mess on the defensive end. This is, without question, the biggest renovation project Chizik has ever taken on in major college football. Though he was one of the most successful coordinators around last decade, he took over decent situations at Auburn and Texas (per our season preview):
Still, Auburn and Texas posted a combined 53-12 record, including two undefeated seasons, with Chizik calling the defensive shots. That's bound to breed excessive optimism.
Fedora is entrusting his entire defensive unit to Chizik, one of the most decorated defensive coordinators in the country before taking head jobs at Iowa State and Auburn, banking on the two coaches' shared history as a quality reference point. UNC's head coach is the offensive mind, and he's taking a hands-off approach to his defensive counterpart.
Fedora and Chizik aligned on similar career paths as they broke into big-time college football, both moving from smaller programs (Middle Tennessee, Central Florida) up through the SEC and Big 12, Fedora's high-octane offense matched against Chizik's defense on four different occasions. Chizik holds a 3-1 career advantage. (To be fair, Chizik's coordinator resume also featured winning records against ACC head coaches Jimbo Fisher, who was LSU's offensive coordinator when Chizik was at Auburn, and Duke's David Cutcliffe, who took on Chizik three times while coaching at Ole Miss.)
Tar Heel players claim there have been immediate improvements.
Senior linebacker Jeff Schoettmer called Chizik "the most detail-oriented coach" he's even been around. When Schoettmer took a family vacation this summer, his new coordinator called on multiple occasions to check in. By all accounts, Chizik, who went into television after being fired from Auburn following the 2012 season, has completely immersed himself in the job.
"It was like he never wanted to leave us," Schoettmer said at the ACC Kickoff. "The care factor he has, you can tell how bad he wants to win."
With Chizik arriving in January, the Tar Heels defense, according to Schoettmer, was put through the most physical spring of their college careers. When asked the major talking points for a defense that gave up big plays by the barrell, the senior middle linebacker kept things simple.
"Over the course of the spring, communication, that's what got better. That's what really got better. Then tackling. We missed way too many tackles last year," Schoettmer said. "The nature of college football nowadays is to get play-makers in space and try to create mismatches. Poor tackling angles and tracking angles is one thing that Chizik associated with that when he came in. Those are the things he pointed out. Poor tracking angling led to missed tackles."
UNC quarterback Marquise Williams has his own shared history with the new coordinator. Chizik, fresh off his national title win with Cam Newton & Co., recruited Williams out of high school.
The prolific quarterback doesn't remember the recruiting pitch, but he still remembers the footwear.
"The boots he had in our first team meeting, he had them back when he won the national championship. That was pretty impressive," Williams said. "He was a winning coach. That's the year they won a national championship and I was excited. Having a coach that just won a national championship want you as his player, it was the best feeling ever."
" ... When he brings the energy to those guys on the defensive side of the ball, it's like no other."
North Carolina needs more than energy from Chizik in 2015. It needs him to make entire U-turns. It needs him to mold a unit that returns plenty of talent and experience -- UNC returns seven of its top nine defensive linemen, three linebackers that logged 10-plus starts apiece and, essentially, an entire secondary outside of safety Tim Scott -- into one that can keep pace with one of the top offenses in FBS play.
It's a monumental task, and North Carolina jumped into the college football coaching arms race to address the issue.