The North Carolina Tar Heel football team reported for camp today a players less than it expected as the team prepares for it’s opening kickoff against Liberty.
The defensive line was already a concern for North Carolina as the Tar heels lost Tim Jackson and Kareem Martin to the NFL. This week @Insidecarolina reported four players including Shawn Underwood and Greg Webb would not be reporting camp. We can only speculate as to why, but it appears that academics were the reason the players are not with the team. The loss of both of these players will impact the defensive line rotation and now will be the most watched position beside quarterback as we move through training camp.
The silver lining in this is that the team will have the entire pre season to overcome this set back. Ethan Farmer will now man the nose tackle position if he is with the team. It has been rumored that Farmer could also be a player that may not be available this season. However until that is confirmed we will assume Farmer starts at the nose tackle and the likely back up could be senior Devonte Brown who checks in at 295 pounds. Justin Thomason, Nazair Jones and Jesse Rogers are just not big enough to play too many reps in the one technique. They can fill in periodically however teams would be able to pound the ball up the middle toward a smaller interior line.
The Tar Heels have depth at the defensive end and bandit positions nevertheless the players in those positions cannot slide down in the middle. Jesse Rogers can slide down to the tackle however the rest of the edge players are in the 240-260 pound range. One option to watch out for is moving a player such as Will Dancy over to the nose tackle position. Dancy is a 300 pound offensive guard and an aggressive player. Dancy is also a good teammate, one would take on the challenge of switching sides to help win games.
Where this effects the long term plan in Chapel Hill is Coach Fedora may not have the option to redshirt Robert Dinkens or Jeremiah Clark this season as both freshman defensive ends may need to play early on just so they have game experience in case of injuries that force players to move around on the defensive line. The last thing the team needs is to be in a position to win the Coastal having to rely on a true freshman who has zero experience this season.
The Tar Heels defense is going to be better than last years squad because they are comfortable with the scheme and you have more overall experienced depth on the team. Vic Koenning may have to dial up a few more wrinkles in his blitz package to keep teams from lining up and teeing off on the Tar Heels thin blue line.
