Carolina’s defensive talent, particularly of its skill players, is getting neutralized by non-opportunistic coaching schemes. Culliver put his finger on it when he criticized the schemes in the ‘Bama game, particularly when Ingram was in the wildcat formation. I’ll repeat what I said in a past post: Why didn’t D coaches quickly “paste” a linebacker/spur to Ingram, solely tracking and attacking him on all plays (run or pass) no matter what else was going on? Plus, they should have switched to an 8-man front during ‘Bama’s 4Q drive when Ingram was clearly running the ball or handing off to WR Jones from the wildcat. Put 6 in the box to stuff the inside run (with backers blitzing), 2 backers/spurs rushing hot on the corners toward Ingram’s shotgun position, 2 D-backs further out on the line for containment and 1 safety in zone coverage in charge of containing breakthrough runs and any wildcat trick pass. Ingram is a dynamic, powerful runner but not a passer, stack the box and force him to prove he throw a floater or at least a quick, short pass! Carolina has very good, physical D-backs that matchup well man-to-man, particularly if the running back is doing the passing. In that scenario, the ‘Bama wildcat was vulnerable to an over-weighted, mad rush (note Virginia Tech used this scheme very effectively against East Carolina this past Thursday night). But Carolina’s D coaches played passively, sat back and gave ‘Bama’s rushing attack the perfect scheme to exploit. NEWSFLASH! Given Kentucky and ‘Bama success running the wildcat, Carolina is going to get a strong dose of it each remaining game, including from Clemson with Spiller.

Another example of the Carolina coaches (both the D and Spurrier) failing to understand the situation and matchup opportunity was at the start of the Tennessee game. Recognize that 1) it’s raining, making ball handling and footing precarious for both teams, neutralizing some offensive punch, 2) Tennessee QB, like Garcia, is short on confidence and vulnerable to mistakes if you can pressure him earlier, 3) your defensive strength is the pass rush, so shape the game so that it plays into your strength, and 4) work to turn the tables on early mistakes by your offense (putting you in a whole), doing the same to Tennessee. So (and this doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out), since you won the toss, choose to kickoff (admittedly, you need to stop the return) and play defense—except, play very aggressively scheme wise. Blitz heavy (mixing it up with overloading the box and delayed blitzes), not giving the Tennessee QB time to pass long but instead forcing quick short passes at best. Your D backs can matchup man-to-man. Again, take a cue from other teams doing this! At the college level it takes an exceptional QB to handle such pressure.

Having said all this, such a scheme will not work against Arkansas’ Mallet but will work when they switch to the wildcat, which they will do.