UNC football has a defense loaded with 4- and 5-star prospects. Why is it struggling?

Among the 27 players on UNC football's defensive depth chart for last Saturday's game at Appalachian State were 13 players rated four- or five-star prospects coming out of high school, according to 247Sports.com, and seven were ranked among the nation's top 10 at their positions.

With that kind of talent, how did the Tar Heels manage to give up 61 points, including 40 in the final quarter, and more than 600 total yards against the Mountaineers? It's a question many have been asking in the wake of the 63-61 victory in Boone.

In the fourth quarter alone, North Carolina surrendered six touchdowns, 18 first downs and 338 total yards as Appalachian State rallied from a 20-point deficit and had a chance to take the lead. The near collapse left the defensive staff searching for answers this week as UNC prepares to play Georgia State (0-1) on Saturday in Atlanta (noon, ESPNU).

"They're (defensive staff) embarrassed,'' UNC head coach Mack Brown said. "They’re disappointed. We’re not playing as good as we should, not playing as good as we thought we would, and gotta get it fixed.

"This isn’t like an arson investigation where the starting point can be squarely identified. The issues are extensive and broader than that.''

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Change has undoubtedly impacted the Tar Heel defense. Four starters completed their eligibility after the 2021 season, including No. 2 tackler and defensive leader Jeremiah Gemmel at linebacker. UNC is also missing two other potential returning starters in Ja'Qurious Conley and Tomari Fox. Conley was a starter at safety last season before suffering a knee injury from which he's still recovering. Fox would have been one of the team's top pass rushers, but was ruled ineligible for the season by the NCAA for ingesting a banned substance.

Throw in the arrival of new co-defensive coordinators in Gene Chizik and Charlton Warren, plus UNC's youthful look on that side of the ball — 13 true freshmen, redshirt freshmen and sophomores are on the depth chart — and you have a recipe for struggles.

Chizik was so disappointed by the fourth-quarter performance against Appalachian State that he watched the game twice on the bus ride back to Chapel Hill and again before going to bed.

"Obviously, it was a performance that we wished in the fourth quarter hadn't happened,'' Chizik said this week. "There's a lot of learning, there's a lot of teaching (to do). We have to tackle better. I feel like we missed a lot of tackles we shouldn't have, and that was pretty evident through most of the game. I think we can get better at that.''

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The biggest concern after the Appalachian State game for Chizik, however, was the play of the secondary. Despite being one of the most experienced areas of the defense with four seniors and two juniors on the depth chart, the secondary was consistently beaten or out of position to make plays against the Mountaineers.

"Usually, when you are in press coverage, if you lose the battle, it’s in the first five yards or the last five yards, or both,'' Chizik said. "So, what we have to get better at as a secondary just in general, is when we are in press coverage, we’ve got to win at the line of scrimmage. That’s the beginning.

“So the first five yards always matter, and sometimes our technique wasn’t as good as it needed to be, so we lost at the line of scrimmage, and typically when that happens, you’re trying to play catch up.”

Fortunately, UNC has time to correct its defensive issues with a non-conference game at Georgia State on Saturday followed by an open date before Notre Dame comes to Chapel Hill on September 24.

"We're just going back to the drawing board, see the mistakes we made and fix them,'' junior linebacker Cedric Gray said. "That's all you really can do. We made all those mistakes and came out with the win. That should say a lot about how good we can be if we don't make those same types of mistakes.

"We know we have the talent.''

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: UNC football's bad defense isn't for a lack of talent