Kap On Slow Starts, Short Yardage Question & Hindsight

CHAPEL HILL – UNC offensive line coach and offensive coordinator Chris Kapilovic met with the media following Tuesday’s practice and largely fielded questions about the line and offense’s struggles in recent weeks.

Here are a few snippets of what Kapilovic was asked and talked about:

*The first five possessions last Saturday were three-and-outs for the UNC offense, and in the last two games the Tar Heels didn’t get their initial first downs until the second quarter. Is there a common thread to the slow starts?

“Lack of execution is the number one thing. And the thing about it that was alarming and frustrating is that if it was always the same position or same guy you know where to go and maybe you try to replace him if you have anybody. But that wasn’t the case, and you had some older guys making critical errors that you would never expect to happen.

“What starts happening is, when you tart struggling guys start worrying about what other guys are doing and trying to do more than just your job, and then all of a sudden you screw up your job. You have to be focused on what you do and you handle your business and trust the guy next to you is going to do his job. So that was part of the issue.”

*On the 3rd-and-short in which the Heels tried a pass play wide to the left near the sideline:

“The thought process was to try to hit them with a naked, and to be honest they gave a look that they hadn’t seen and they were able to cover the guy up. So you’ve got to give it up to them there.”

*How often do they work on packages with the QB directly under center?

“We do it every day we work on (QB-center) exchange and then when we do out short-yard goal line days we always do under center. If you look at it, we were backed up at ODU and we ran power and had success. The thought process on that one (Saturday) was to take a shot.”

*In hindsight, looking back at that 3rd-down scenario and some of the safeties the last two years, any thought to maybe going under center and going power there instead of a screen in the end zone, a jet sweep, etc?

“The jet sweep (last year versus Pittsburgh), we were on the 6-yard-line, so I don’t consider that backed up. But obviously the screen situation and that situation (Saturday versus Notre Dame) tells you to do that for sure.”