Sept. 21, 2006
By Adam Lucas
Safety Kareen Taylor expects to step back into his starting role on Carolina's defense, a unit that sorely missed him against Furman, this weekend against Clemson. But there's one area where he may not be able to reclaim his starting position quite so easily.
The senior's ankle injury cost him his role with the starting kickoff coverage unit. And with the unit's success prompting several players to lobby special teams coach Andre Powell for a slot on the first team, Taylor may have to wait for another opening before he rejoins the squad.
"I don't know if Kareen is going to get his place back," Powell says. "They're playing so well right now that if you miss a couple days, you're probably going to get moved out."
Taylor was replaced by Jordan Hemby against Furman; the redshirt freshman promptly recovered a fumble that led to a touchdown on his first play.
The Tar Heels currently lead the ACC and rank fourth in the nation in opponent kickoff returns. No other conference team ranks in the top 20. The 13.18-yard average allowed return is a dramatic change from the past two seasons, when Carolina's kickoff coverage ranked 109th in the nation (last in the ACC) in 2005 and 112th in the nation (next to last in the ACC) in 2004.
"After the last two years, we looked at how good kickoff teams are constructed," Powell says. "We looked at our kicks. We looked at how we do things and how we cover. We looked at everything we did to try and make an improvement."
The result was a dramatically different coverage philosophy. In the past, the coverage unit was taught to stay in a specific lane as they zipped down the field. They had good team speed, but a block on one player could spring a big return.
This year, Powell made an adjustment.
"Now everyone runs down, we read what's going on, and we run to adjust to what they're doing," he says. "We're teaching returns better and recognition of return concepts. So the way we teach it is better."
Powell has also added another wrinkle. While preparing for Louisville last year, he noticed that the Cardinals occasionally moved a player from one side of the formation to the other just before the kick. The goal was to create confusion in the opponent's blocking assignments, which are often based on "count"--for example, a return team player's job might be to block the opponent lined up second from the left. When that opponent runs to the other side, the count is confused and blocks are missed.
Against Furman, Ryan Taylor was the player on the move. The Tar Heels use him several ways--he might move to the other side and stay on that side, he might move to the other side and then run back to his original side during coverage, or he might never move at all.
"It's all camouflage," Powell says with a grin.
The unit is also getting precise kicking from Connor Barth. Precise, not lengthy. The junior has just two touchbacks this season, 11th in the league. But that's by design. Everyone likes to see the majestic, booming kickoffs that create touchbacks--everyone except Powell.
"If we kick a touchback, we're giving them an advantage," he says. "I'd rather get 3.8-second hang time and the ball placed where we want. Once we figure out what other teams want to do on their return, we decide where we want to place the ball. And if we get the hang time we want and get the ball placed inside the 5-yard-line in the spot where we want it, I'd rather have that than a touchback."
Precise kicking is especially important because the Carolina defense has struggled in two out of three games. If the special teams can force an opponent to play on a long field, the defense has a bigger margin for error. Powell's research indicates that an offense scores a touchdown on only 1 out of 14 drives that begin inside the 20 and 1 out of 20 that begin inside the 15.
Of the team's 13 kickoffs this season, 11 have left the opponent inside the 30, 9 inside the 20, and 4 inside the 15. None of the drives that began inside the 15 have resulted in points for the opponent.
The season's first play was a dramatic tackle inside the 15 by Dirk Engram on Rutgers return man Willie Foster. Kickoff coverage had been an occasional question mark during team scrimmages leading up to the opener; Engram's hit was a sign that the problems had been corrected.
"We put a lot of speed on our kickoff team, and we spend a lot of time and effort on it," Engram says. "It's a lot of planning. When everybody does their job, it can look really good. You have to be fast and you have to want to hit. You have to be reckless."
Powell has assembled a quirky mix of veterans and youth on the coverage unit. The first string against Furman included two true freshmen--Ryan Taylor and Wesley Flagg--plus Hemby, Engram, Bryan Dixon, Kendric Williams, Quinton Person, Cooter Arnold, Victor Worsley, and Larry Edwards.
Within the confines of the Kenan Football Center, it's become a prestigious assignment, which explains why even a senior like Kareen Taylor has trouble earning his way back onto the field.
"You have to be courageous, intense, and have a lot of heart," Person says. "When you're going down there to make a tackle, you're going to get blocked and you're going to have to take on the wedge. You have to sacrifice your body. You can have a big impact even when you don't make the tackle by getting down the field and fitting the play right."
Powell sat in his office this week with two computer screens displaying film of Clemson special teams and a white board where he occasionally diagrammed potential coverage ideas. He'd click one frame of film, then scramble to the white board. One more frame, one more drawing.
It's a process he endures with significantly more confidence than in previous years.
"There are some flaws in every return," he says. "If we call it right and place our kick right, even if the opponent blocks it perfectly I still think our cover team has the advantage because of the attitude they're covering with."
Adam Lucas's third book on Carolina basketball, The Best Game Ever, chronicles the 1957 national championship season and is available now. His previous books include Going Home Again, focusing on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
