Bill Belichick Recognizes UNC’s Turnover Shortage on Defense

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — For those who recognize the turnover shortage North Carolina’s defense has encountered, along with the need to create more, coach Bill Belichick is on board and clearly concurs.

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“I’m with you,” he said in response Tuesday, when asked about the Tar Heels’ shrinking takeaway numbers. “We’re on it, and we’re doing everything we can to try to get them. And we need to get them.”

UNC (2-4 overall, 0-2 ACC) meets No. 16 Virginia (6-1, 3-0) on Saturday at Kenan Stadium having generated just one turnover on defense — and none of consequence — across the last three games, all of which have resulted in losses.

The Tar Heels have dipped to minus-2 in the turnover margin department through six games on the season, after losing three fumbles during last week’s 21-18 defeat at Cal. Two of those proved monumentally costly, of course, the fumble Shanard Clower coughed up on the game’s first play from scrimmage, and Nathan Leacock’s crushing fumble at the goal line in the game’s final four minutes, inches shy of reaching the end zone for what would’ve been the go-ahead touchdown in crunch time.

Meanwhile, since the fourth quarter of UNC’s rout of Richmond on Sept. 13 — when cornerback Jaiden Patterson grabbed an interception and linebacker Mikai Gbayor later scored on a 62-yard fumble return — the takeaways have dried up for the Carolina defense. In terms of turnovers gained, the Tar Heels have produced only an insignificant fumble recovery with 1:23 remaining in their blowout loss to Clemson over the last 12 quarters of game action. Which leaves UNC checking in at minus-4 in turnover margin across the last three games.

For a rebuilding Carolina team struggling to string together consistency and make a dent against quality competition, creating more turnovers on defense certainly could help engineer some obvious benefits. An engaged Belichick nodded in agreement on Tuesday. He said his defense regularly comes up with takeaways in practices.

“Absolutely, yeah,” Belichick said. “We talk about it every week, spend a lot of time on it. Studying our opponent, looking for opportunities, practicing on the field, different techniques to take the ball away. High-pointing the one-on-one throws on the outside, reading the quarterback, stripping the ball, and so forth.

“We get quite a few of those in practice. Haven’t had them in the game, and we obviously need to get them. So we’ll keep working on them, keep emphasizing it. There are plenty of balls out in practice. We turn the ball over in practice, and so we’re trying to do the right things. We’re just going to have to do a better job of it in the game.”

Belichick pointed out “we had two balls out in the Cal game,” referring to the early punt muffed by Golden Bears return man Jacob De Jesus, and Tyler Thompson’s chase-down sack on Cal quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele in the third quarter, when the Tar Heels trailed 21-10. Sagapolutele was near the far sideline there, and fumbled out of bounds.

“But I mean, if you don’t get them, it doesn’t matter,” Belichick said, setting up an applicable baseball reference. “It’s just a foul ball.”

Earlier this month, the UNC defense had a pair of interceptions on the field wiped out against Clemson. Thad Dixon picked off Clemson quarterback Cade Klubnik late in the first half, but that was overturned by video replay review. Later, Gavin Gibson’s interception of backup quarterback Christopher Vizzina became nullified by a pass interference penalty against UNC teammate Marcus Allen.

The Tar Heels had six takeaways through the first three games of the season, though five were collected against Charlotte and Richmond.

UNC defensive lineman Leroy Jackson acknowledged on Tuesday the perfectly placed punch-out Cal cornerback Brent Austin made in forcing Leacock’s pivotal fumble last week at the goal line. Austin got to his feet and scrambled to pounce on the recovery in the back corner of the end zone, as Leacock tried in vain to crawl there on all fours.

“You can also learn from that, because it was a good play by the dude who made it,” Jackson said. “You’ve just got to learn from certain things like that. And it can help us grow as a defense, to do stuff like that to create more turnovers.”