Some UNC players, after 'lazy' season, learned about Vic Koenning news on Twitter
Tim Scott, the senior safety at North Carolina, told the story with a tone of disappointment, as if he couldn't believe he and his teammates had found out this way.
It was on Twitter, Scott said, that he and some of his teammates learned that Vic Koenning, the assistant coach most responsible for defense, was on his way out.
“And that was right before we had practice so we were just all in shock that we found out that way,” Scott said.
Here's the story I wrote about UNC's defensive coaching situation. Larry Fedora, the Tar Heels coach, has begun the search for Koenning's replacement, and it's unclear whether more defensive coaching changes are coming. Though they probably are. They have to be, right, after such a bad season?
The Tar Heels, who will play against Rutgers on Dec. 26 in the Quick Lane Bowl, rank 115th nationally in total defense. They'll finish the season having allowed the most points in school history and the most yards in school history, though the 2003 defense surrendered more yards per game.
Scott said a few interesting things on Monday. For one, there was the story about finding out on Twitter that Koenning was leaving. Scott also tried to explain the reason why the defense just didn't work, and why it was as terrible as it was this season.
I included this in the story linked above, but it bears repeating:
“We just didn't get up when we needed to get up for the games,” Scott said. “The only game I can honestly say we got riled up for was Duke. And I guess we were playing for the (Victory) Bell. But we came into N.C. State just lazy and not really as focused as we were the week before. And it happened like that the majority of the season. Not necessarily the young guys, but even the older guys – myself included sometimes. We were just lazy with our work ethic during the week.”
If that's not indicative of a complete breakdown in coaching, I'm not sure what would be. Coaches have a lot of responsibilities. X's and O's are at the top of the list. Implementing that game plan isn't far down the list. And somewhere on there, too – and pretty high – has to be making sure players are the opposite of the way Scott described. Focused. And not lazy.
Scott said that Koenning didn’t address the defense on Saturday, when the Tar Heels found out that he was leaving. Only Fedora spoke about it. Was Koenning even there?
“No,” Scott said.
Scott said something else that was strange to me. He said that, for a while now, the cornerbacks and safeties met separately off the field, and watched film separately. That sounds extremely odd.
Scott brought this up when he was talking about how things will be different the next couple weeks under Dan Disch, the assistant coach who's taking over Koenning's responsibilites for the bowl game. Here's Scott, again:
“It'll be different for the fact that he's the play caller, but at the same time coach Disch and Vic always worked together throughout the defensive calls and stuff. So they both called (plays) in the past and now that coach Vic is gone now we'll just have to worry about Disch. It's also a plus because the corners and the safeties are in the same room now, back to how we used to have it.”
Huh? Why was it ever a good idea for those guys to be in separate rooms in the first place? Suddenly, the reasons for the Tar Heels' struggles in pass defense have become much clearer.
Andrew Carter is the UNC athletics beat reporter for The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer. Follow him on Twitter at @_andrewcarter .
This story was originally published December 16, 2014 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Some UNC players, after 'lazy' season, learned about Vic Koenning news on Twitter."