Can UNC football avoid getting ‘whipped’ by Miami’s really talented defensive line?
No. 20 North Carolina heads to No. 10 Miami for another game against a top 10 team and another defensive line good enough to short-circuit the Tar Heels’ high-powered offense without a lot of tricks.
The Hurricanes (8-1, 7-1 ACC) don’t always have to come with exotic blitzes against UNC (7-3, 6-3) or pre-snap movement to create confusion. They can just line up and disrupt.
“This is not the Miami team we faced last year,” UNC coach Mack Brown said during his weekly video conference. “The biggest differences I see are Quincy Roche, who we tried to recruit here; and Jaelan Phillips. Those are two of the best pass rushers in the country. They play the run good but, man, they can disrupt quarterbacks and we haven’t done very well in those situations.”
Phillips is a UCLA transfer who at one point had given up playing football for medical reasons. He wasn’t even expected to start at defensive end this season, but earned the spot when Greg Rousseau opted out of playing. Rousseau is considered by many to be a potential top 10 pick in next year’s NFL draft.
This is what they used to do at Miami all the time: replace a future first-round draft pick with one projected to be even better. And Phillips, a finalist for the Chuck Bednarik Award given to the nation’s top defender, has had that kind of a season. The 6-5, 266-pound defensive lineman leads the ‘Canes with 6.5 sacks. His 14 tackles for loss are tied with Roche for the team lead as well.
Roche, who is 6-4 and 235 pounds, faced the Heels last season as he lined up for Temple in the Military Bowl. Brown said he tried to recruit Roche as a graduate transfer to UNC, but noted “it’s been tough for us to get graduate students.” Roche has been a force with the Canes opposite Phillips and is second on the team with 4.0 sacks.
“The two defensive ends might be the two best defensive players we’ve seen all season,” UNC sophomore quarterback Sam Howell told reporters on Tuesday. “...When you have a guy like that on both sides of the ball it makes it hard not only in the run game, but in the passing game.”
UNC wary of Miami’s run stoppers
The interior line of the Canes has a pair of 300-plus pound run stoppers in Nesta Jade Silvera and Jonathan Ford. The highest compliment Brown could give is also the reason Carolina is wary of facing them.
“They’re just like the Notre Dame bunch that whipped us,” Brown said.
The Irish sacked Howell six times, which was a season-high for UNC opponents. Their eight tackles for losses also matched Florida State and Syracuse for the most against the Heels. Notre Dame’s front four also pressured Howell enough to help hold him to a season-low 211 passing yards.
“That’s the biggest concern going into this game is will we be able to hang in there with their front four on defense because they’re really, really talented,” Brown said. “They’re quick, they move a lot, they penetrate. They put pressure on quarterbacks. They’re doing all the things that we’ve had trouble with.”
Can the Tar Heels run the ball against the Hurricanes?
One key to watch is North Carolina’s running game. The Irish held UNC to a season-low 87 yards rushing, and in doing so negated play-action passes and run-pass option plays from being effective.
Brown believes if they can run the ball against the Canes, it will give the front four enough hesitation that Howell will have time to make plays. Miami ranks fifth in the ACC in run defense, allowing an average of 139 yards per game.
“When we haven’t run the ball well is when we’ve been in trouble and Miami’s really good at stopping the run,” Brown said. “So I think that’s the key. We need to give Sam time. When we give Sam time, he does a great job.”
UNC at Miami
When: 3:30 p.m., Saturday
Where: Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens, Florida
Watch: ABC
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 6:12 AM.