Masters of disguise: Tar Heels used deception vs. Clemson to avoid picking a poison
Two times in the past two seasons, Jay Bateman’s defense has done the unthinkable.
First in 2018, Army went to Oklahoma and limited the Sooners and eventual Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray to 355 yards — well under the 668.5 they ended up averaging.
Carolina’s defensive coordinator didn’t go into extreme detail about how his Black Knight defense slowed down Murray, but he certainly hadn’t forgotten.
"We shortened possessions and we fooled them a few times,” Bateman said before facing the Tigers. “I've been on the opposite side of that, too. When you're favored by a bunch and the game's not going real well for you, there starts to become a little bit of a press factor. So, we've got to try to hang in there and let them feel the pressure of, 'Man, we're supposed to win by however many,' and let the pressure happen, and then we've got to fool them."
On Saturday, Bateman’s defense did it again as the Tar Heels shortened possessions, fooled the Tigers a few times and had them feeling the pressure of a close game for the first time in 364 days as they managed just 331 yards, — the Tigers’ lowest output since the 2017 College Football Playoff semifinal game at the Sugar Bowl.
Despite his recent history against the nation’s best offense, excitement isn’t exactly the feeling Bateman gets leading up to those games.
“More scared, I don't know,” Bateman said, smiling. “I think I approach every week the same and I talk to our guys about that all the time. I'm here the same amount of hours and the same amount of time and the same amount of film study for every opponent.”
Coaches come into the season with a baseline of what to expect from their offseason film study of opponents, but there’s also a significant amount of time that goes into game-week preparation.
That was especially effective in preparing for Clemson, as his players were empowered to play loose and free.
“Everything they did out there today, Coach Bateman had it To a T all practice and then little things they switched up, we got them corrected at halftime,” linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said.
A tough realization hit when gameplanning for the Tigers: there’s nothing you can truly take away.
Put eight guys in the box to stop ACC Player of the Year Trais Etienne and Lawrence will put the ball up and let two future first-round draft picks in Tee Higgins and Justyn Ross go to work against undersized corners.
“If you spread out and try to zone and cover the receivers, they’re going to run Etienne and Lawrence until the game is over, so you can have a slow death,” Carolina coach Mack Brown said. “Or, you can pack them in and try to slow down those two and they’re going to throw to the tall guys one-on-one and you get killed by the pass because they can have 13 negative plays then throw a deep ball to a tall guy and score, be up 21-0 and you’re playing good.”
Given that the strength of this Carolina defense lies up front with Aaron Crawford and Jason Strowbridge on the line and a few linebackers that have hit their stride lately, Bateman’s bigger concern was the back end.
“I think the main thing was I think they were just really scary outside at receiver,” Bateman said. “And I wanted to give them as few shots on goal as I could outside against one-high defense. People that have played them with one-high defense have done okay for a while, but then all of a sudden you turn around and it's 42 points, because they've given up three huge plays.”
Bateman built his reputation as a coordinator at Army for his ability to disguise his defenses, and on Saturday, that was the best weapon the Tar Heels had.
“We felt like we had to disguise that,” he said. “I thought we did a really good job with our front. Tim Cross, I thought our front played really well in the run game, two-gapping some stuff. Trying to take up two gaps with one guy. Some D-line twists, and some D-line stunts to try and take some run gaps away.”
The disguises allowed the Tar Heels to generate more pressure on the quarterback without actually sending the house at Lawrence, which he saw end poorly for defenses time and again on film.
“The people that have blitzed them a bunch, you get chewed up,” Bateman said. “I think he's so big, and he's so tall, he sees it coming. So he sees it coming off the edge and what happens is then it’s just getting it out to Ross and Higgins, and you're in trouble. So, our thing was to try to show, and then try to get running backs on linebackers isolated.”
That paid off in the form of 10 tackles, three hurries and a sack for Chazz Surratt while Jeremiah Gemmel and Dominique Ross were also able to pressure Lawrence and make him uncomfortable in the pocket.
There was also another problem for Bateman and the staff to consider.
With two freshmen safeties seeing significant time as well as another freshman at cornerback, the Carolina coaches had to accomplish more with less in the backend: simplifying the gameplan for the newcomers while maximizing Myles Dorn’s impact in the game, particularly in getting him involved as a run-stopper without losing depth.
There’s also the nuance of ensuring that the freshmen safeties were able to handle what was thrown at them in terms of disguising their looks.
“Certain calls are extremely detailed,” Bateman said. “Certain calls we're trying to paint a picture of a different play. Especially if you have some success with a play on defense, the next game you try to paint a picture, ‘Hey, look. This is that same look,’ and then it's not. Some of it's very detailed, some of it is more general. We're trying to show high safeties or one high safety, and then how you work with that. I thought we did a really good job on Saturday with our safeties disguising.”
Ultimately, the Tar Heels ended up with a signature defensive performance with Bateman’s preparation putting Carolina in position to pull off a historic upset.
“I think Bateman did a great job with the gameplan and he didn’t make it too dififcult, so the guys could go out there and just play fast,” Gemmel said.
