The Tar Heel sports media is busy hyping up reigning ACC Player of the Year, Drake Maye, the quarterback. He was an early 2022 dark horse to win the Heisman Trophy. Now again in 2023, the Heisman hype for Maye is already taking off. See these two example articles by @RoddBaxley Fayetteville Observer and @RichardJAdkins Tarheels Wire. Undoubtedly, there’s more to come. However, Mr. Maye’s 2023 Heisman campaign will go off the rails quickly if a newly constituted O-line cannot protect him.
As the season opener approaches (in just four days!), questions about The Tar Heels O-line remain a focus for the Tar Heel sports media. As a Gamecock, this was a curiosity. The Tar Heels return four of their five starters from last season. I dug into it to unravel the mystery.
The primary bone of contention is finding a good fit at left tackle. It appears that 320-pound redshirt senior William Barnes is the man to protect Maye’s blind side. Barnes has played in 52 career college games, and made 13 starts last season as a right guard. So, what’s the problem?
Well, his pre-season position transition to left tackle has been bumpy. Early in pre-season camp, after lamenting the sacks of Tar Heel QBs in a scrimmage, Tar Heel football coach Mack Brown said “the tackles have been inconsistent.” Mack Brown emphasizes the need to avoid sacks on offense
That triggered the Tar Heel sports media. They went into attack mode. Putting the redshirt senior player under intense grilling, Barnes conceded that he’s playing left tackle for the first time since his high school junior year. (That begs the question, was he even good enough as a high school senior to play tackle?) After reporters repeatedly asked pointed questions about the transition from guard to tackle, Barnes finally acknowledged. “It’s definitely been challenging. Moving from right guard to left tackle–the transitioning–it can be difficult.” He admitted bumbling up his footwork and being confused by offensive line play calls. Nevertheless, Barnes attributed the sack issue in the scrimmage to the excellent Tar Heel defensive line personnel and claimed that with coaching help he overcame these earlier difficulties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9mr2SJArg0
The Tar Heel media turned their attention on the new O-line coach, Randy Clements. Reporters interrogated Clements about the perceived O-line sack issue. One reporter asked Clements if the O-line was “soft” when he arrived. Clements deferred criticizing his predecessor but acknowledged everyone has “different styles.” He then contrasted one philosophy of an O-line playing for stalemates verses another philosophy (his!), “playing to dent the line of scrimmage and bloody somebody’s nose.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVHEM15Tv0s (7:45)
Under interrogation, Clements portrayed confidence in Barnes and assured the Tar Heel media Barnes would produce at left tackle. Clements rated Barnes as an A+ left tackle. He cited Barnes coachability, work ethic, spirit of competitiveness, and humility. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVHEM15Tv0s (4:20) Clements also noted that Maye, being a very athletic QB, is able to escape pass rushers with his scrambling style.
That was not so much the case, however, as UNC wound down the 2022 season with a string of losses. In those games, Maye’s QB rating declined as better teams focused on containing his scrambling threat. Those teams kept Maye inside the pocket. In those games, an issue of Maye’s pocket presence or happy feet emerged as the avenues for escaping the pocket were cut off by good defenses.
An early take-a-way for the Gamecocks opener is for us to watch and see if the Gamecocks contain Maye in the pocket while (hopefully) collapsing it on him. The Gamecocks defensive linemen cannot let Maye scramble out and threaten their defense by extending plays and with his excellent running ability. And if they do meet this goal of keeping Maye in the pocket, watch and see if Maye has improved his pocket footwork, or if like last season, he becomes a nervous nelly. If Maye has improved his pocket presence during the off season, he will be an even more dangerous QB than he was in 2022. Adding that skill to his QB toolbox will certainly improve Maye’s odds of winning a Heisman Trophy for himself.
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