By R.L. Bynum
With Steve Belichick no longer North Carolina’s defensive coordinator, the question of who makes the defensive calls on Saturdays has a straightforward answer, even if the process behind it is shared.
Defensive backs and safeties coach Brian Belichick sends the call in, and linebacker Derek McDonald, who wears the green dot, relays it to the defense on the field.
Steve Belichick went on medical leave before the season and subsequently resigned.
Coach Bill Belichick laid out the setup Monday as the Tar Heels prepared for Saturday’s game against Louisville.
“Brian calls the plays in on the speaker to Derek for the most part, but we’re all involved in different things,” Bill Belichick said during a Monday press conference at the Kenan Football Center. “Depends on what it is, whether it’s pass rush or coverage adjustment, so forth. We talk about all those things.”
The chain is not always rigid. McDonald, a graduate transfer from Syracuse, can make a call himself depending on the situation, and the staff talks through the next series between drives.
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“Brian makes the call to Derek, or in some cases, Derek makes the call based on what the situation is,” Bill Belichick said. “But in between series, we’ll talk about, ‘Hey, all right, next time they’re in third and long, here, what are you thinking?’ ”
Some of the information behind those calls comes from the coaches upstairs, not from the person with the call sheet. Bill Belichick said the booth tracks tendencies, such as how often the offense has run or thrown on first down and what coverage the Tar Heels have used in those spots, and passes them along.
“That’s not as a play-caller. You don’t have that information,” Bill Belichick said. “I mean, maybe you do, but a lot of times that comes from the guys in the booth.”
Those details can change the call or reinforce it. For example, when an offense has run on four of its last five first downs.
“Be ready for him to throw it here, and so that might change your call,” Bill Belichick said. “So again, it’s really a collective group, but Brian actually makes the call to Derek.”
Brian Belichick described the job in similar terms. He said the call draws on everything he’s picked up in football, but the decision is made well before kickoff.
“I’ve learned a lot over my career and just time in football, being around staffs, players, teams, and having the opportunity to call it, it’s a collection of all that, where you just try to make the best decision you can,” Brian Belichick said. “And it’s not just on game day, it’s every day, trying to put together the best collective decision we can as a staff.”
He also credited the staffs he’s worked on with operating the same way.
“I’m thankful that the staffs I’ve been on throughout my career have done a great job of operating as a collective unit,” he said.
Brian Belichick still coaches the defensive backs, and he said the staff has made adjustments to fit the new arrangement without overhauling how it works.
“We just have had to adjust collectively, and game plan a little differently, and nothing earth-shattering,” he said.
His responsibilities, though, now reach beyond one position group. Bill Belichick said the expanded role has pushed his son to see how every call affects the rest of the defense, something that matters less when a coach focuses on only one unit.
“Brian’s done a great job for us,” Bill Belichick said. “It’s not that he didn’t understand it, but now you’re putting calls together and how one honestly simple call for the nose affects a linebacker, how that affects a safety.”
Bill Belichick added that the difference comes from working with the whole group instead of one corner of it.
“When you’re just focused on one group, safeties, then you’re an expert in that area,” he said, “but he’s had to broaden that out a little bit, which he’s done a good job of.”
Brian Belichick said the best preparation for the pressure of a late-game call comes in practice, where the defense works through those situations against the offense. Even so, he said no preparation produces a perfect answer.
“Every experience is a learning opportunity, and I think we do a good job of setting up stuff like that in practice as well,” Brian Belichick said. “There’s never a perfect answer. You got to rely on some combination of what you prepared for during the week, what you think would have been the right thing, and then your instincts during the game on what they’ve done and how you feel going into the play.”
Much of that process runs through McDonald, who has handled the communication on the field. Brian Belichick said the veteran linebacker has made the arrangement easier.
“Derek has been unbelievable and valuable,” Brian Belichick said. “He’s exceptional at handling the communication and making adjustments and communicating on sideline, communicating on the field, being versatile positionally, couldn’t ask for more. He’s tough, smart, dependable.”
The next test comes against a Louisville offense that Bill Belichick described as explosive at every skill position. He said the Cardinals use multiple tight ends, receivers and backs, forcing defenses to cover the entire field.
“You get stretched,” Bill Belichick said. “They create a lot of space in the defense, and then when they hit it, whether that’s a quarterback or one of the running backs, or catch a slant pass or something like that behind the defense, you can give up a lot of yards in a hurry, so it’s very challenging.”
The defense showed in last Saturday’s 38–21 win at UConn how quickly a game can change when the calls produce takeaways. Brian Belichick said that is the point of the constant emphasis on forcing turnovers.
“Last week, three turnovers, and that completely changes the game,” Brian Belichick said. “We know getting turnovers is going to help us win tremendously.”
Photo by Smith Hardy
