Dre Bly identifies area of improvement for North Carolina secondary

North Carolina needs improvement from the back end of its defense in order to take the next step as a team in 2022. Far too often in 2021, porous pass coverage was their downfall. Despite filling up the scoreboard with future NFL draft pick Sam Howell, the Tar Heels disappointed on expectations for the year.

Cornerbacks coach Dre Bly knows his unit needs to step up this season. Particularly when it comes to allowing big plays. When asked at a press conference this summer what his unit needed to improve on most, Bly pointed directly to those dynamic plays they too often allowed.

“Well, just looking at the whole complete picture, we had too many explosive plays. For whatever reason, the explosive plays happen, and at the end of the day, that’s the one thing that bothers me because that’s what everybody sees. When we make a mistake on the back end, the whole world sees it. If a D-lineman or a linebacker make a mistake, nobody really sees it. So just trying to cut down on explosive plays. That was the one thing we did worse than anything, right. So that’s the focus this year is just trying to minimize explosive plays.”

Part of why the secondary struggled, Dre Bly believes, is perhaps because the game plan was a bit too complicated.

“I think the scheme will be simpler. Less is more. Just trying to minimize explosive plays. Have less than what we did last year and I think we’ll be successful. Continue to compete. We’re going to do it.”

He then singled out former five-star cornerback Tony Grimes, who he looks to have a breakout season.

“You know, Tony’s been very consistent as far as being on the field. You know, he’s been very reliable. So just continue to get better. I really expect — I really look forward to him and the rest of the guys really really performing.”

Seems simple enough. Just need to limit the big plays and Carolina should have much more defensive success in 2021.