Heel Tough Blog: Stock Report- Duke
The Tar Heels didn’t make it easy on themselves on Saturday, but they went into Durham and took the Victory Bell back from Duke with a 24-20 win. As the team now turns its attention to the first nighttime kick of the season against the Syracuse Orange on Saturday, here is a look at who is trending up and who is trending down around Tar Heel football.
⇧Jaylen McGill
McGill had been rather quiet since the East Tennessee game, but he was called upon on Saturday against Duke and made the biggest play of the game. On 1st & 10 from the Duke 24, McGill would take the ball to the end zone for the game-winning score thanks to pull blocks from left guard Aidan Banfield and center Christo Kelly. That was the highlight of what was a pretty successful day overall for him where he ran for 75 yards and the touchdown on 12 carries. After this performance and Benjamin Hall’s injury, he should be seeing some significant carries for the foreseeable future.
⇧Kenton Dopson III
The other big play in the fourth quarter came from another depth piece that was forced to play a bigger role due to injury. Dopson wasn’t perfect on Saturday, allowing two of his four targets to be caught for 15 yards and a touchdown and registering a team-high three missed tackles, but he made the play when he needed to. On a 3rd & 14 play with :14 left on the clock, Duke quarterback Walker Eget would sail a pass over the head of his intended receiver and Dopson would make a diving grab where he was just able to get his hands under the ball to seal the game. The hope is that he can build off of this performance moving forward and become someone that the team can trust at least until Tre Miller returns.
⇧Greg Smith
Smith is currently the top rated safety in the country by Pro Football Focus and he showed you why on Saturday. He finished the day with 10 total tackles, the second-most of anyone on the team and was even better in coverage. He was targeted four times and allowed just two of them to be caught for 20 yards while registering two pass breakups. He spent most of the night on Duke tight end Jeremiah Hasley and held him to just one catch for five yards. He’ll be tasked with something similar against Syracuse this weekend and there is no reason to believe that he won’t succeed.
⇧Peyton Seelmann
Seelmann was faced with the difficult task of shutting down the Duke running backs on Saturday and he played arguably his best game of the season. He collected a team-high 16 total tackles and was simply all over the field the entire game. While he did allow six of his eight targets to be caught, it only resulted in 36 yards in large part because of the fact that he only missed one tackle. Seelmann has been steadily improving throughout the season and looks ready to produce for the team down the home stretch.
⇧Jordan Shipp
Shipp closed out his strong first half of the season with another good showing against Duke. He led the team in targets (9), catches (7) and receiving yards (75) and scored the first touchdown of the season by a wide receiver. With how consistent he has been so far this year, it’s hard not to expect this to continue in the second half of the season.
⇧Coleman Bryson
Bryson was thrust into significant snaps on the opening drive of the game on Saturday and stepped up to make some important plays. After major issues with missed tackles against Clemson, he didn’t miss a single tackle in this game and made some major plays in coverage. He was targeted four times and allowed just one of those to be caught for 10 yards and had an important pass breakup in the endzone on the first drive of the second half for Duke that forced them to settle for a field goal. Bryson has had a rollercoaster season, but you can’t deny that he stepped when needed on Saturday.
⇧Khristian Dunbar-Hawkins
Dunbar-Hawkins played the most significant snaps of his career on Saturday in place of Ade Willie, who really struggled on Saturday. In 14 snaps, he collected one tackle and was targeted just one time, which resulted in just one yard. He wasn’t very active, but he deserves credit for that because it would have been easy for Duke to attack him if he wasn’t doing the things he needed to. If Willie continues to struggle, Dunbar-Hawkins could see the field more until Kaleb Cost returns.
⇧Cristian Alvarez
Alvarez has been holding his own after being thrust into the starting lineup in the Notre Dame game and had the best game of his season on Saturday. He played every snap for the team at right guard and grade out as the third-best run blocker and the team’s top pass protector as he allowed just one pressure on the afternoon. At this point, even when Jordan Hall returns from injury, there is a chance that the team may stick with Alvarez at that right guard spot.
⇧Billy Edwards Jr.
With the issues that the Tar Heels had with fumbles on Saturday, the team desperately needed Edwards to play turnover-free football and he did just that. He only had a 60% completion rate in this game and finished with 191 yards passing, but that was with three drops from his pass catchers that could have made the stats look a little bit better. If the Tar Heels are going to continue to stack up wins, they need more clean games like this from Edwards and it’s a good sign that this performance came in what was the most important one to that point in the season.
⇧Nicco Maggio
Isaiah Johnson did return to the field for the Tar Heels on Saturday, but he only played 20 snaps, meaning Maggio still had a big role for the team in this one. In 44 snaps, he finished with two total tackles and a tackle for loss while registering two quarterback pressures. At some point, Johnson is going to be able to play a substantial amount of reps, but Maggio is showing that you might be able to rotate a little bit more because of how good he has been in the last two weeks.
⇩Health
Injuries have been a major issue over the past couple of weeks entering games, but the team suffered three important injuries early in the game. Both running back Benjamin Hall and tight end Carson Sneed suffered injury on the opening offensive drive of the game and safety Peyton Waters played just three snaps on the opening defensive drive before he went down, as well. None of the three returned to the game and both Hall and Waters are listed as questionable for Saturday’s game with Syracuse, joining some other significant contributors that have injury designations for this game.
⇩Ade Willie
Willie stepped in nicely in the game against Pittsburgh after Kaleb Cost went down with an injury, but he didn’t have nearly the same success in this one. In just 17 snaps, he collected two total tackles, but was picked on in coverage. In 13 coverage snaps, he allowed three of his four targets to be caught for 44 yards and allowed a 110.4 passer rating when targeted. With Cost’s timeline unknown, the team is counting on Willie to rebound and be effective when he’s on the field.
⇩Andrew Threatt
Threatt has had his trouble in pass protection since kicking out to left tackle against Notre Dame and Saturday was no different. In 35 pass protection reps, Threatt allowed a sack and three total quarterback pressures and posted a 15.2 pass protection grade according to Pro Football Focus. After two clean games to open the season, he has allowed three or more total pressures in each of the last four games. With a Syracuse team that has three players that have registered 19 or more quarterback pressures so far this season, the Tar Heels need Threatt to be better than he has in the last few weeks.
⇩Punters
After it looked like Aeron Burrell found his groove punting wise in the East Tennessee State game, it has been a rough go of it the past two weeks. Burrell averaged just 41.7 yards per punt on his three attempts before leaving the game with some back tightness that has him questionable for this weekend. In his place, Adam McCann-Gibbs dropped his first punt attempt, leading to him being tackled for a 16 yard loss and setting up Duke’s lone offensive touchdown drive of the game that gave them the lead late in the 4th quarter. At this point, the Tar Heels need to expect that this room is going to be shaky going to every game for the foreseeable future.
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