4 September 2024
The Gophers defense did the math on missed tackles in the season-opener last week and it adds up to one big reason why they lost 19-17 loss to North Carolina.
Minnesota’s defense missed 22 total tackles against the Tar Heels, and if some of those were made at the point of attack, UNC would have rushed for less than two yards a carry instead of the 3.6 yards they averaged at Huntington Bank Stadium.
“That, to me, is the difference in the ball game,” defensive coordinator Corey Heatherman said Wednesday.
Some of the missed tackles can be chalked up to it being the first game, and that fact that college teams aren’t going live in preseason camp outside of a few scrimmages. Some of it can be attributed to technique slip-ups in the first live game. And some of it can be a doff of the cap to North Carolina’s standout running back Omarion Hampton.
The Gophers just hope it isn’t a harbinger of last season’s poor defense, especially against the run, carrying over to a new year.
To his credit, Hampton picked up where he left off last season, when he was the fifth-highest rusher in the nation. The 6-foot, 220-pound tailback rushed 30 times for 129 yards against the Gophers, with Pro Football Focus tallying 92 yards after contact and 12 missed tackles forced.
“We are going to watch that guy play football for a long time, I think,” Hetherman said.
The Gophers go through a tackling circuit — a series of drills to train different tackling techniques — in each practice, but some of the breakdowns in the season opener were not trusting the system, Hetherman said. He cited defenders leaving their feet upon contact.
“Obviously, we missed way too many tackles last week,” defensive end Danny Striggow said. “It is a more detailed emphasis about how we are going about tackling circuits, how we use our tackling circuits and using the system we have in place.”
The Gophers will need shore up their tackling in Week 2 against Rhode Island, an 11 a.m. kickoff Saturday at Huntington Bank Stadium. The Rams feature an option offense with dual-threat quarterback Devin Ferrell leading the way. The Virginia Tech transfer has accounted for 341 of the teams 396 total yards — 287 passing and 54 rushing — in a 20-17 victory over Holy Cross on Aug. 31.
“I thought he played really well last week. The majority of the offense went through him — whether it was him running the ball or throwing the ball,” Hetherman said. “That has been the emphasis: We have to stop him this week. We have to make sure we contain him and keep the ball in front of us and everyone has to do their job. It’s triple option football.”
With a 10-day span between Games 1 and 2, the Gophers defense put together clips of its players making the same stops they missed against North Carolina. It was intended to be a confidence boost and reminder that those types of running backs will be back on the schedule in conference play.
“We went back and pulled the clips last year against the elite backs in the Big Ten and us making that exact same tackle,” Hetherman said. “Sometimes it’s a confidence piece, sometimes it’s just getting backing into the routine.”
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