UNC to keep defensive play-calling a secret

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina has utilized a kind of co-defensive coordinator approach with Dan Disch and Vic Koenning, both of whom have similar titles and similar roles in leading the Tar Heels defense.

Disch is technically the team’s defensive coordinator. And Koenning is the associate head coach for defense.

So who’s going to be calling the defensive plays for the Heels?

UNC coach Larry Fedora would rather not say.

“We have a plan,” Fedora said earlier this week. “It’s already established how we’re going to do that defensively. It’s not something that I want to tell everybody how we’re doing it. I would prefer that our opponents have to try to figure out how we’re doing what we’re doing over there. For a variety of reasons.”

Disch and Koenning both worked together at Illinois, and Fedora after the 2010 season hired Disch to be his defensive coordinator at Southern Miss. Disch’s coaching background is in the defensive secondary, while Koenning ascended through the ranks as a linebackers coach.

Both Disch and Koenning have played an equal role in installing UNC’s 4-2-5 defense, and Fedora said that both will be working from the sideline – and not in press box – on game days. As for who will be calling the plays, well, it appears that will remain a mystery.

“I can tell you that all four guys on the defense have as much input to what’s being done as I do,” Fedora said. “So they’re all doing it. Now, how it’s being spit out and how it’s being transferred to the players, is a whole other deal, and I would rather not divulge how exactly we’re doing that.”

--Andrew Carter