CHAPEL HILL – Offensive coordinator Blake Anderson spoke with reporters about where he feels the offense is just days before the first game of the season.
Anderson said he won't know where the offense really is until after the first few games
How has this last week of practice before the first game been?
“There’s been steady progress. We look like a bunch of guys who are ready to play someone else. There were a few lack of focus things at the end where there’s some nervous energy because they’re just ready to play. I just think they’re ready to challenge themselves and really find out where we are, where we want to be and where we need to fix things."
Are you where you thought you’d be with the timing of the offense?
“It’s hard to say with a new group. I think we’ve made steady progress and it’s still so hard to tell until you get a couple games into the season. When you’re not going with an early whistle you hope guys will be able to break tackles and create more explosive plays than you do in practice because everything is a quick whistle.
“You just really don’t know but we’re making fewer mistakes than when we started and some guys are starting to step up. We might have some more depth than we did before. I feel like we’re moving in the right direction.”
With the speed you play at, do you have to have 20-25 plays scripted in advance?
“We typically like to script some things early but then the game will dictate where you go from there. We’ll script some things to get into a comfort level with who you want to get the ball to in any offense. But after that the game will take you where you go from there…how quick are the officials setting the ball, how well are you running and throwing, who has the ‘hot hand’…all of that you hope to find out by scripting some plays ahead of time.”
How comfortable do you feel about all three of the running backs?
“I feel good about them. Gio had a good spring and he had a good season last year. Blue and Romar have been really pleasant surprises that we didn’t really know we had. We hoped they had it but we didn’t know how they would come back after the summer. But they’ve been doing well and are going to help us tremendously. It’s going to take all three to win games.”
