University of North Carolina Athletics
Media Day Notes
August 13, 2005 | Football
Aug. 13, 2005
By Adam Lucas
The Tar Heels met two very distinct groups on Saturday--the media and the fans. Selected players (Barrington Edwards, Matt Baker, Chase Page, and Tommy Richardson) along with John Bunting met with the media beginning at noon. Once the interview sessions were over, it was time for some less grueling questions, as the Tar Heels held their annual Meet the Heels Day at 1:30.
Transfer running back Barrington Edwards was available to the general media for the only time this preseason, and he proved to be a very popular interview. Edwards may be the only player in recent memory to begin his media day session by standing up, shaking hands with reporters, and individually introducing himself to everyone in attendance. You can read more about him here...
Although Edwards might be popular with the media, he's still a bit of an unknown quantity on the football field. "There's no way to project what he'll do," Bunting said. "He's got a lot of confidence and a lot of toughness. It's not as if he didn't practice with pads on every single day last season. He took some shots. When you haven't played in a while, putting your hands on the ball for the first time and going out there and playing against the Georgia Tech defense trying to strip the ball and knock it on the ground is my biggest concern."
The ever-quotable Tommy Richardson got off the best line of the day. When asked by an unsmiling reporter how the Tar Heels could possibly return to the days of having a "feared defense," Richardson responded, "It's going to be fun this year. The defense is going to put out a great product. The fans are going to love it. I think you might even love it, sir." For the record, the reporter didn't crack a smile...Edwards was grilled about his speed and reported he had run in the "high 4.4's" recently, with an average time of around 4.5...
Carolina will get a veteran boost with the return of Skip Seagraves and Chase Page. The duo spent a significant amount of time together last season as they struggled through their injury rehabs--Page from a fluke finger injury and Seagraves from a knee injury. "I was the first person he called after he found out he wasn't going to play," Page said. "He was really upset. I felt his pain, man, I really did. From the get-go I told him not to worry, that he'd get his sixth year...I tried to be positive because he was very down since he'd already had his redshirt year." Page is full-speed and says he has no hesitation about getting back in the trenches. Seagraves will practice when the team goes full pads early next week, but his repetitions will be limited and he likely will only practice once per day when two-a-day sessions are planned...
Although they got a head start by attending the second session of summer school, many Tar Heel freshmen still had the expected response to their first day of college practice on Friday--overwhelmed. "We're already into a lot of our packages and some of the freshmen were swimming," Bunting said. "I saw a couple of them just sitting there shaking their heads. I went up to them and told them not to worry about it. It'll all clear up in a while."
The rest of the day for the Tar Heels is devoted to meetings, dinner, and a late evening practice.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
