University of North Carolina Athletics
Wednesday Practice Notes
August 24, 2005 | Football
Aug. 24, 2005
By Adam Lucas
The striking thing about Wednesday morning's practice session wasn't the players in red (injured) jerseys. Sure, it was a little disconcerting to see Chase Page, Kentwan Balmer, and Tommy Davis standing on the sidelines. According to John Bunting, Page and Davis are expected back on Monday and Balmer was nicked up yesterday during a drill and should return soon.
That's a pretty formidable three-quarters of a defensive line out of action. But for the first time in several years, the Tar Heels didn't have to fill in with emergency players. No one had to move from fullback to end. No one had to make the switch from linebacker to line. No overmatched freshman had to move up to the first team. The depth is finally in the pipeline. The injuries gave young, talented players a chance to get repetitions with the first team, experience that will prove valuable when their services are needed--and at some point, they will be needed--later this season. Khalif Mitchell is showing exciting improvement. Shelton Bynum provides a physical presence in the middle. Hilee Taylor continues his recovery from knee surgery and is getting closer to full speed. Kyndraus Guy will likely start at one tackle position.
"It's deeper than it has been," Bunting said. "We're not counting on our two freshmen (Aaron Stahl and Camaron Thomas) much at all, but they're going to be good players at some point. We have three or four guys who can play defensive tackle, and we haven't had that before. Our thirds are a walk-on or freshman-type player. But we are two deep. That should make us a lot better, although there's no guarantee of that. One guy could go down and change everything."...
As they go through the second full week of training camp, more game-type simulations are being added to the practice routine. Today's gave the offense the ball with 3 minutes, 10 seconds left on the clock and a four-point lead. The defense was given two timeouts to work with, and the object was simple--the offense had to melt as much time as possible before punting the football. Both the first-team offense and the second-team offense got a crack at the drill, which was done at thud tempo...
The next-best thing to a scrimmage is the Carolina drill. The linebackers were getting the better of the running backs and tight ends on Wednesday morning until Justin Warren and R.J. Waters put together two straight solid performances, getting big cheers from their teammates. Cooter Arnold also drew a scream of delight from Andre Powell when he wrestled a linebacker to the ground...
With the news about Roger Heinz's surgery, Joey Bozich is officially in the hunt for the backup quarterback job. With that race has come a new shot of confidence for the Illinois native. "The last two days Joey Bozich has come on very strong," Bunting said. "Right now he is showing he can do that for us. He still has a lot to learn and over time needs to become very consistent to go out there and run our offense. That's the number-one thing, to go out there and be able to manage our offense. He is learning from Matt (Baker). He is seeing how Matt is managing the game. You don't have to throw the home run every time, and you have to know what to do."...It looks like WTAs (Winning Team Activities), the voluntary workouts organized by the seniors, may be here to stay. Linebacker Tommy Richardson said the benefits have been tangible. "We're way further ahead in this camp than we have been in past camps," he said. "Guys don't have to be taught the fundamentals of how to do things. We put in a defense one day and have it down for the next day. That has been great."...Wednesday morning Steven Bell did something that hasn't been seen very much during camp--he pancaked Kyndraus Guy...Walk-on Jay Spence looks to be the most likely candidate to signal in the plays to the Carolina quarterback from the sideline. Spence wears jersey number-13 (hey, we want you to have every piece of information you need for game day).
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.
