University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: A More Consistent Person
August 25, 2006 | Football
Aug. 25, 2006
By Adam Lucas
After every practice, John Bunting spends several minutes rehashing his team's quarterback situation. Two players entered training camp competing for the starting spot; three weeks later, two players are still competing for the starting spot.
There's a noticeable lack of drama, however, around Carolina's starting cornerback position. Coming into camp, Jacoby Watkins was the accepted starter at one corner. But the other was supposed to be the source of a multi-player battle that would rage into late August. Maybe it would be one of the hotshot redshirt freshmen. Maybe it would be experienced Bryan Bethea.
Or maybe it would be number-39, er, number-10...um, number-9, or number-3--yeah, that's it, number-3--Quinton Person.
You can be forgiven if you're not entirely certain who's lining up opposite Watkins on Sept. 2 against Rutgers. Person, a redshirt junior, has switched jersey numbers at least once per season. For part of last season, he wore number-9, which turned out to be a very bad idea. Jesse Holley also wore number-9, which meant mass confusion for television announcers and newspaper writers. Sometimes Holley was credited with tackles that belonged to Person. Sometimes Person was credited with catches that belonged to Holley.
Person finally rendered that confusion obsolete by switching to his current number-3 jersey.
"I had 39 my freshman year," he says. "That was a terrible number. I looked like a fullback out there. Then I switched, and what I really wanted was 10. That was my high school number. But I couldn't get it away from Connor. So if I couldn't have 10, I decided I wanted a single-digit number, and 3 seemed like a good fit. It's the best number I've had at Carolina."
He also happens to be playing the best football of his Carolina career. He'd seen plenty of game action already, including four starts last season after Watkins was injured. Some of his most valuable contributions had come on special teams, where he's been a consistently solid performer--returning punts as a freshman and scooping up a blocked punt and returning it for a touchdown in last year's win over NC State.
The coaching staff periodically felt Person was ready to cross over and turn those special teams performances into similarly solid roles on the defense. They'd plug him in, he'd play well, but then his production would slide the next week. He started against Miami, then was removed from the starting lineup the next two weeks against Boston College and Maryland. With two games left in the season, he was reinstated as a starter against Duke.
"Sometimes he would lose focus if something off the field was not very good," defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Marvin Sanders says. "If something was bothering him, you could tell because he would bring it with him to the football field. It was to the point of wondering, `Which Quinton Person will show up today?' There were some times he was not mentally focused on every play."
Everyone--including Person himself--knew he had the physical ability to win the starting job. He made a conscious effort to improve the mental part of his game, and it has paid dividends throughout camp.
"He had a good practice the first day of camp," Sanders says. "The second day, I was on him the whole time. I thought, `It's going to be up and down like this all year.' But from practice three until now, he has been very consistent."
And he's won the job. Barring something unusual, Watkins and Person will be Carolina's starting cornerbacks against Rutgers. Although Watkins, a senior, has been plagued by injuries, he's an established talent when he's on the field. That means opponents are likely to test the other side of the field early and often.
That's what happened against Utah last year, when Person filled in for a sick Watkins. Person registered a career-high 10 tackles...but that was partially because the Utes specifically threw his way on eight plays.
"Teams are definitely going to test me," he says with a big smile. "I want them to. As a cornerback, if you don't want them to, you're in trouble. I've worked really hard on my technique and that has made me a better player than before. I'm doing the little things that I didn't always do before."
Oh, and about those frequent number changes? Person knows it may take a couple games before fans immediately associate him with that number-3 jersey.
"The number doesn't make the player," he says. "The player makes the number. So I'm going to make 3 a good one."
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.
