University of North Carolina Athletics
A Different Flavor of Spring Game
April 16, 2007 | Football
April 16, 2007
By Lee Pace
Spring football games take on various forms and formats.
John Bunting liked to anoint two captains, hold a player draft and stage as much of a lifelike game as possible, the losers eating hot dogs and having to wash cars for charity.
Mack Brown preferred a controlled scrimmage with no score kept.
Carl Torbush once tried to jazz the proceedings up by inviting walk-on candidates from the student body to take the field on the kick-off cover team, hoping to create a "12th-man" tradition a la Texas A&M. That idea fizzled when one of the young men was promptly injured.
Saturday's Blue-White Game under new head coach Rick Steinbacher over the P.A. system.
Kids were invited on the field pre-game for a "Fan's Zone" of games and attractions - essentially a mini "Tar Heel Town" as staged in the fall. They ventured back onto the field at the end of practice to run a hundred-yard wind sprint with the Tar Heel football players; then they could get autographs from the current Tar Heels and a special-guest contingent of NFL alumni that included Dre Bly of the Denver Broncos, Alge Crumpler of the Atlanta Falcons, William Henderson of the Green Bay Packers and Jeb Terry of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Davis took a portable microphone at midfield and addressed the crowd estimated at 10,000. He thanked them for coming, promised them a team that would hit hard, play with passion and make big plays. And he encouraged the fans to help create an atmosphere that "will rock on Saturdays next fall."
"We wanted to go out there today and get a good fan base, build support with the fans for the season," said receiver Hakeem Nicks. "We wanted to go out and have fun, show them a little of what we'd be doing next season."
The highlights of the 90-minute affair included a three-touchdown, 165-yard throwing effort by quarterback T.J. Yates; a 32-yard reception for a score by tailback Richie Rich; three receptions for 82 yards and one TD by Nicks; one bone-jarring tackle by sophomore cornerback Jermaine Strong; a touchdown catch by QB-turned-WR Joe Dailey; a powerful running stride by freshman Anthony Elzy; and a nice speed rush and QB sack by defensive end Hilee Taylor.
"It's been a productive spring," Davis says. "We've started to instill a toughness attitude in this team. It's going to be physical. We're going to play a physical game of football in all three phases. I think we've come a long way in identifying our kids' strengths."
Davis says the coaching staff couldn't identify a quarterback who could complete a pass during the first couple days of spring ball back in mid-March, but he cited the improvement of all four quarterbacks over the month--sophomore Cam Sexton, freshmen Yates and B.J. Phillips and senior Ben Johnson. By the midway point, Yates had moved up to No. 1 on the depth chart. At 6-3, Yates has excellent size to go with a good arm, a sharp mind and a brand of athleticism that helped him get a basketball scholarship offer coming out of high school in Marietta, Ga.
"I felt pretty comfortable," Yates said. "It was the first time I'd been out there in front of a crowd in a couple of years, so it felt good to get back into it. I think I had a pretty good day. I made a couple of mistakes, but they were fixable mistakes."
Davis said he and offensive coordinator John Shoop planned a relatively vanilla unveiling of the playbook with more of a "line up and see what you can make happen" mentality. Nonetheless, the first-team offense in its first 10-play sequence repeated a personnel group and formation only one time. The Tar Heels ran from a straight-I, a split-back, 1-back with a tight end, 1-back with four-wides, and several variations of a "bunch set" they have used frequently in the spring with three receivers aligned in a tight triangle.
"We won't be pigeon-holed in that we run this type of offense or that type of offense," Shoop says. "Everyone on our coaching staff has enough experience that we can coach whatever our guys end up being best at. We're putting in a lot of stuff right now. We're pushing our players, physically and mentally."
Davis says that "by no stretch of the imagination" has Yates won the starting job and that it won't be until two to three weeks before the first game that the staff will settle on a starter. He said the freshman class will report for the second session of summer school and be put "on the fast track" physically to get ready to challenge for playing time when preseason camp opens. That would include QB Mike Paulus, who will attend both sessions of summer school.
"The more competition, the better," says Yates. "Competition just makes everyone a better player. I have no problem with that."
Davis says Yates has done a good job recognizing plays ill-suited against a formation or coverage the defense is showing, better even than "some of the quarterbacks with the Cleveland Browns," a reference to his NFL head coaching tenure from 2001-04.
"He may not get you into a great play, but he gets you out of a bad one and into a decent play that keeps you on track," Davis says.
"He's cool, calm and collected," center Scott Lenahan adds. "I haven't seen him get shook up at all. Even when he's messed up, he hasn't gotten rattled."
