University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Reading Trends Produces Pros
May 19, 2008 | Football, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
May 19, 2008
By Adam Lucas
If Butch Davis has his way, Kentwan Balmer will soon have plenty of company in the NFL.
Balmer was a first-round pick of the San Francisco 49ers during the NFL Draft on April 26. Although the Tar Heels are heavily represented in the pros, it was the first opening round selection from UNC since 2002.
Soon, however, Davis plans to spend plenty of draft Saturdays watching his protégés fill the green room.
"I was ecstatic for Kentwan," Davis says. "It's great for his family and it's great for our program because it's a testimony that when someone does what he did in the last year, the sky is the limit. He did everything a coaching staff could ask an athlete to do. That success will open the door for future players in this program.
"It also enhances our program. High school players want to get a college education but they also want the opportunity to play in the National Football League. In the next half-dozen years, we will be the kind of program where Kentwan Balmer set the standard and we have six to twelve kids drafted every year. It will definitely pay dividends in the future."
Now the task is figuring out how to grow Carolina football from two 2008 draftees (Hilee Taylor was selected in the seventh round by the Carolina Panthers) to a half-dozen or more. Davis, with his experience as a Dallas Cowboys assistant and Cleveland Browns head coach, is confident he knows how to make the progression.
When he returned to college football as head coach of the Tar Heels for the 2007 season, he found himself directly in the middle of the college game's latest trend--spread offenses with a dash of read option. It's effective, it's intriguing...and it's not something Davis plans to utilize.
"I don't think we've seen the end of the spread, and we're not nearing the close of it," he says. "But I do think we're on the back side of it. One of the things that will be the death knell to the read option is comments made during the 2008 Draft. No one in the NFL will ever run that offense, and quarterbacks, receivers, and offensive linemen who play in that system will struggle."
That's a bold pronouncement. But Davis, who made his reputation as a defensive coach and says pro defensive coordinators would relish the opportunity to have multiple shots on a running quarterback during a game, believes the indicators are clear.
"The sole reason why Miami had so much success going back to the mid-1970s is because they always ran a pro-style offense. You don't want a quarterback to spend four years of his career playing as a read option quarterback and then being forced to move to receiver or cornerback in the NFL. You have to avoid the temptation to jump into something because it's in vogue or it might help you win a couple more games. Eventually, teams that run their offense like Southern Cal--and like North Carolina is going to run it--will be the ones that attract players who want to be prepared for the NFL."
Don't misunderstand, however. Davis isn't one of those coaches who holes up in his office to avoid anything invented after the single-bar facemask. He believes in technology and has revamped the Tar Heel video library. He learned to text just in time for the NCAA to ban text messages. And he's constantly on the lookout for not just current college football trends, but the ones that might be coming in the future.
According to Davis, the next big thing might just be something he's already trying to implement with his Tar Heels.
"The more teams spread it out and throw, you will see a shift away from traditional defenses," he says. "You're going to see a lot of hybrids at the linebacker positions. Guys who are like a strong safety but can come in and play linebacker and give you more speed on the field to combat all the receivers."
Davis has always liked that model of player, beginning with his exposure to Darren Woodson. The former Cowboys safety became accustomed to playing close to the line of scrimmage at Arizona State and became a versatile member of the Dallas secondary.
Now, the task is to stock the Tar Heel talent pool with players with similar versatility. Davis mentions Jonathan Smith and incoming freshman Herman Davidson as players with athleticism and positional flexibility.
Once those players are commonplace, of course, it will be time to move on to the next trend.
"I've coached long enough that I've seen the split back veer come and go, the wishbone come and go, and the run and shoot come and go," Davis says. "Football always has been and always will be a game of cycles."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
