University of North Carolina Athletics
Fifth-Year Quintet To Play Big Role
August 15, 2008 | Football
Aug. 15, 2008
By Lauren Brownlow
This season, Carolina has five fifth-year seniors in four different position groups - yet, besides their age, they don't have too much in common. Football-wise, they have all redshirted, many have struggled with injuries, and all five of them look to play a big role this season at their position. All five of them have seen their head coach change and at least one change in their position coach. Despite that, none of them could seem to find a quality that they all had in common. But the only coach who has been here as long as they have, Tommy Thigpen, noticed a few important similarities.
"Each one of those guys, all of them are going to graduate. All of them have done everything right, everything we've asked them to do here. That's the one thing I'd say they all have in common is that they're overachievers," Thigpen said. "If you look at them, Trimane Goddard, he doesn't have all the hype in the world but man, he plays fast, he plays in the traffic and he's our best defensive back. You look at Chase (Rice), he knows where everybody is supposed to be on the football field. Brooks (Foster) - if he works at it, he can be the best in the conference. All those guys are significant players for us and they're impact players for us." The other two fifth-year seniors are Bryon Bishop and Calvin Darity, both of whom are likely starters at left guard and right guard, respectively.
All five have dealt with injuries. Bishop redshirted as a freshman, then hurt his back in 2005 and had to have surgery, missing the 2005 season. Despite playing in just eight games the last two seasons in a reserve capacity, he had a strong spring and he now finds himself atop the depth chart. Darity also redshirted in 2004 and then broke his foot in the spring of 2005, causing him to miss that season and then started all 24 games the next two seasons. Rice was primed to have a big year until he tore a tendon in his left ankle in last year's season-opener. Foster dealt quietly with a right quad injury last season.
Goddard's injury woes may have been the most significant, even though has fought through them to become perhaps the most well-known and high-profile of the fifth-year seniors. He had a great freshman and sophomore season. Then in the spring of 2006, he fractured his left foot and was forced to miss the spring. While working his way back, he began fall training camp fairly healthy in August of 2006 and fractured the same foot again, causing him to miss the season. He also missed the spring this year with a broken bone in his left wrist. Still, despite the setbacks, he entered the 2007 season as the most experienced member of the secondary and returns this season as the strong unit's leader.
Another shared plight between the fifth-years is that the younger guys have a variety of nicknames for them, like "old-head," "old man" and a special one for Goddard: "The Professor." But Thigpen knows that despite the shenanigans, the younger players deeply respect and look up to the fifth-year seniors. He has seen Goddard take control of a room with a piercing, withering look that he calls "The Stare," directed at a misbehaving teammate.
"These older guys help these young guys mature. The young guys look to them on how to act. You walk into a meeting, the old guys have notebooks and they're writing everything the coaches say. They're in class. The young guys walk in, no pencil and paper, looking all around, slouching in their seats. The older guys make them stand up, sit up and take notes. So it's those kinds of lessons that you can't replace," Thigpen said.
The coaches have to count on the fifth-year seniors not only to help control the "squirrelly" freshmen and sophomores, but also to be an extension of the coaching staff on the field and off of it. "Chase (Rice), in our room, he's another coach. He can tell you exactly where everybody is supposed to fit. When a play breaks down, he can tell you how it broke down. That you can't replace because on game day we things break down, sometimes coaches don't catch it but those guys who are right there in the middle of the battle, they know exactly what happened. So you can't replace that kind of experience and that kind of information that you can get from a kid," Thigpen said.
All five have seen coaching changes, and they see distinct changes in the program and its direction. Foster notes that the goal of the NFL is one that is not only much more common among the team, but also one that seems much more attainable. Goddard sees a changed culture with more efficient practices and more film study. Rice sees young linebackers running 4.4 40's, but more importantly, he sees a change in the way that the program views itself. "I feel like now, we've got more of a swagger to us, which is still not fully there yet. But I feel like we've got a little bit more of a swagger going into games, more confident that we're going to win. We're still young, so that will keep growing," Rice said.
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
