University of North Carolina Athletics
Playfulness at Pigskin Preview
July 23, 2009 | Football
July 23, 2009
Four Division I football coaches convened for lunch today at the 7th Annual Triangle Pigskin Preview. Presented by the Triangle Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame, the event took place at the RTP Sheraton Imperial. Butch Davis of North Carolina, Tom O'Brien of N.C. State, David Cutcliffe of Duke and Mose Rison of North Carolina Central were the guests of the day.
Six weeks before kickoff, all four coaches were all smiles, but each will face at least one of the other at some point this season. North Carolina hosts Duke on November 7 and plays at N.C. State three weeks later. The Wolfpack play at home against Duke on October 10. On September 26, an intra-Durham clash takes place at Wallace Wade Stadium in the first-ever meeting between North Carolina Central and Duke on September 26. Rison said the ball got rolling for that game thanks to a chance meeting with Cutcliffe at Champps Restaurant. Rison said coincidentally, Duke Athletic Director Kevin White had given Rison his first high school head-coaching job.
Before practice officially starts, today's event was an opportunity for the coaches to let their guard down. Emcee Don Shea asked questions of the panel, including what they thought was the most over-used expression in football.
Cutcliffe: "'What the hell is he doing?' I don't know about these guys. That's the one I've heard the most."
O'Brien: "I have no follow-up to that one. I'll support that."
Rison: "That's a tough one. . . . `What the hell's going on out there?'"
Davis: "Maybe just the simple use of the word `great.' You hear it thrown around a tremendous amount of time. `He's a great this,' coaches, players . . . `Great' is a word that's probably used way too many times to described somebody. It's OK to just be really good. `Great' is probably a small minority of kids that play . . . There are certainly some `great' people that think every recruit that you see is a five-star `great' player, and if that was the case, God, we'd all go 12-0."
Cutcliffe said his team's game against James Madison was one of his favorite moments of the 2008 season, particularly "when the parachuter landed with Butch's football." Davis offered the Notre Dame game, when Carolina escaped with a 29-24 victory, given that "Father Murphy was in the instant replay booth."
After the program concluded, Davis was asked what details he and his staff needed to nail down in the days before training camp. Chief on his agenda was special teams. "All the nuances, the things that we didn't really work on in spring practice. Things like onside kicks and defending onside kicks, and punting after a safety. Some of the little-bitty things like that. We've got to continue to talk about how we're going to manufacture those during training camp."
For more from the Triangle Pigskin Preview, check the THM twitter page at http://twitter.com/TarHeelMonthly.
