University of North Carolina Athletics
Monday Butch Davis Quotes
August 24, 2009 | Football
Aug. 24, 2009
Whether camp is up to expectations thus far: "A certain part of being a college football coach is you don't get the luxury of having a preseason, you don't get a chance to test things out, to go `ok, well we need another week's worth of work on that.' It's all watching them. I think the best way we can tell whether or not (they're ready) is the execution, the mental errors, to see what position we're in. That's a pretty good indicator. We didn't make many mental mistakes in the first two groups. They were pretty sharp, they went out, the executed the things we asked them to do and that gives you a little bit of confidence."
Rookies in the scrimmage: "I was very pleased. You could categorically go up and down the line and 10, 12, 15 of them really did some good things. A.J. Blue and Hunter Furr ran the ball well, I was pleased with the way that they blocked. They're both physical, they did a great job on blitz protection. All the receivers: Jhay Boyd, Josh Adams all made some catches during the first of the scrimmage and that was encouraging. Kevin Reddick did a nice job; he had an interception return for a touchdown during the scrimmage. You couldn't have planned it any better, if he had been starting for three years, he couldn't have played the coverage any better, baited the quarterback any better, he made a good break on the ball. We were very happy with Eugene Robinson and Mywan Jackson, they did a nice job on the secondary. It was a very positive first opportunity for some of them. Brennan Williams, we thought that he did a nice job, he and Travis Bond are going to be to good players in the future."
What positions have competition: "We're still working on the special teams. Obviously, with taking on a brand new punter, we've got some competition going on with Grant Shallock and C.J. Feagles. Both of them have shown really strong legs, they've shown the ability to really hang the ball well. But we're looking for consistency. I don't want a 55 yard kick one time and a 29 yard kick the next time... From the defensive perspective, I think one of the things; we took a bit hit losing Matt Merletti, with his ACL injury. So we're kind of having some auditions with our nickel backs. We're taking a look at some guys: Melvin Williams is one of them some of the young, incoming players: Eugene Robinson, Terry Shankle, Mywan Jackson.
How much baptism by fire has there been: "More than you would like. Our first offensive line has had a really solid camp. And our second offensive line has made really significant growth and I'm not just trying to build them up. They've really put their nose to the grindstone; they've worked very, very hard. And the best thing is, they've stayed healthy. Now you've got a chance for those five guys to develop some continuity of talking to each other. We've got our veteran guy next to our young guy and that helps. They get a chance to talk to somebody that can actually help them with play clarifications. We still need two more weeks to get ready; we still need to get some more opportunities during the season."
On Saturday's scrimmage: "We were really wanting to have a scrimmage. It was physical, they tackled, everyone went full speed, there were probably about 60 snaps. It was good. The only thing that was different from a traditional game situation was that it was scripted down the distances because we wanted certain things to come up...we didn't know if we'd get that in a traditional scrimmage...so that part of it was good. The thing that our coaching staff left the field and felt like we did right was make plays. That was one of the things is that we got some productivity out of the receivers and I think five different guys at the wide receiver position got multiple catches. Quarterbacks were very efficient. T.J. had a good day, Braden Hanson had a great day, he was five for five. Renner, I think, was four for seven. I think he threw one touchdown so that part of it was pretty positive. We did a lot of special teams stuff, and there's clearly some areas that we need to clean up in special teams, just because we're trying to play some younger guys but it was on the whole, very good."
On defensive backs: "I think they've had a very good camp. What you have to judge them against is where are they in comparison to where they were in the springtime and where are they in comparison to what they feel like they can be, what is their potential? I will tell you that I think every one of them is a better football player than he was in the spring. Charlie Brown has been very good with the fundamentals and the technique. Also, I think Jordan Hemby's improved, Kendrick Burney's improved. The coaching staff keeps talking about Melvin Williams, how good a camp that he has had. It's sort of indicative of junior college players. The very first year is just learning the transition, learning the speed from junior college football to Division I football. Now he's in sync and making some plays. And Deunta's playing good so we're pleased with the way the secondarys have played so far."
