University of North Carolina Athletics
Walston: Advanced Chemistry
August 10, 2010 | Football
Aug. 10, 2010
Butch Davis's fourth training camp at Carolina represents another step forward for the Tar Heel football program. As the team matures together, Davis and the Tar Heel coaching staff - which returns completely intact for the first time in 11 years - are able to accelerate the processes that take the team from the practice field to game day.
Though some things will never change - witness Davis's insistence that the players get even clapping right on day one - the program has evolved to allow upperclassmen to teach their teammates. No one is shocked at the level of detail and effort expected by the coaching staff.
"We don't have to always try to preach about the expectations of what we want out of every single practice," Davis said on Monday. "We don't have to go back to square one to start over." Still, the coaching staff never strays from the fundamentals of the game, the foundation upon which every scheme, formation and play is built. "If you're not fundamentally sound, it doesn't matter how many schemes and x's and o's that you can draw up," he said. "You've got to be good at tackling, blocking, making sure that you're fundamentally sound."
What helps in that regard is the return of 39 lettermen and 21 starters, players that can help acclimate freshmen to the college game. "We're so much further advanced just because of the carryover, guys that have played in games, guys that understand schemes, guys that know how to do the drills, older guys that can teach younger guys. It's a dramatic difference."
Senior free safety Deunta Williams said the difference between his fifth training camp and his first and second is immeasurable. "The level of competition, the intensity, the speed of practice, the speed of the guys, it seems like it has really intensified," Williams said. "I feel like that's due to Coach Davis and what he brings to the table."
Williams said the team "really didn't know how to practice" when Davis first arrived at Carolina. But the coach stepped in, established expectations both on and off the field, and it's "smooth sailing" now, Williams said. "Everybody that comes in, they just fall in line." Williams admitted it was difficult for him to imitate the players ahead of him early in his career because of the mental quickness that the game required. Today, however, with a foundation of expectations and ritual in place, it's become easier for young players to pick things up. "That's a credit to those young guys, but also to our coaching staff as well."
And as for those details? Williams said when talent meets talent on the field, details are often game-changers. Davis is strict on things like punctuality and note-taking, and attention to detail permeates every part of the program, from academics to athletics. "Sometimes talent has nothing to do with the outcome of games. Jumping offsides, penalties, that doesn't have anything to do with talent. So by making us be disciplined all the time, it kind of eliminates those penalties and stuff like that."
•Davis said freshman running back Giovani Bernard would likely have surgery in the next 10 to 12 days on his torn ACL, an injury suffered while making a cut during Sunday practice. "It'll be a challenge emotionally and psychologically for the first month until you come to grips with it, and then you get over it," Davis said. "We've had huge success, our medical people have done a great job, and you just take a look at guys like Matt Merletti, how he's been able to bounce back and the success that he's had. Carl Gaskins is another guy. No one ever likes for any kid to get injured, but it's an unfortunate thing, but he'll bounce back. He's a very, very strong mental person and I know that he'll attack the rehab and stuff just like he would performing and playing.
Turner Walston is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
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