University of North Carolina Athletics
Walston: Time To Go To Work
August 6, 2010 | Football
Aug. 6, 2010
The Carolina football team took the practice field Friday. Much has happened in the 118 days since Carolina football's spring scrimmage and the start of training camp. The talk was supposed to be about the return of 21 starters and one of the nation's best defenses, or even the competition at quarterback between a three-year starter and a young hotshot. Instead every conversation involving Tar Heel football since July 15 has been about the NCAA investigation surrounding the program. Actual details about the team, like the return from injury of players like Shaun Draughn, the looming Top 25 matchup with LSU at the Georgia Dome, or the fact that Carolina led all teams with five players named Preseason All-ACC, have been relegated to footnote status.
Speculation and rumors may sell papers and excite sports talk radio listeners, but actual news has been hard to come by. So it was refreshing on Friday to see the team take the practice field. Finally, if only for two hours, conjecture was put aside for real, actual football.
First off, there were helmets. All summer long, players went through conditioning drills with their position groups and Coach Jeff Connors, but today the entire team was together in their navy or white jerseys representing offense and defense, respectively.
There were Draughn and Ryan Houston tossing a ball back and forth while the punt teams practiced. Houston stepped in for the injured Draughn last November, behind a young offensive line that was finally starting to jell, and rushed for more than 400 yards in the season's final five games. Today, the two were laughing as Draughn made a difficult one-handed grab, and Houston cheered him.
Here was Butch Davis, walking up and down the lines of stretching players, imploring his players to get every detail right - down to the clapping. If the players didn't move from one stretch to another with enough enthusiasm, they'd start over.
As Connors barked instructions, offensive coordinator John Shoop walked from receiver to receiver, pointing at them and directing. To Dwight Jones: "You better have a plan." To Josh Adams: "You better have a plan." To Sean Tapley: "You better have a plan."
Certainly the remarkable rhythm and pace of a college football practice aren't unique to Carolina, but it is a thing of beauty to behold. Every second is planned, every drill is intentional, and every detail is accounted for. It's a well-oiled machine, and it was good to see the players get back to it.
Temperatures were in the 90s today, with humidity contributing to a sweltering afternoon, but there was something in the air that helped the Tar Heels get past the heat. "It feels great to be back out there. For us seniors, it's our last go-round so it feels good to be back here playing football again," linebacker Quan Sturdivant said.
"Everybody was itching to get out there," said quarterback T.J. Yates. "We've had a long layoff and with all of this other stuff going on, everybody's just ready to get back and get to football."
Until school starts and players move into their housing for the school year, they'll all live together in dorms near Kenan Stadium, and they'll spend most of their time together, whether it's in team meetings, watching film or practicing. "We're kind of in this small little bubble in our dorms and in the football center. We don't go anywhere else for a week and a half, so I think that's good for us. We can kind of just block everything else out and just kind of concentrate on football."
Four weeks remain before the season kicks off, and the work has only begun. In each player is the drive to excel. They know where they've been, and where they'd like to go. "We've been average, and we've done it two years in a row," Jonathan Cooper said. "Now it's time to get beyond that and be a championship contender."
Punctuating each practice period was the blast of the air horn of assistant equipment manager Jason Freeman, so jarring, yet somehow exhilarating. Today, the horn punched through the air and seemed to signal something more. "It's time to go to work," Sturdivant said. "It's time to go to work."
Turner Walston is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
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