Extra Points: And Now, For An Encore ...

April 11, 2011 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace

By: UNC Athletic Communications

April 11, 2011

by Lee Pace

One year ago the highlight of spring football was ESPN's telecast of the annual intra-squad game and the 30,000 fans who filled most every crevice of the north and west seating areas on a brilliant April afternoon. The highlight one year later was another big show: Carolina's yearly Pro Timing Day.

Some hundred-odd NFL scouts, head coaches, assistants and general managers convened at Navy Field on March 31 on a cool, gray morning to watch The Greatest Show on Turf--Johnny White dashing to 4.53 time in the forty, T.J. Yates completing 98.2 percent of his passes, Robert Quinn pounding 24 reps at 225 pounds and running a 4.59 sprint to boot, Greg Little leaping upward 38 inches and outward 10 feet, 10 inches.

"Boy, what do they have in the water around here?" New Orleans assistant head coach Joe Vitt wondered.

Eighteen Tar Heels auditioned for NFL talent evaluators as the pros polish and cull their draft boards in preparation for the April 28-30 draft, which undoubtedly will be Carolina's most impressive showing since the talent-rich team of 1997 yielded seven draftees. Unfortunately, Carolina's on-field results in 2010 didn't match those of 1996-97; the Heels were 8-5 with a win over Tennessee in the Franklin American Music City Bowl but were handcuffed throughout the season by a myriad of personnel issues wrought by NCAA and institutional investigations.

"This group is bigger, stronger, faster than my class," says Brian Simmons, an All-America linebacker in 1997 now in his second year as a scout with Jacksonville Jaguars. "The range of guys is really something--there are first-round guys and some who'll catch on as free agents. It's good to see."

"I think it speaks volumes to the way we're building this program up with depth," adds Ryan Taylor, who participated in the tryout and hopes to find a niche in the pros--as anything from a tight end to a special teams sledgehammer to a long snapper. "I think it's something that will be the norm around here for a while."

"This will be the kind of pro day you can expect for a program that has been built to this standard," echoed Ron Rivera, the new head coach of the Carolina Panthers.

The question now is certainly is this: "What's next? What's the encore?"

Butch Davis and his staff and team spent the last month addressing that question, their spring practice season coming to an end Saturday in Kenan Stadium. The event didn't offer quite the panache of last year's show--no national television coverage and an unseasonably raw day--but some 15,000 Carolina fans enjoyed live music, barbecue, autographs from the players and tours of the new Blue Zone east end zone facility as well as a preview of what's to come in the fall of 2011.

"I think on the whole we've accomplished a lot of things," Davis says. "Clearly we're not a finished product, and we're a long ways away from being the type of football team we're going to need to be."

Davis and his staff staged a controlled scrimmage given that the loss of numbers from 2010 and a half dozen players sitting out spring ball for health or academic reasons limited their ability to split the squad into two equal teams. Among the highlights were Bryn Renner's 43-yard pass to Erik Highsmith for a touchdown; freshman QB Marquise Williams' 42-yard scamper for a score; Ryan Houston's return to the field after missing 2010 and a nice 16-yard run that showed both his power and improved quickness; and the trench warfare between two opposing line groups that should be the strength of this team until all the skill positions mature.

"I think the offensive line probably has a chance to be one of the strongest units on our football team," Davis said. "It has taken several recruiting classes to build the kind of talented players and depth, but obviously I think it's going to be a really good unit. I think the defensive line on the flipside is also going to be the strong area of our defense. We'll have somewhere between six and eight and maybe nine guys that literally could go in the game and play well."

The challenges are many as Davis enters his fifth year leading the Tar Heels: Replace a four-year starter at quarterback; three tight ends who accounted for 682 yards catching and three running backs who yield 2,175 yards production running and passing in 2010; and four players on defense who were essentially four-year starters as well as several other multiple-year first-teamers. But the good news is that quality signing classes over the last three years have stocked the talent pantry and the unpleasantness of the 2010 off-the-field sideshow force-fed the maturation process of a handful of freshmen who otherwise would have watched last year.

"I think the talent level is definitely there," Simmons says. "Now it's just a matter of putting it on the field and getting some wins. There's no reason this team with the talent it has shouldn't be a 10-win program."

Carolina has a good supply of quarterbacks to fill the breach of Yates, who completed passes for more than five miles of gains since starting game one of the Butch Davis era, that 37-14 win over James Madison in 2007. Renner is the heir apparent and comes complete with a good head, arm and set of wheels. He's quicker than Yates and has a more ebullient demeanor; what he lacks is a mental library of making pre-snap reads and finding receivers downfield amid the chaos of live bullets.

"Bryn's the real deal," offensive coordinator John Shoop says. "T.J. showed him the template. I'll tell you this: There is no one on our team busting his tail any more than Bryn."

The Tar Heels also have what could well be the best offensive line since the demise of the Dooley-Crum era blocking juggernauts of the 1970s and early 1980s. Three starters return and the two newcomers to the starting lineup, Travis Bond and Brennan Williams, played enough in 2010 that they're not completely green. Together the unit has size, athleticism and smarts, and the best thing is there isn't a weak player in the bunch. An offensive line is only as good as its weakest link given the sharing of responsibilities and cohesion needed in protections and double-teaming at the point of attack.

"Those guys are beasts, they're humongous guys," says Gio Bernard, a freshman tailback who missed 2010 with a knee injury.

"We're trying to establish a new demeanor of being mean and nasty," junior guard Jonathan Cooper says. "We're a confident group, a group that knows each other and can work well together."

Johnny White, Shaun Draughn and Anthony Elzy are missing, but the Tar Heels welcome three players in the backfield they could have used a year ago--Houston at tailback, Devon Ramsay at at fullback and Bernard at tailback. Dwight Jones is improved at split end after his break-out year in 2010, Highsmith and Jheranie Boyd return, and there are three newcomers at receiver with speed and hands who could make an impact catching balls and in the kick-return game: Reggie Wilkins, Sean Tapley and T.J. Thorpe, the latter of whom entered college in January.

"Catching the ball and making big plays is great, but our emphasis this spring has been on developing our blocking skills," receivers coach Charlie Williams says. "I want guys who can dominate blocking the corners and erasing their guy from the play. That's a skill Dwight needs to put on his resume."

Quinton Coples and Donte Paige-Moss will be a difficult tandem of defensive end for opposing offenses to deal with, and sophomores Tim Jackson and Kareem Martin played last year and will add a year of physical evolution. The interior is stout with seniors Tydreke Powell and Jordan Nix and the addition of JUCO player Sylvester Williams.

"We felt really good about Tydreke and Jordan, two seniors who have been in our program a long time," Davis said. "But they are just like everybody else--they need competition. They need somebody to trying to take their job away from them, and I think that Sylvester has helped spur them along to not get complacent, and not say, `I can just put it on autopilot and I can cruise.' We're very happy Sylvester is in this program."

Sophomore Darius Lipford emerges from spring as the No. 1 strongside linebacker, alongside veterans Kevin Reddick and Zack Brown. Charles Brown will return to one cornerback after being suspended for all of 2010 and having to sit out the season opener against James Madison. Jabari Price figures to be the opposite corner, and Matt Merletti and Tre Boston are first team at strong and free safety, respectively, though senior Jonathan Smith will return at safety following a 2010 suspension.

"Every day is an opportunity for us," says Boston, who played as a freshman at cornerback last fall. "Every day is huge. Every practice is a battle for our position. Nobody has a position right now."

The Tar Heels now enter the home stretch into exams and then the all-important off-season, when conditioning and physical development is paramount and the players' individual and collective initiative to improve and make good decisions is put to its most stringent test.

"It's not the end of spring practice, it's the beginning of the four most important months of the year," defensive coordinator Everett Withers says.

"We have a lot of growth ahead the next four months to get ready for 2011," Davis adds. "I don't know of any program in the ACC with as many voids to fill."

This is certainly a key juncture in the Carolina history under Butch Davis. Good programs often bid adieu to cornerstone classes, but under the surface the recruiting operation has been on target and the young players are evolving, biding their time and waiting for their opportunity. Kids like Renner and Bond and Lipford now take center stage, having quite the example set by the 18 performers from Pro Timing Day.

1979 Carolina graduate Lee Pace (leepace7@gmail.com) is in his 21st year writing about Tar Heel football under the "Extra Points" banner. Look for his missives throughout the year.