University of North Carolina Athletics
Walston: The First Step Forward
July 29, 2011 | Football
July 29, 2011
The past 48 hours have been rough on Tar Heel fans, with the dismissal of a football coach, the retirement announcement of an athletic director, and the questions about what's next. On Friday, Dick Baddour formally introduced Everett Withers as the interim head coach. Withers didn't take long to outline his credentials as a Tar Heel. He'd looked up to Matt Kupec and Amos Lawrence during his adolescence in Charlotte. "I always wanted to be a Tar Heel, growing up," he said.
It didn't happen for Withers on the field. He was deemed to slow to play for the Tar Heels, so he spent his college career at Appalachian State. One of his coaches in Boone was Mack Brown, who Withers said helped inspire his passion for the game. After 20 seasons in coaching, both in college and at the NFL level, Withers became Carolina's defensive coordinator in February 2008.
Given the events of the week, it would have been understandable if Friday's press conference had taken on a somber tone. While Withers acknowledged a sense of sadness, he was nothing if not excited to get started. In fact, he arrived 15 minutes early to his introductory press conference. "Sitting on `G', waiting on `O,'" the coach said.
With his assistants lining the back of the room, Withers said he'd talked to 35 to 40 players, each of them eager to get back on the field. "They want to play ball," he said. "They want to get back to being on the field, being with each other, and getting that cohesiveness back to this football team."
In August 2010, the Tar Heels began training camp under an ominous cloud; one that hung over Kenan Stadium for the duration of the season. Despite the distractions, the players pulled through the season and posted eight wins, including the first Carolina bowl win since 2001. Many of those players return for 2011, and again there are distractions. "We won't flinch," Withers said. "We've ben through an awful lot already. Nothing that can come our way now will bother us."
Withers is not naive to think that the cloud is yet lifted. Carolina will go before the NCAA Committee on Infractions in late October. There remains tremendous potential for distraction. Still, Withers is confident he and the team can stay the course. "It's not how heavy the load, but how you carry it," he said.
Certainly the lessons the players learned on perseverance in the face of adversity in 2010 can be applied moving forward. "The youth of America will amaze you sometimes," Withers said of the performance. "They can do about anything they want to do, they just want direction."
It will be up to Withers and an experienced coaching staff to do the directing in 2011. Next Thursday, players report to campus. The following day, practice begins.
It's understandable that often when an interim coach is introduced, expectations are downplayed, given the circumstances. Not this time. "We're going to be a good football team," Wither said. "Because we have great football coaches on our staff; we've got kids committed to playing hard and being an exciting football team on the field." Off the field, he said, the staff would be committed to helping young men become "the total student-athlete, not just football players."
Withers has a John Wooden quote in his office that he employed Friday: "Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out." It's no secret how things have turned out for Carolina football to date, but naming Everett Withers interim head football coach is the first step forward. "This is just the beginning," he said, "and we hope to take this thing a long way."
Turner Walston is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
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