University of North Carolina Athletics
Walston: Opportunity Knocks
August 16, 2011 | Football
Aug. 16, 2011
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With training camp comes opportunity. Carolina lost playmakers on both sides of the ball due to graduation, so the team will use the month of August to find the next men up. Two players looking to seize the opportunity before them are Ebele Okakpu and A.J. Blue.
With Bruce Carter and Quan Sturdivant signed to NFL rosters, two-thirds of the starting linebacker corps from 2010 are gone. One player hoping to step into a role is Ebele Okakpu, a senior from Roswell, Ga. Up to this point, Okakpu has played in a reserve role at linebacker and on special teams. Last season, he was in on nine tackles and forced a fumble against Georgia Tech. In his senior season, Okakpu recognizes that the time is now to make an impact. A conversation with Sturdivant this summer helped spur him in the right direction. "I was talking to Quan, and he was talking about how he wants to get bigger for the league," Okakpu says. "Him saying that made me realize that he's not going to be here. I've been learning from him for almost four years now. After that moment, I truly realized, `Man, I have a chance to do something good.'"
Interim head coach Everett Withers says Okakpu is seizing the moment. "No question," Withers says. "This is his last go-round so he's thinking, `I've got to make the best of it.' He's a talent. He's been a talent from day one since he's been here. It's just a matter of putting it all together and I think he's starting to see that he needs to do that for us to play on the field."
Okakpu brought an impressive résumé to Chapel Hill. He'd been a SuperPrep All-America and considered one of the nation's top linebackers when he signed in 2008. But that hasn't translated to the college level yet, partly due to the fact that Carter and Sturdivant were solid atop the depth chart. There was also some maturing to do, Okakpu admits. "I was stubborn at first," he says, "Probably not willing to listen to [linebackers coach Art Kaufman] as much, and now I feel like I've matured a little bit. I've been able to work with some people here and there to help keep my path narrow, trying to keep my vision where I want it to be."
That maturity is making a difference on and off the field for Okakpu, and he's finding that he's trusting himself more than ever. "Preparation gives you confidence," he says. "The more you prepare, the more confident you're going to be out there, the better you're going to play, the better you're going to feel."
On the other side of the ball is A.J. Blue. Tar Heel fans will remember Blue suffered a devastating knee injury late in a game against Georgia Southern in 2009. He tore three ligaments in his left knee and was lost for the season, and spent the 2010 season rehabilitating. The summer of 2011 brought a switch to full-time running back, and Blue impressed in Saturday's intrasquad scrimmage. "I was excited to get tackled again," Blue says of the scrimmage. "I felt like I made good cuts and good reads, and overall I thought we did good as an offense."
Blue admits that it's one thing to test a rebuilt knee while jogging and it's quite another to execute the bursts, turns and cuts required of a tailback. "I feel like the more practice goes, the more I get in football shape," he says. "Running back is totally different from just running, sprinting up and down the field, so just getting in running back shape is my biggest challenge. I feel good, though. My knee feels great."
Saturday, Blue wasn't just making cuts. The 6'2, 230-pound sophomore was getting to the second and third lines of defense, then seeking out contact to create his own holes. The style of a tailback is much different than that of a scrambling quarterback. For one thing, a tailback must keep his pad level low so that he has the leverage required when meeting up with a defender. "I think that was my biggest task Saturday, trying to stay low and keep my pad level right," he says.
Over the next two weeks, Blue will be counted upon more than ever for the Tar Heel running game. Senior Ryan Houston is still in a no-contact jersey as he recovers from shoulder surgery, and freshman Giovani Bernard is in a protective cast after suffering a non-displaced fracture in his left hand during Saturday's scrimmage. But Withers is confident in Blue. "A.J. is what I remembered a couple of springs ago, when we had him at tailback. When you're a quarterback and you move back to tailback, you've got to learn to run with your pad level down and those types of things, but he's been working his tail off and we've been excited."
Briefly: Former Tar Heel David Thornton has been added to the Carolina staff in a player development role. Withers detailed Thornton's role after Monday's practice: "Here's a guy that's been around this program, that's played here, came here as a walk-on, earned a scholarship, struggled academically early, got his academic situation in hand, was drafted, played in the NFL . . . He's done what all these guys are trying to do, so we're going to use him in ways with player development, with being a mentor to some of these guys that have that same path working for them, so we're going to use David in a lot of different ways."
Turner Walston is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
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