Turner's Take: Carolina Blue
December 17, 2013 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
I once joked with Tar Heel running backs coach Randy Jordan (UNC class of '93), asking if it was true that Jordan had hosted A.J. Blue on Blue's recruiting visit. Of course, it wasn't true; Blue has been at Carolina for a long time, but not that long.
Blue turned 24 in August. That's older than a typical college football player, but perhaps too young to have experienced everything that A.J. Blue has experienced. There have been highs and lows. The murder of a brother. The birth of a son. A year at a military academy. A devastating knee injury. An NCAA investigation and its aftermath. Two coaching changes. Graduation. Blue has been through it all.
A nagging lower back will keep A.J. Blue from suiting up in full pads for the Belk Bowl. The same injury forced him to miss two games this season and limited his participation in the season finale against Duke (one carry, six yards). But A.J. Blue has been injured before, tearing three ligaments in his knee back in 2009, so he's seen - and recovered from - worse than this. But being unavailable for the bowl game is not keeping Blue off the practice field. No, he's around the game and his teammates as much as ever. “It's tough, but just being around it has been helping me out,” he said after a recent practice. “I've been out before, so I know the key to getting back is having a positive attitude, so no matter what if I get back or not, my attitude is what's getting me through.”
At a recent practice, Blue stood just behind the offense as it went through its practice reps, there to offer whatever guidance he could. “I've been through just about every game situation you can be in, and I'm coaching the guys up,” he said. Perhaps, he said, his teammates seeing him by their side will motivate them just a bit more on December 28th. Blue has been there, too. When Bryn Renner went out with a shoulder injury, Blue was inspired to play for his fallen teammate. “I can't fill his place,” Blue said. “I can't go out and be Superman for him, but I can make a promise to myself or I can become motivated just to play a little bit harder for a guy that I respect and look up to.”
There's no right or wrong answer when it comes to continued involvement after a season-ending injury. Renner has chosen to pull back from the team, to let Marquise Williams take the ball and run with it as the starting quarterback. For his part, Blue can't help but be around. “Football is what got me here, and I can't shy away from it,” he said. “It's made me the man I am today and I just live and love it.”
That may be a bit of hyperbole. Football is certainly a part of A.J. Blue's personality, part of what constitutes the man, but not all of it. His experiences off the field have helped shape who he is, and must have helped him traverse the rocky path that has been his five-year Tar Heel career. But the path has helped make the man as well. Blue is proud of himself and his fellow seniors that helped steer the Tar Heel program through difficult times. “That just made us better people overall. It made us better teammates and it actually gave the younger guys something to fight for. In essence, I think it did something great for this program, gave it a chance to turn things around, put it on the positive step and kind of get the guys motivated to do something that we haven't done in a while.”
Blue has been on five different teams in his five years. Some had the talent but not the team chemistry to meet their potential, he said. Others had the chemistry, but not the right mix of talent. “Once we get all those things in one bucket, then I think everything will be good,” he said.
And when that happens, somewhere, A.J. Blue will be smiling, enjoying keeping tabs on the young men and the program he helped inspire. “Oh yeah,” he said. “I'll definitely be watching.”
