University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Don't Forget Thanksgiving
November 26, 2015 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
Follow me here: It's November 1, the day after Halloween. You walk into your favorite retail store, and notice that they've put the Halloween decorations away. Sure, the candy is on clearance, but otherwise you wouldn't really know it had ever happened. And why? Because all of a sudden, it's Christmas. Everywhere, it's Christmas. There's garland, lights and oversized ornaments hanging from the ceilings. 'Christmas is December 25,' the greeting card displays remind shoppers, as if that ever changes. It's Christmas, and it's tempting to start making a list and jump 55 days into the future.
'But wait a minute,' you think. 'We can't get to Christmas yet. What about Thanksgiving? We can't forget Thanksgiving!'
Just as it is for all Americans, it's Thanksgiving for Tar Heel football. Halloween was last weekend at Virginia Tech. That meant the Tar Heels clinched Christmas, if you will, coming in the form of next weekend's ACC Championship tilt with Clemson. But that's not until after Thanksgiving. Admittedly this writer loves to employ a metaphors, and maybe this one is a reach. Then again, maybe not.
“I'm catching exactly what you're saying,” sophomore defensive end Dajaun Drennon said after Wednesday's practice. “I'll put it this way: I'm a D-lineman. I know I might not look it, but I love food. I love to eat. It's another game to get some more stats against another opponent, a cross-town rival . . . so we just get a chance to show what we can do in another game.”
Ah yes. That cross-town (or cross-Triangle) rival. This year, Thanksgiving is at your least-favorite cousin's house.
“State Week,” wide receiver Mack Hollins said on Tuesday. Lately, it's been Hollins whose voice has been the loudest in assigning each week an identity. There was 'Duke Week' before the Tar Heels hosted the Blue Devils. There was 'History Week,' when Miami came to town and Carolina had their first opportunity to clinch a division title (with a win and a Pitt loss). And last week was 'Coastal Week,' when they actually did it, at Virginia Tech. But 'State Week,' to Hollins, isn't all about the Wolfpack.
“I'm not really into the rivalry,” the Rockville, Maryland native said. “'State Week' is for our goal, not because we're playing State. I guess it kind of fits, too, though. It's about achieving our goals; it doesn't matter who we're playing.”
Since the beginning of the season, Larry Fedora has opened team meetings with four words: “Coastal champs; State champs.” The Tar Heels accomplished the former last week. The latter, the more mythical state championship, is about beating every in-state team on the schedule. With wins over North Carolina A&T, Wake Forest and Duke under their belts, all that remain for the Tar Heels is the Wolfpack. And there are more than bragging rights on the line: tons of high school talent is being groomed inside the Old North State's borders, from Charlotte to Greensboro, the Triangle to New Bern and Wilmington. Not long after arriving in Chapel Hill, Fedora talked about building a fence around the state to keep top talent headed his way. A state championship, however intangible, goes a long way toward establishing the dominant program in North Carolina.
So the Tar Heels themselves have to show up at Thanksgiving ready to eat.
“We just know that they're not a team that we can sleep on,” Drennon said of the Wolfpack. “We have accomplished a lot, and I know everybody keeps talking about the Clemson game, but I'm trying to get everybody focused on the fact that we still have to play State.” By 'everybody,' Drennon doesn't mean his teammates and coaches; it's the external voices. “I hear people congratulating us on winning the Coastal, 'Good luck versus Clemson,' and I'm like, 'We still have another game before then.'”
Thanksgiving at the cousin's house. And nothing would please that cousin more than for you to spill your drink, to ruin your best outfit in front of your family right before Christmas. It could be that I'm taking this metaphor a bit too far.
Nevertheless, the Tar Heels aren't likely to get caught looking ahead. “The only thing that matters to us right now is just preparing to go in there to play against [NC State],” said junior Junior Gnonkonde. “That's another game, so just practice and just get better every day. We're just focused on our own issues. Get everything fixed and then go to the next step.”
Practicing and getting better has been the order of the day all season long for these Tar Heels. They are creatures of habit, and their successes are products of routine. And so Thanksgiving (actual Thanksgiving) throws a bit of a wrench into their plans. “It's not that I don't like the holiday, it's just that I don't like that it's in the middle of game week,” Fedora said Wednesday. “That's all.” And so the Tar Heels will practice Thursday morning before being given the afternoon and evening off for Thanksgiving. And then Friday, it's back to getting ready for 'Thanksgiving.'
All season long, the members of this particular Tar Heel team have talked about the chemistry that has sustained them. Through adversity, Fedora said, “all they did was grow, bond even closer, make sure that they took care of their business.” The team's leadership has carried them from the loss to South Carolina to the incredible comeback at Georgia Tech, from the Thursday night lights at Pitt through the win on the road at Frank Beamer's final home game. When they say they've got one another's back, they mean it.
“We play for each other,” Gnonkonde said. “We see each other as little brother, big brother, as a family.” So it's somewhat fitting that this Tar Heel family will spend at least part of Thanksgiving together on the field, and many will be together off of it. For example, Gnonkonde, a native of Cote d'Ivoire, will celebrate the holiday with the family of his roommate and teammate, defensive end Justin Thomason.
And then it's back to work, back to 'Thanksgiving.'
It's tempting to look past Saturday, to take a peek at the College Football Playoff rankings and try to figure out Christmas and beyond, to do the math, see who needs to win and lose for the Tar Heels to ring in 2016 in style. In this week's CAROLINA, I looked at a handful of match-ups around the country, trying to determine which dominoes needed to fall for the Tar Heels to sneak in to the top four. But I can do that; the Tar Heels themselves have business to take care of.
Thanksgiving comes before Christmas, and after Christmas, well, what are you doing New Year's Eve? We'll see. But for now, Happy Thanksgiving.
Turner Walston is the editor of CAROLINA digital magazine. Follow Turner on Twitter.
