University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Special
October 21, 2016 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
The first time Larry Fedora saw Ryan Switzer on film, he thought it was some kind of joke. His staff called him in to watch this kid from West Virginia, this 5'10 running back, taking the ball for the George Washington High School Patriots and outrunning everyone on the field. "I was like, 'What is that?'" Fedora remembered recently. "You've got this little kid just going 65 and 70 yards every single play. I thought somebody put some kind of joke tape together, and it was Ryan Switzer, you know? I mean, he's really special. He really is, in a lot of ways."
We know now. Over the course of his time in Chapel Hill, Switzer has proved just that, that he is special. Last week at Miami, Switzer caught his 206th career pass, breaking by one the record held by former teammate Quinshad Davis. Switzer's evolution is remarkable, from high school running back to All-American punt returner to now, the most prolific wide receiver in Carolina history.
Looking at Switzer's high school tape, one can see how Fedora might have been skeptical; Switzer is simply better than anybody else on the field. "All I did was take the ball and literally, run where people weren't," Switzer said of his high school days. And that worked. He was a Parade All-American, a Semper Fidelis All-American and twice the West Virginia Player of the Year.
Switzer was a part of the second recruiting class under Fedora, and the Tar Heels hadn't yet played a season with the new coaching staff when he was offered. He had family connections at Carolina; his aunt graduated from the School of Nursing, his grandfather lives in Statesville and he has more family in Charlotte. "North Carolina is a second home to me," he said. Still, he needed to find a fit on the field.
To get a feel for how he might be used in the offense, he watched tape of Fedora's Southern Miss teams, most notably keeping an eye on Tracy Lampley, a versatile wide receiver who was also used out of the backfield. "I was just looking at all the ways they got him the ball and used him," Switzer said. Lampley had nearly 1,800 all-purpose yards as a junior in 2011, running, receiving and on punt and kick returns. "I haven't been used as much as he was, in terms of the running game and screen game, but that's also a product of all the weapons that we've got, and everyone's got to get touches," Switzer said.
But despite joining a roster with a sophomore Davis, fellow freshman Bug Howard and a monster at tight end in Eric Ebron, Switzer found ways to get his touches. He was third on the team with 32 receptions, though still adjusting to playing receiver for the first time. "Coming into college, all the terminology, all the routes, all the coverages, everything was new to me," he said. "I was learning as we went, and if it weren't for special teams, I probably would have redshirted. I just wasn't ready, mentally. I could run, but from a physical standpoint, I was a little outmatched."
He could run, and Switzer took his instincts as a high school tailback and applied them to the punt return game. He had four punt returns for touchdowns in a three-game stretch in November, and added a fifth in the Belk Bowl, tying the NCAA single-season record. For his efforts, he was named a first-team All-America as a specialist. But he wanted more.
"My goal since I've stepped on the football field is to play at the next level," he said, "and you don't get drafted solely on special teams. I definitely wanted to have a bigger impact." So he worked with Davis, worked with Ebron, worked with receivers coach Gunter Brewer and took constructive criticism from Fedora. Former West Virginia Mountaineer and current Los Angeles Ram Tavon Austin is another mentor. "There have been a lot of people that have had a hand in my success, but I think the biggest thing has been me, the drive of wanting to be great," he said. "Maybe not focusing on records, but on becoming more of a focal point in the offense."
That included working with Mitch Trubisky, the Tar Heels' quarterback-in-waiting who was sitting behind Marquise Williams. "I think me and Mitch have gotten over 10,000 reps in four years," Switzer said. "On the practice fields, in the indoor facility at midnight . . . It's just the chemistry's there for us." And that was developed not only through constant repetition, but by developing a friendship in the cauldron of college athletics. One student-athlete adjusting to a new position, another frustrated by having to wait his turn. "He was struggling a lot," Switzer said of his quarterback. "I couldn't really relate to him, because I was playing. It felt like sometimes he was listening to me and he was like, 'Man, you don't know what I'm going through; you're not facing it.' I just tried to let him know I was there."
Meanwhile, Switzer was learning those concepts that had been foreign to him, becoming that receiver that could take the ball out of the backfield, that could find a space in the secondary, that could throw a touchdown pass if called upon, which he's done twice in his career. "Ryan never played receiver in high school," Fedora said on a recent ACC teleconference. "He was a running back, and so his progression has been really tremendous in learning how to run routes, how to get open, how to recognize coverages, where the weaknesses in the coverages are, how the concepts fit, all those things. I mean, it's been leaps and bounds, how far he's come."
Switzer had 61 catches as a sophomore, then 55 in 2015. He has 58 through seven games this season. That chemistry with Trubisky is paying off. The first-year quarterback is fifth in the nation in total completions, sixth in completion percentage and has engineered two last-minute scoring drives in his first year as a starter. In his first five games, he had three of the top 11 passing performances in UNC history. He's reaping the rewards, in no small part because of the work he and his former roommate put in over their years on campus. "I don't know what I would have done if I was in that position, but for someone to be patient for three years, I'm glad he's reaping the rewards, and he really is," Switzer said.
"They work well together," Brewer said of quarterback and receiver. "They spend a lot of time outside practice and in the summers working with each other for timing and technique."
"He's going to get his touches," Trubisky said of Switzer. "I'm going to continue to spread the ball around, but he's going to continue to do his thing with the ball in his hands, and we're going to try to get him the ball so he can make explosive plays for us."
Switzer tied Davis with a six-yard catch on 3rd and 5 at midfield against Miami. Career catch number 205 –the record breaker– came on the next play. And he's not done. "You're satisfied a little bit, but obviously there's a season to play, and there's still a tremendous amount of goals that I can reach this year," he said. "Getting 1,000 yards is one of them, first-team All-ACC as a receiver is one of them. There's a lot of things for us as a team, too. We're first place in the Coastal right now and we have a chance to get back to the ACC Championship Game."
And so Carolina moves forward, off to Virginia Saturday to renew The South's Oldest Rivalry. The Tar Heels will be missing their best deep threat, as senior wideout Mack Hollins broke his clavicle at Miami. The offense will have to have its playmakers step up, and perhaps a young player will step forward. But Switzer himself is versatile. He can catch just about anything thrown his way. A jump ball? "Oh yeah," Brewer joked. "With a trampoline! He can go get that jump ball. Whatever you want to throw, he'll go get it."
"I can out-jump half these guys on the team," Switzer said, and one doesn't doubt him.
There is work to be done this weekend and indeed in the rest of the season, but Ryan Switzer has already made his mark, not only in the record books, but on the culture of Carolina football. He has been a major part of a new era in Chapel Hill, one that redefined expectations. "We've gone through our ups and downs," he said, "but for the past two years, we've set a standard in how we're supposed to play and how we're supposed to act on and off the field, and how we're supposed to represent our school and our family. I most definitely want to leave this place better than I found it, or better than it found me, and continue that stride for excellence after I'm gone."
Ryan Switzer is a Tar Heel, one whose impact on Carolina football and indeed the university as a whole will resonate long after his last catch. The 5'10,185- pound young man from West Virginia has helped set a new standard. The little kid has raised the bar.
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