University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: UNC Athletic Communications
Extra Points: Knock Out
August 12, 2019 | Football, Featured Writers, Extra Points
By Lee Pace
Carolina's football team was back in Kenan Stadium Saturday for the first time since the spring game last April, only now the Tar Heels were emerging from a newly renovated locker room onto a pristine AstroTurf playing field installed during June and July. The sky was a perfect shade of blue and the clock was ticking toward the season opener in three weeks against South Carolina.
"It felt like game day walking out on that beautiful field, the sun was shining, it wasn't too hot, it was just a great day for football," senior offensive tackle Charlie Heck said. "I was excited to be in Kenan Stadium."
Added junior safety Myles Wolfolk, "It felt good being out on the new turf, being in the stadium again, it had that game-day feeling. That's a feeling you've missed since last season."
Last season. That 2018 chapter was rife with bad memories for the Tar Heels—two wins and nine losses, following an equally dismal 3-9 campaign in 2017. Those seasons were defined by inordinately high numbers in two categories—injuries and losing games in the fourth quarter. In 2017, the Tar Heels had 34 players miss at least one game, and multiple players were lost with season-ending injuries. In 2018, they led or were tied in the fourth quarter in four of their nine losses—Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Georgia Tech and N.C. State. And three of nine losses from the previous year saw Carolina leading or tied in the last quarter (California, Louisville and Duke). Â
Coach Mack Brown hopes that a full complement of scholarship players and walk-ons (the new dressing facility has exactly 120 lockers), a good incoming class of freshmen, rigorous rehabilitation regimens for injured players and eight months of toil under strength and conditioning coach Brian Hess will hold the Tar Heels in excellent stead as the 2019 season evolves.Â
"People say, 'It's gonna be hot on that turf,'" Brown says. "Well, that's fine. The hotter the better. The other team's going to wilt and we're going to be stronger in the fourth quarter."
This season not only marks the return of Brown as the Tar Heels' head coach after leaving for Texas in 1998 but also the official christening of a long-awaited Indoor Practice Facility and pair of outdoor practice fields, one of grass and one of synthetic turf. The indoor building is not air-conditioned but is equipped with mammoth ceiling fans and well-engineered ventilation, so it's noticeably cooler than the outdoor fields. Brown certainly knew hot August camps from his days at Carolina from the 1990s and an even warmer climate in Austin and has developed a protocol over the years for mixing and matching indoor/outdoor practice periods during the sultry August training camps.Â
"The first three years at Texas, we took tired teams into the season," Brown reflects. "I thought we were out of shape and I was screaming at the strength coaches. But we were tired from having been out in the sun twice a day."
The Longhorn staff sought input from the coaching and strength staffs at four hot-weather NFL teams and the consensus was to back off in training camp.Â
"Players today work year-around and are in great shape," Brown says. "They train like Olympians. If you're not careful, you wear them out, they dehydrate and get hurt. The NFL teams said, 'Stay outside an hour and then go in for an hour. Don't be stupid. You don't have to be in the heat every minute of every day.'"
That year-round conditioning regimen is now the domain of Hess, the 33-year-old who comes to Chapel Hill from a three-year stint at West Point/Army. The Tar Heels have been taken to new heights in learning and honing lifting and running technique and working through mobility and flexibility drills. One of the bedrocks of Hess's philosophy is incorporating functional drills that apply to football—fewer 120-yard sprints and more five-, 10- and 15-yard shuttle sprints that more closely replicate the structure of a football game.Â
"We're a much better team now than we were the day after the spring game," Brown says. "We're deeper, guys are in better shape. They're stronger. If you're stronger and you're healthier, you're going to be more confident. And you've got to play game speed every day in practice against other good players and then you become a more confident football team."
Senior outside linebacker Allen Cater is Exhibit A of how the Tar Heels have refined and honed their bodies over four months. By following the direction and coaching to the letter from the strength, nutrition and medical staffs, Cater gained 20 pounds of muscle mass and lost five percent body fat in spite of having to recover from an injury.
"I did the normal workouts everyone else did plus extra to get healthy," he says. "I worked myself like crazy. I'm stronger than I've ever been. I'm in better shape than I've ever been. It's definitely paid off. I can see the results in one week of camp.
"The program Coach Hess lays out is amazing. At the very start they say, 'This is the goal. This is what we want to accomplish and this is how we're going to do it.' There's a reason for every single thing we do, from stretching to recovery to sleep. Everything has a purpose."
Senior tailback Antonio Williams is playing six to eight pounds lighter than 2018 and has taken his body fat from 19 percent to 11 percent by eating only vegetables and fish.Â
"It's an amazing difference from spring," he said the first week of training camp. "I'd run four plays with tempo on offense and be huffing and puffing. Today I had five in a row. Coach G (Robert Gillespe) said, 'You good?' I felt fine. I'm in the best shape I've ever been in and a lot of guys can say that."
The Tar Heels worked out almost daily during summer school. One of the weekly sessions was a 3:30 running-oriented workout on Tuesdays, out of doors on the AstroTurf surface. Temperatures reached into the 90s routinely. Â
"Those were rough days," defensive tackle Aaron Crawford says with a smile.Â
"Yeah, pretty rough," Wolfolk adds. "It was a lot of short-range movement, a lot of football-specific movement. In the past, we ran longer distances. I felt like we were in shape, but it was not the best transition to football shape. We were more prepared for training camp having done all those short bursts."
"Tuesdays set the tone," adds tight end Jake Bargas. "We run a fast-paced offense and Coach Hess got us in the best shape of our lives. He's really big on saying, 'Nobody cares, it's not about you, attack your weaknesses.' A lot of days it's going to be hot, you're going to be sore and you don't want to be there. But you do it for your teammates and to push each other to the edge."
Each Friday, the offensive linemen went through what amounted to an "O-Line Strong Man" competition—lifting, throwing and carrying 150-pound sand bags, running with loaded trap bars, pushing weighted sleds, running the 40-yard incline ramp just outside the Indoor Practice Facility.Â
"It was set up to challenge us with more of the things we face in a game," says Brian Anderson, who is competing for a starting role at center. "We're having to move big bodies in the fourth quarter. We're picking up these huge sand bags and moving them around and pushing heavy sleds back and forth for 45 minutes. It forced us to push everything we had in our bodies in the fourth quarter."
"Those were really awesome and were really catered to the O-line," Heck adds. "Everything related to a short burst and using a high amount of energy using the power you have, initiating your core. It was perfect for an O-lineman."
The Tar Heels have been peppered with all manner of themes and visual images depicting a fourth-quarter mindset as training camp has evolved. The last stage of practice each day is delineated as "the fourth quarter." One day some video clips of Mike Tyson delivering a knock-out punch flicker across the video board at one end of the field. Another day it might be two bighorn rams battering one another.Â
"We've faced a lot of mental challenges," says cornerback Patrice Rene. "Coach Hess's motto is, 'Push to the edge.' Get to the edge. Give everything you've got to get right there. Every day in summer we were working and grinding and getting to the edge. We were taxing on our bodies and our minds, but we got through it and are stronger and faster and tougher."
Wolfolk is asked if he thinks the Tar Heels are ready for a 3:30 p.m. season-opener against a Southeastern Conference opponent in what is sure to be a blistering setting in Charlotte.Â
"We're very prepared," he says in confident and matter-of-fact tone.Â
A pause for elaboration …
"It's that simple. That's it. That's all I got."
A team of action, it appears, and few words.
Carolina's football team was back in Kenan Stadium Saturday for the first time since the spring game last April, only now the Tar Heels were emerging from a newly renovated locker room onto a pristine AstroTurf playing field installed during June and July. The sky was a perfect shade of blue and the clock was ticking toward the season opener in three weeks against South Carolina.
"It felt like game day walking out on that beautiful field, the sun was shining, it wasn't too hot, it was just a great day for football," senior offensive tackle Charlie Heck said. "I was excited to be in Kenan Stadium."
Added junior safety Myles Wolfolk, "It felt good being out on the new turf, being in the stadium again, it had that game-day feeling. That's a feeling you've missed since last season."
Last season. That 2018 chapter was rife with bad memories for the Tar Heels—two wins and nine losses, following an equally dismal 3-9 campaign in 2017. Those seasons were defined by inordinately high numbers in two categories—injuries and losing games in the fourth quarter. In 2017, the Tar Heels had 34 players miss at least one game, and multiple players were lost with season-ending injuries. In 2018, they led or were tied in the fourth quarter in four of their nine losses—Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Georgia Tech and N.C. State. And three of nine losses from the previous year saw Carolina leading or tied in the last quarter (California, Louisville and Duke). Â
Coach Mack Brown hopes that a full complement of scholarship players and walk-ons (the new dressing facility has exactly 120 lockers), a good incoming class of freshmen, rigorous rehabilitation regimens for injured players and eight months of toil under strength and conditioning coach Brian Hess will hold the Tar Heels in excellent stead as the 2019 season evolves.Â
"People say, 'It's gonna be hot on that turf,'" Brown says. "Well, that's fine. The hotter the better. The other team's going to wilt and we're going to be stronger in the fourth quarter."
This season not only marks the return of Brown as the Tar Heels' head coach after leaving for Texas in 1998 but also the official christening of a long-awaited Indoor Practice Facility and pair of outdoor practice fields, one of grass and one of synthetic turf. The indoor building is not air-conditioned but is equipped with mammoth ceiling fans and well-engineered ventilation, so it's noticeably cooler than the outdoor fields. Brown certainly knew hot August camps from his days at Carolina from the 1990s and an even warmer climate in Austin and has developed a protocol over the years for mixing and matching indoor/outdoor practice periods during the sultry August training camps.Â
"The first three years at Texas, we took tired teams into the season," Brown reflects. "I thought we were out of shape and I was screaming at the strength coaches. But we were tired from having been out in the sun twice a day."
The Longhorn staff sought input from the coaching and strength staffs at four hot-weather NFL teams and the consensus was to back off in training camp.Â
"Players today work year-around and are in great shape," Brown says. "They train like Olympians. If you're not careful, you wear them out, they dehydrate and get hurt. The NFL teams said, 'Stay outside an hour and then go in for an hour. Don't be stupid. You don't have to be in the heat every minute of every day.'"
That year-round conditioning regimen is now the domain of Hess, the 33-year-old who comes to Chapel Hill from a three-year stint at West Point/Army. The Tar Heels have been taken to new heights in learning and honing lifting and running technique and working through mobility and flexibility drills. One of the bedrocks of Hess's philosophy is incorporating functional drills that apply to football—fewer 120-yard sprints and more five-, 10- and 15-yard shuttle sprints that more closely replicate the structure of a football game.Â
"We're a much better team now than we were the day after the spring game," Brown says. "We're deeper, guys are in better shape. They're stronger. If you're stronger and you're healthier, you're going to be more confident. And you've got to play game speed every day in practice against other good players and then you become a more confident football team."
Senior outside linebacker Allen Cater is Exhibit A of how the Tar Heels have refined and honed their bodies over four months. By following the direction and coaching to the letter from the strength, nutrition and medical staffs, Cater gained 20 pounds of muscle mass and lost five percent body fat in spite of having to recover from an injury.
"I did the normal workouts everyone else did plus extra to get healthy," he says. "I worked myself like crazy. I'm stronger than I've ever been. I'm in better shape than I've ever been. It's definitely paid off. I can see the results in one week of camp.
"The program Coach Hess lays out is amazing. At the very start they say, 'This is the goal. This is what we want to accomplish and this is how we're going to do it.' There's a reason for every single thing we do, from stretching to recovery to sleep. Everything has a purpose."
Senior tailback Antonio Williams is playing six to eight pounds lighter than 2018 and has taken his body fat from 19 percent to 11 percent by eating only vegetables and fish.Â
"It's an amazing difference from spring," he said the first week of training camp. "I'd run four plays with tempo on offense and be huffing and puffing. Today I had five in a row. Coach G (Robert Gillespe) said, 'You good?' I felt fine. I'm in the best shape I've ever been in and a lot of guys can say that."
The Tar Heels worked out almost daily during summer school. One of the weekly sessions was a 3:30 running-oriented workout on Tuesdays, out of doors on the AstroTurf surface. Temperatures reached into the 90s routinely. Â
"Those were rough days," defensive tackle Aaron Crawford says with a smile.Â
"Yeah, pretty rough," Wolfolk adds. "It was a lot of short-range movement, a lot of football-specific movement. In the past, we ran longer distances. I felt like we were in shape, but it was not the best transition to football shape. We were more prepared for training camp having done all those short bursts."
"Tuesdays set the tone," adds tight end Jake Bargas. "We run a fast-paced offense and Coach Hess got us in the best shape of our lives. He's really big on saying, 'Nobody cares, it's not about you, attack your weaknesses.' A lot of days it's going to be hot, you're going to be sore and you don't want to be there. But you do it for your teammates and to push each other to the edge."
Each Friday, the offensive linemen went through what amounted to an "O-Line Strong Man" competition—lifting, throwing and carrying 150-pound sand bags, running with loaded trap bars, pushing weighted sleds, running the 40-yard incline ramp just outside the Indoor Practice Facility.Â
"It was set up to challenge us with more of the things we face in a game," says Brian Anderson, who is competing for a starting role at center. "We're having to move big bodies in the fourth quarter. We're picking up these huge sand bags and moving them around and pushing heavy sleds back and forth for 45 minutes. It forced us to push everything we had in our bodies in the fourth quarter."
"Those were really awesome and were really catered to the O-line," Heck adds. "Everything related to a short burst and using a high amount of energy using the power you have, initiating your core. It was perfect for an O-lineman."
The Tar Heels have been peppered with all manner of themes and visual images depicting a fourth-quarter mindset as training camp has evolved. The last stage of practice each day is delineated as "the fourth quarter." One day some video clips of Mike Tyson delivering a knock-out punch flicker across the video board at one end of the field. Another day it might be two bighorn rams battering one another.Â
"We've faced a lot of mental challenges," says cornerback Patrice Rene. "Coach Hess's motto is, 'Push to the edge.' Get to the edge. Give everything you've got to get right there. Every day in summer we were working and grinding and getting to the edge. We were taxing on our bodies and our minds, but we got through it and are stronger and faster and tougher."
Wolfolk is asked if he thinks the Tar Heels are ready for a 3:30 p.m. season-opener against a Southeastern Conference opponent in what is sure to be a blistering setting in Charlotte.Â
"We're very prepared," he says in confident and matter-of-fact tone.Â
A pause for elaboration …
"It's that simple. That's it. That's all I got."
A team of action, it appears, and few words.
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (UNC '79) is entering his 30th year writing "Extra Points" and 16th reporting from the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Follow him @LeePaceTweet and email him at leepace7@gmail.com.Â
Players Mentioned
Offensive Line
/ Football
Tight End
/ Football
Linebacker
/ Football
Defensive Line
/ Football
Offensive Line
/ Football
Defensive Back
/ Football
Running Back
/ Football
Defensive Back
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