By Eddy Landreth
Staff Writer
A hot start by Carolina may have many people believing interim head coach Everett Withers pulled a football team out of his hat.
That simply will not be the case though.
Just look back a year ago, when so many of the projected starters either lost their eligibility permanently, for the season or for a percentage of the team’s games. The production of that team ultimately revealed former Coach Butch Davis’ success in recruiting. Young players helped carry the day. Only in this way could the Tar Heels have counteracted the many troubles.
The 2011 Carolina football team can be a winner as well, a big winner, if only it can avoid the injury bug. Bryn Renner will be new at the quarterback position, but he will work behind an offensive line that possesses as much potential as any since the 1980s. He will also be surrounded by talented running backs and wide receivers.
The physical skills extend to the defensive side of the ball too.
“One of the things I want to put out there to the Carolina football family is this: We’re going to be a good football team because we have great coaches on our staff,†Withers said. “We have kids committed to playing hard and being an exciting football team on the field.
“We won’t flinch as a football staff or a football team,†he said. “And when I say we won’t flinch, I mean we have been through an awful lot already. Nothing that can come at us now will bother us. We will play hard. We will play with class. We will make the lettermen proud, and we will make the Carolina family proud.â€
There are no guarantees, of course. Chancellor Holden Thorp fired Davis one week before preseason practice began. That is enough to derail many teams. But Withers has an excellent point in that these kids played their way through the drama of last season, which in addition to the off-field problems included some key injuries. And the Tar Heels fought as hard as they could until one second remained in double-overtime, and the season, at the Music City Bowl.
That win and the ones that led the team to the postseason convinced the returning players that this team can succeed, even with Thorp’s untimely maneuver.
“The resiliency to bounce back from all these obstacles made it seem like any other obstacle was nothing – having to play without such high-caliber players,†left offensive guard Jonathan Cooper said.
A great example is senior wide receiver Dwight Jones of Burlington. His senior year in high school, many people ranked Jones as the No. 1 recruit in the state. He very nearly did not make it into UNC because of academic issues. When he did get here, he spent the first two years trying to find himself, as well as what the game of football is all about at this level.
He found himself in a big way last season, and became the heir to former Carolina star Hakeem Nicks by making critical catches and big runs. The results of his off-season work ethic showed in how much stronger he had become.
Now there is no reason to believe that Jones can’t become all-conference or even an all-American performer.
Jones said that “reading defenses, knowing how to play†are two of his greatest areas of improvement. And there has been additional improvement, the kind of growth that comes more from mental maturity than physical.
“I’m always telling my mom that I’ve gotten so much better at focusing on the game,†Jones said. “Coming into the season [last year], I didn’t know what to expect. Now I know what to expect. I know the offense, and I have to be counted on every game to move the chains.â€
There are more stories similar to Jones’, stories of kids who were forged into better athletes and football players by the heat of adversity and the unforgiving platform of necessity. Now there are some new stories to be told, freshmen who will introduce themselves to UNC fans by how they respond each Saturday.
Thorp’s timing in firing Davis robbed this team and its fans of the fun that comes each year with the preseason. The articles and broadcasts about what the team may be able to do on the field have been replaced by a mind-numbing focus on everything but football.
It could really be no other way, given the circumstances. But this team has the power to swing people’s focus back onto the sport and their performance when the games begin on Sept. 3 at home against James Madison.
“This is a resilient group,†Withers said. “They’ve done a great job of moving forward, and we’re excited about that.â€