A Year Later, Tar Heels Are Much Further Ahead

CHAPEL HILL – On the eve of spring practice opening last season, all Mack Brown knew about his football program was that he had some solid talent left over from the Larry Fedora era, though not much depth, he felt pretty good about his newly assembled coaching staff, and that his facilities were getting better but still needed a bit of an upgrade.

In the months that followed, the Hall of Fame coach learned a ton about his program while injecting it with so much poisitively and enough results to where expectations are quite high as the Tar Heels should be immersed in their second spring of Brown’s second act in Chapel Hill.

Yet, there's no second spring, at least on the football field. UNC was supposed to begin practice March 17, but it was cancelled by the school and ACC, and if the Heels are to eventually hold at least a modified spring camp, it won’t be until the scholastic year concludes in early May.

The program will miss out on developing young players, building depth and getting some answers about a handful of players that may have been at a fork in the road with respect to their football futures at UNC. Carolina, however, remains in excellent shape.

The state of North Carolina football is the best it’s been since the spring following the 11-3 mark in 2015, and one could argue it’s stronger than that, given how things eventually fell apart under the previous regime. The Tar Heels went just 7-6 last season, but the losses were by only a combined 24 points and every indicator suggests the program is headed in the right direction.

UNC football is in a really good place right now.

“We’re, we’re so much further ahead,” Brown said a couple of weeks ago. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about a spring practice in this one.”

Brown then went into some detail.

“You’ve got some young guys that were here that were red shirted or didn’t play a lot and you want to see them really be thrown into the mix,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of guys back across the board and we probably lost more defensive linemen than anywhere else with… So, it’s time to see who’s going to step up, who’s going to take that leadership role and, and who’s going to be the pass rusher that (Jason) Strowbridge was.”

Of course, if Brown gets any look at his players this spring it won’t be for a couple of months. But his words illustrate just how much further ahead the program is now. The staff knows what they have for the most part. There aren’t a lot of curiosities bout the roster that remain unknown.

Two new assistants are on board, as John Lilly takes over the tight ends and Jovan Dewitt is handling the outside linebackers and special teams. The rest of the staff remains intact, and that’s a huge positive as well.

A year ago, they were figuring out how to work with each other while acclimating themselves to Brown’s style. Breaking down practice film, discussing players’ strengths and weaknesses, possible position changes and other aspects coaches hammer outare part of the process that fans don’t see. Chemistry there is as important as it is on the field.

They know the kids and they know each other now.

“Yeah, last spring we didn’t know the players,” Brown said. “We, we just knew that we’d lost and we knew we had to get to know them and we had to get them to trust us. And we had to gain respect both ways and we had to learn to talk to each other. That’s why we actually didn’t even feel like we were there in the fall and started doing the tell your story stuff in, in our team meetings.

“Cause we, we just weren’t talking about talking to each other’s weirdest thing I’d ever seen. And even on the bus headed down for the South Carolina game was so quiet. I thought they were all asleep. I wanna get some spirit here, man. We gotta go. And we’re at a much different place right now. We know each other, they know what we expect, we know who they are.”

And what they know is the Tar Heels have a chance at contending for the ACC Coastal Division title. Further exemplifying the difference from 12 months ago is how much higher the bar stands.

“Our goals are different,” Brown said. “Last year, we’re trying to beat somebody. Last year, we were trying to finish games. Last year, we were trying to get to a bowl game.

“This year, we want to win the league and there’s a difference and, and that’s, that’s what we’ll tell them today. The opportunities are there, but you gotta earn it. You gotta earn it.”

Optimism has morphed into belief. That, more than anything, is the biggest difference.