CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina cornerhacks coach Dre’ Bly met with the media via zoom following Monday’s practice to discuss his group, Tony Grimes, Storm Duck, that he things “Enter Sandman” is a “pretty cool song,” and much more.
Above is video of Bly’s Q&A session and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*Storm Duck was lost for the season because of an injury suffered late in the second game last year, which was a win at Boston College. He did a little bit in the spring and missed the first week-plus of fall camp with a different injury, but he is back practicing.
Bly was asked what he did to help Duck along during his time out, and where is Duck right now in terms of the rotation?
“Storm is where he needs to be,” Bly said. “Injuries are a part of the game… His mind is in a good place, he’s working, he’s competing with Tony and Kyler (McMichael) and Dae Dae Hollins and the rest of the guys, Obi (Egbuna) and all those guys – they out there working.
“He’s doing tremendously well. I look forward to having a healthy Storm Duck, a healthy Tony Grimes, Kyler McMichael – a full and complete secondary for the season opener, and I can’t wait to see what those guys look like when we suit up.”
*Even though Duck played in just two games last season, he started as a true freshman in 2019, so he already had a lot of experience when he went down. So, part of his mantra during the long recovery phase was to find ways to improve when not on the field.
“Storm played a lot of football his first year, and to see the transition from him as a freshman to last year when he got injured – I feel like last year when he got injured there wasn’t a better cornerback in the ACC in my eyes, he was playing really, really well. To us, he was a guy we felt like could take away a side of the field.
“That didn’t come because of his skill set, that came because of where he was mentally and the knowledge he had gained through being a starter his first year. He didn’t lose that, and a matter of fact, he might have gotten even better because during the time he didn’t play, he was in every meeting, he was getting better every day mentally as well.
“Right now, Storm was here in the spring and participated. He picked up (in fall camp) right where he left off. So, I expect Storm to do what he did and be the same guy he was before he went away with (an) injury.”
*Bly said Tony Grimes’ main area of growth since the end of last season has been with his technique. He said Grimes’ growth trajectory from the moment he arrived in August was steep and has continued. Bly has told Grimes that the finished product in his game is “far, far away.” So, with Grimes having such a high ceiling, what is most unique about his potential?
“His love for the game and how competitive he is, how great he wants to be,” Bly responded. “And that was one of the things I told him when he got here, because obviously he was a highly recruited guy, (but) to me to be a highly recruited guy and (not) meet the obligations of that status to me isn’t cool at all.
“I was telling him what comes with being a 5-star is XYZ. So these are the things that you need to do consistently for you to make sure that you sustain who you are. The thing with that, I don’t know if that was something that he didn’t know, but it was something that he wanted to embrace.
“(And) he’s embraced every inch of it. Right now, he’s out here working extra. And that’s the thing I think that separates him from some of the other guys across college football is his desire to be great.
“He was the first one at the meetings last year, he was the last one to leave, he’s constantly on the fourth floor (coaches’ offices in the Kenan Football Center) asking questions and wanting to know ball. And I think that’s what separates him from some of the other guys in college football.”
*Like Tony Grimes and Antoine Green, Bly was also asked about “Enter Sandman” playing at practice. Though, he was also asked if playing that during practice actually works. Bly had a great reply, too.
“Coaches do various things to try to get the guys prepared for the game,” Bly responded. “And actually, it’s a pretty cool song. When I had my travel baseball team and my youth football team, that was one of my go-to songs. When they started playing it a couple of years ago, dude, I was jumping and dancing like it was my song.
“It’s a great environment. It’s something to get the guys going. But for the most part, we know that the stadium’s gonna be rocking and we look forward to going to Blacksburg for the game.”
