CHAPEL HILL – Three practices are in the books for North Carolina’s fall camp in advance of the 2021 football season. It was also the final day with no pads other than the players wearing helmets.

The Tar Heels will be in shells Sunday and Monday and can finally be in full pads and hit Tuesday.

The following is more from when the media had a zoom presser with UNC Coach Mack Brown following the first practice Thursday:

Going back to the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, Brown has used phrasing about his team having “sugar thrown all over us” in reference to the hype the Tar Heels have received in recent months and the mammoth expectations placed on them by fans and many in the media. What’s interesting is in year one Brown and his staff had to convince the players they were good enough to win some games, last year they raised the bar some but still had to build confidence while also bringing them down a peg when they soared in the rankings.

Times are wholly different now, so what is the message now that fall camp is underway?

“That’s a great question,” Brown said. “We addressed it last night (before the first practice) and we addressed it some this summer. I think the fact that they were fifth in the country without earning that right going to Florida State and just played so poorly the first half, it’s a learning experience.

“And we weren’t ready to be a top-ranked team at that time. And what we’ve told them is to quit talking about it and just do it, and that’s your work every day. They understand that we’re not talking about anything except the first three games anyway, that is our season right now.

“We’re not even talking about the opener yet, but what we are talking about is be the best team we can be. And if our offense plays really, really well in practice and our defense can step up to them, then that’s going to be a great test for us to show us that if we can compete in practice with each other, we’ve got a chance to compete with anybody we play against.”

There was an actual halftime during Thursday’s first practice, and there will be one every time the Tar Heels are on the practice field. At the mid-point of the workout, the players got together in the indoor facility on the Koman Practice Complex and laid down, had snacks, drinks, and some even laid down. It was literally like a halftime.

Obviously, this is something that wasn’t a part of college football back when Brown ran the UNC program the first time. Was this a part of taking care of the players’ bodies, or something else?

“What we try to do is half halftime to simulate the practice being more like a game,” Brown said. “So this is where you’re going to go, this is where you’re going to sit, here’s what your coaches are going to talk about, here’s the nutrition that’s going to be available for you, here are the fluids to hydrate.”

“We are actually working so hard now with the best players against the best players on special teams, they also walk from special teams to the next period so they can hydrate, they’re running so much, all of them across the board in a special teams period.

Saying technology has become a huge part of college football would be an understatement. Two-a-days are long gone, a day off each week in fall camp is the mandate now, and the monitoring of players’ bodies and nutrition has taken everything to a new level.

“We explained to (the players) after practice today that when Tommy Thigpen and Rick Steinbacher played, Corey Holliday played, you had two-a-days everyday, and that you at least had 10 days of them and maybe 15,” Brown said. “Some people had three-a-days, they would stick it in the middle. ‘It’s ridiculous for you to not take care of your body when you’re only practicing once a day when at some point there were two-to-three practices a day and some people still made it.’ It wasn’t healthy and it wasn’t smart, we’re doing a much better job of it now than we were then.

“But Kelsee Gomes, our nutritionist is at every practice. She’s got about nine assistants, most of them interns, and they’re out there and assigned to every position every minute of every day. She and (strength and conditioning) Coach (Brown) Hess work so closely they have a gps they put on (the players) to see how fast they ran during practice, to see how much they run during practice.

“They can even tell if somebody ran more than they would like, and there’s a different color on their chart, that we have to give them more fluids or run them less or practice them fewer periods the next day so they won’t pull up.

“And we can show the players at each position who ran the fastest from here to there and that ‘he was much faster than you.’ And show them that ‘on Monday you ran fast (but) on Thursday you didn’t run as fast. You’re not getting some sleep, you’re not taking care of yourself.’

“This technology is just so advanced. It keeps the kids safer and gives us so much more information. They have shown that you spend so much more energy on a Tuesday’s practice before a rivalry game than you do (before) a normal game. So, you really have to be careful and not over-practice them on Tuesday before a rival game because they could be too tired because they’re so excited.

“So, it’s very interesting just to look at every little phase of this as you start going through it.”

The trainers and nutritionists check following every practice with Hess to see who might be more limited the following morning, and it doesn’t really matter what the weather is like. Even if temperatures are in the mid-70s, like on Thursday, players can still cramp up. And when they do, they can be limited the rest of the day, as rehydrating takes time.

Following each practice during staff meetings, when that day’s film and workouts are discusses, Brown will ask which players cramped up, which players were close to cramping, about the gps numbers and what they need to be on the lookout for, and so on.