Bye Week Comes At A Good Time For Tar Heels

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ATLANTA – The first of two bye weeks for North Carolina is here, and the Tar Heels certainly can use the opportunity to pull back a bit, but also get healthy, and allow the coaches to do some deep evaluating.

UNC sits at 3-0 with wins over Florida A&M at home and at Appalachian State and Georgia State. Each of the performances included some poor play on defense, and the last two victories easily could have been defeats.

So, the open date comes at a good time for the Tar Heels.

“The biggest thing we’ve got to do is get healthy and get some guys back out there,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said, following his team’s 35-28 victory at Georgia State last Saturday. “You lose your two best receivers, that’s tough, and your best player on offense. So, we’ve gotta get them well, get them back on the field… Spencer Rolland needs to get back, obviously. And then you’ve got two or three guys banged up on defense some.”

The receivers Brown is speaking about are senior Antoine Green and junior Josh Downs, the latter of whom set school single-season records for receptions (101) and receiving yards (1,335) last season. Green was injured in early August and has been working his way back. Brown said about Saturday that Green did some running and catching in practice last week.

Downs was injured in the opener and has missed the last two games. He likely will remain questionable leading up to UNC’s next game, September 24 at home versus Notre Dame. Rolland, the starting right offensive tackle, was injured late in the win at App State and did not play in Atlanta.

The open week is about getting some rest, but also getting in some work. The Tar Heels will practice Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and then have a couple of days to go home before returning Sunday to begin preparation for the Fighting Irish.

Working to improve and getting right for the Notre Dame’s visit was on the players’ minds not long after dispatching the Panthers.

“It’s very important to go out there, and you have two weeks to prepare for this game to go out there and scheme and figure out exactly what you want to do as far game planning,” senior right end Kamari Morales said. “Getting guys back that are healthy. This is a much-needed bye week here, especially from a personnel standpoint, and to analyze exactly what we want to do going into this next game.”

Don’t expect the Heels to hit much, though the younger players will get some extra work. The regulars will scale back for sure.

“We’ll be smart,” Brown said. “You get more people hurt in preseason and in open dates than in any other time during the season. It’s probably because the kids relax a little bit and think this isn’t going to be like a guy, ‘so I’ve got a little time off here’ and they get hurt. So, we’ve got to be smart in what we do, we’ve got to correct so many things.”

Brown noted communication in the secondary as something “we’ve got to continue to try to figure out what’s happening back there with communication.”

There’s certainly more, and there’s the getting-healthy stuff, too. Plus, the Irish coming just around the bend, as well. Redshirt freshman quarterback Drake Maye was already entering into that mode while still in the bowels of Center Parc Stadium on Saturday.

“Get healthy and be ready for Notre Dame,” he said, when asked what the plan was for this coming week.

He said nothing else because that pretty much sums it up. The next open date follows the October 8 game at Duke, but the first one is already here, and it has come at a good time for the Tar Heels.