CHAPEL HILL – Tuesdays during football seasons means some of North Carolina’s players meet with the media, and with Charlotte on tap for Saturday, new starting quarterback Conner Harrell, center Austin Blaske, linebacker Amare Campbell, and rush Kaimon Rucker met with the media inside the Tar Heels’ practice complex.

UNC is coming off a 19-17 victory at Minnesota last Thursday and hosts the 49ers this Saturday for a 3:30 PM kickoff. The game will air on the ACC Network.

Here are videos of defensive interviews with Campbell and Rucker plus some notes from what they had to say:

*Campbell wore a padded club on his right hand Thursday night and will again this weekend. Without padding, it’s hard as a rock. But he handled it, and it even helped him knock a ball loose for a fumble that Travis Shaw recovered. He had four tackles and graded out at 75.8.

Campbell says he got used to wearing the club after a few days. He only wears it for practice and games, and previously his hand was in a splint. Now, he says he wears nothing on it when he’s not doing football stuff.

How did he break the hand?

“It was a team practice, and I read a screen play, came up and tried to punch the ball out and it broke.”

And who had the ball when he tried punching it out?

“Omarion.” As in Hampton, UNC’s bullish All-American running back.

Campbell says he hopes to play with a smaller club for the NC Central game a week from Saturday.

*Campbell said everybody doing their jobs up front allowed the whole defense to work in Minneapolis. Trust is the key, he said.

“Everybody just trusts it (the defense). Everybody has to do their job from a certain play. Maybe it’s Des (Evans) taking on a block one play, and the next play someone’s taking on a block for him. So, everybody’s just got to do their assignment to make it work.”

Trusting one another allows each player to be discernibly freer on the field, quicker off the snap, and decisive in how they react to whatever the offense is doing.

*In addition, Campbell recalled the play at Minnesota in which he caused a fumble, went into extensive detail about the club, on guarding against having a fall-off defensively, the faith the players have in Conner Harrell, and what he’s seen from Charlotte’s offense on film.

*Rucker was impressed with how Campbell played, especially wearing the massive club on his right hand.

“I don’t think the cast, or club, has messed him up by any means. He hasn’t skipped a step. It was definitely beneficial on the punch out for sure. He’s one of those guys, man, it doesn’t matter what kind of obstacle you throw in his way, he’s going to overcome it anyway.”

*Conner Harrell is now QB1 with Max Johnson out for the season, and Rucker has plenty of confidence in the redshirt sophomore.

“This is Conner’s show now. This is his offense. So, it’s hard to tell right now because so short notice and stuff… I feel like the offense is still going to be in good hands with Conner. With Conner, he definitely has some attributes that’s going to make this offense more dynamic. We’re going to have a dangerous backfield still, and I’m looking forward to seeing how Conner takes on this new role.”

*Rucker said a “lot of people got helmet stickers,” and that he got seven stickers. When asked if he’s going to fill up the helmet, Rucker replied, “Gonna try to.”

*In addition, Rucker also discussed not letting up defensively after a strong opener like what happened over the last several seasons, using depth a lot on defense in Minneapolis, the program’s standard, and the “psycho package” that includes Rucker with Evans and Beau Atkinson.