CHAPEL HILL – The North Carolina players that have been around the program for a few years experienced the luxury of having an indoor practice facility Tuesday afternoon. And it was something they hadn’t previously known until now.

The Tar Heels spent the last two seasons practicing inside Kenan Stadium while the new indoor facility was slowly coming to fruition, so when there was inclement weather, they had no choice but to go inside the locker rooms and wait it out.

Sometimes, it took up to an hour, and they were back on the practice field. Most of the other Power 5 programs simply moved inside their completed indoor facilities, but until now, the Heels didn’t have that option.

So, when UNC Coach Mack Brown got on a microphone - he sometimes uses to communicate with his team - announcing lightening is nearby, the players were instructed to run into the indoor facility and resume practice. They did, and they loved it.

“It’s super nice,” senior offensive tackle Charlie Heck said. “In the past, we would have to go in the locker room, wait 30 minutes, then we’d be cold, have to go back out and stretch. So that (Tuesday) saved so much time unto itself coming in and being able to practice in amazing facility, it’s awesome.”

Heck estimated the Heels faced that situation almost a dozen times. He said it happened a few times during fall camp last year.

“I remember during a mock game last year we had a delay,” he said.

Junior running back Michael Carter gave thanks for the program’s new digs.

“My freshman year, my sophomore year we would have just gone back to the locker room and would have to wait 30 minutes,” he said, smiling. “We’re fortunate enough to have tis huge indoor and whoever paid for it, thank you.”

Of course, the head coach was most thrilled with how efficient the process was compared to what he would have otherwise dealt with. The Tar Heels went from practicing outside to doing their drills indoors in less than two minutes.

“It’s an amazing facility because we lost three minutes coming in,” Brown said. “And it probably would have been 70 minutes because where do you go? If they wouldn’t let you go to the baseball stadium you’d have to go back to the office and load buses to do that, then you have to come back and you have to stretch again. It adds an hour or so to practice.

“So this was really, really easy. In fact, when it cleared we decided not to go back outside because it would be such a distraction to go back and re-organize the outside so we just stayed inside.”

And yet another example of why the program needed the facility.