North Carolina doesn’t face California in the season opener for another 11 days, but the Tar Heels began a normal game-week schedule today, Tuesday, and begin preparation for the Bears over the next couple of days.
The Heels broke fall camp over the weekend, had Monday off and started fall classes Tuesday. Tuesday’s practice started at 4 pm, so they are essentially in game-week mode. They also practice Wednesday and Thursday, simulating a traditional game-week schedule.
In fact, the team will have Friday off, as they do during the season, though there will be meetings, will practice and have a situational scrimmage Saturday. A light practice Sunday, which is also the norm the day after games, will follow. It’s not known at this time whether or not the team will stay in a hotel Friday night as a dry run for the following week.
And then next Monday, Larry Fedora will host his weekly press conference kicking off game week.
The practice plan is the same for next week, though the Tar Heels will travel to Berkeley on Thursday instead of Friday, which is when they typically would leave for a road game. The staff wants to give the team some extra time to recover from the long flight and adjust to the time difference.
“Five and a half hours,” Fedora recently said, when asked about going across country to play a game.
Though he then went into Fedora-speak, which is really coachspeak.
“It's our first game,” he said. “This is the only game we have on our schedule right now. That's the most important thing we do. The logistics of it is not something -- we'll talk about some of the things that we do going into that game as far as travel-wise. Most of our guys will have traveled. “But five-and-a-half hours that way, five-and-a-half-hours going back. From my understanding and all the research I've done, going to the West Coast is not as tough on you as coming east, so I'm really a little bit more concerned about the travel part of it and what it's going to do to their bodies the next week than I am the week we go out.”
As they always do, the Tar Heels will practice Sunday, the day after the game. But figure that a 4 pm kickoff, EST, likely means getting on a plane at around 10 pm EST and the players and coaches getting in their homes between 4-5 in the morning.
Still In Question...
The staff still has to make quite a few personnel decisions, which will be one of the focuses for the remainder of this week. Some of those decisions are:
*Right guard. Who will start, redshirt freshman Billy Ross or true freshman William Barnes? We believe both players will play at Cal and likely at East Carolina in the second game and then at home versus Central Florida before a decision is made.
*Which true freshman quarterback will go in if something happens to Nathan Elliott? Both Cade Fortin and Jace Ruder have shown they are making excellent progress, but being game ready is difficult for QBs that were in high school a year ago. So far this month, Fortin has been a bit steadier but Ruder has turned in more big plays, at least so far. Fortin might have a slight edge at this time, but considering one of them must be the primary backup for the first four games, they could jockey back and forth for the number two spot until Chazz Surratt returns from his suspension.
*The punt return job might reveal a surprise winner to many fans, but it’s possible the job hasn’t entirely been won yet. Fedora puts a premium on ball security, so simply catching the ball more than the others vying for the job is paramount in winning the job. As noted, the winner here could surprise most fans.
*The rotation at linebacker, which is likely to include redshirt freshman Jeremiah Gemmel, could also include true freshman Michael Flint, who enrolled in January. Is anyone else still in play?
*The defensive line will have both starting ends for the Cal game, but it might not have senior tackle Jalen Dalton. The Tar Heels may be able to get through Cal without Dalton, but the following week is when Malik Carney begins serving his four-game suspension, and if Dalton doesn’t return by then, the Heels will be without two very experienced seniors up front. So between now and then, the staff will continue working younger players into the mix getting them ready for extended reps, at tackle in both games and at end versus the Pirates.
