CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina tight ends coach John Lilly met with the media following practice Friday morning to discuss his position group.
Lilly went in-depth about true freshman Bryson Nesbit’s potential and how he’s playing in practice, super senior Garrett Walston, the room’s depth, targeting the tight ends more frequently, and so much more.
Above is video of the full interview with Lilly and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*Bryson Nesbit was a 4-star prospect at South Mecklenburg High School in Charlotte but did not enroll early to UNC. He arrived this summer but has apparently made up a lot of lost ground. UNC Coach Mack Brown singled him out last Sunday as one of the impressive newcomers, and Friday Lilly was asked about what he’s seen so far from Nesbit.
“I think about Bryson and one of the things I don’t think has been talked about a lot, we had a lot of early enrollees, particularly in this state where they didn’t play high school football until the spring, there are a lot of guys that ended up not playing their senior year of high school… Bryson stayed. Finished his basketball season, finished high school, graduated. He was in that place where he potentially could have graduated early and come in, but then played football in the spring.
“I think that really helped him. He was one of the guys that… that stayed around in the spring and played. That helped him to grow because he hadn’t played as much. And I say that because I think it helped him when he came in because he did get exposed to a little more – as you watched him, I’d say I watched live stream of his games just about every Friday night during the spring because we couldn’t go out and watch any games or anything – and you could see him improve.
“And since he got here, I think athletically he can do some things naturally that allow him to make plays, and he has probably in the last two-and-a-half weeks… I would guess he’s had more collisions in the last two-and-a-half weeks than he had in his whole life put together.
“It’s such a diverse position in terms of what all you’ve got to be able to do: physical in the run game, you’ve got to be able to pass protect, you’ve got to be able to run around and create separation and do something with the ball when you get it.
“I think he’s made improvements every day, and that’s what you want, you want today to be your best day. And that’s for everybody that comes out, but especially a guy that’s really learning it. I don’t think it’s really stacked up on him at any point. I do think there’s a camp wall that some guys hit. I think he’s brushed up against it a couple of times, but I don’t think he’s hit it to this point. He’s a guy who’s learning what to do and probably makes a play a day, so he does flash in that regard.”
*Walston recently said two of the reasons he came back was because of how special the Tar Heels can be this season and also because he thought it was best for his chances at making it in the NFL. He cited Lilly’s NFL experience as something that can help Walston meet his goals. So, what has Lilly seen from Walston so far this month?
“He’s been in this offense long enough now, he knows the offense,” Lilly said. “He knows what is expected of him, he knows how we want him to do everything for the most part, so now it is, ‘Can I perfect my technique?’ Now it’s, ‘Boy, I can really play really, really hard because I’m not having to think about anything, I can play faster.’
“And I think that’s what we’ve seen. He had a really outstanding day… it was probably a week ago Thursday, and he had a great day and he’s really kind of taken off from there. I felt like it really kind of clicked in for him at that point.
“I think he’s taking advantage of that. He’s doing great job trying to lead, trying to bring Bryson along, and all those other guys, too, because it’s a young room outside of Garrett being a 17th-year senior or whatever he is now.”
