CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina is now nine practices into the preseason after Saturday morning’s workout, and the Tar Heels are also now exactly four weeks from their opener versus Syracuse at Kenan Stadium.

This is typically the point in camp when position battles take on a bit more importance and projected rotation players get increased practice reps. It’s also when most teams hold their first scrimmage, and while many clubs still intent on playing this season scrimmaged Saturday, the Tar Heels did not.

It’s uncertain at this time when they will hold a scrimmage, but given they didn’t have a spring practice, lost a week during the phasing-in period after some players tested positive for COVD-19 in July, and the opener is still a month away, Mack Brown and his staff simply aren’t in a rush.

This is allowing the true freshmen plenty of work and the deep position groups more than enough time to sort our rotations. Among them is a safety group that is quite talented and has more than a few bodies.

Sophomore Cam’Ron Kelly was made available to the media via Zoom following Saturday’s practice, and he spoke about the depth at safety. THI takes a look at that and more in this edition of the preseason report.

Cam’Ron Kelly’s wild ride last year started when he transferred to UNC from Auburn after signing with the Tigers the previous December and enrolling there in January, waiting until late August to be cleared by the NCAA, and then getting his first start in the Tar Heels’ home game versus No. 1 Clemson. It was capped off with a torn ACL that day ending his season.

Since then, Kelly went through the grind of returning to full strength so he could once again compete for a significant role in UNC’s safety spots, which he’s now doing. But it wasn’t long ago that Kelly was given full clearance to do everything.

“That was about three weeks ago,” he said.

Kelly was doing plenty before getting fully cleared. He said within six months of the injury he was doing most of his training while continuing to rehab under the distant supervision of UNC’s training staff after the shutdown hit in March. There were never any worries for the Virginia native, though.

“Our training staff here, one of the best in the country, they always face-timed me and made sure I was doing what I was doing,” Kelly said. “Plus, my trainer back at home, he’s a rehabilitation specialist, so he helped me a lot. I got on face time with my trainers here while I was doing my rehab with them, too as well. Shout out to (Chesapeake, VA) Brandon Trusty for that, he got me right.”

Kelly said after six months he felt like he was moving at 100 percent, adding, “It felt great.”

Also, Kelly said he prefers being called Cam instead of Cam'Ron.

“I go by Cam because a lot of people don’t say ‘Cam’Ron’ anyway.”

With D.J. Ford opting out of the season last week, a deep group at safety was thinned out a bit. A senior, Ford had more than 1,000 career snaps under his belt and was fifth on the team with 54 tackles last season. Javon Terry, who also opted out, was more a special teams player for the Tar Heels a year ago, but was slotted at safety and could have supplied depth if called on.

With both players not available, the group isn’t as loaded as it was, but the Tar Heels are still in pretty good shape provided Myles Wolfolk, Cam’Ron Kelly and Don Chapman can stay heathy this season. And given that Wolfolk’s outstanding start to the season ended after five games due to an injury and Kelly was lost for the year as noted above, the staff wants at last one more young player to step up and gain their trust. They may well find what they’re looking for.

“It’s deep in the Rude Boyz room,” Kelly said. “It’s definitely competition – it’s competitive every day.”

Aside from Kelly, Wolfolk and Chapman, who else is getting plenty of time there and has made an impression on Kelly?

“Giovanni (Biggers)… Cameron Roseman-Sinclair, a young boy stepping up into the game,” Kelly said about the sophomore and true freshman, respectively. “There’s a lot of competition from old heads to young heads to any position because we all play different positions in the secondary.”

A theme coming out of preseason practice so far is the staff wants players to be more interchangeable, which in itself actually allows for more depth. Plus, it makes them better at their jobs by understanding the responsibilities at other positions. Kelly said whether someone is naturally more of a free safety or a bandit, it doesn’t matter, they’re learning both right now.

“Right now, some of the bandits play free and some of the frees play bandit,” he said. “It just rotates, too. It’s good (because) to be more available you have to know more positions.”

Back to the rotation in drills, which does carry meaning for that day, overall it’s not anything the players get caught up in, as Kelly explained.

“As far as rotation, coach always says, ‘Don’t worry about that because we’ve got so many players that can play right now.”

Mack Brown has said a couple times in recent months he would like for his backup quarterback to get a few snaps in games to “get them ready” and allow for starting QB Sam Howell to see the game some from the sideline. Brown has done that in the past, so it’s probable he will do so again.

That was part of the plan a year ago, as backup Jace Ruder played seven snaps in a loss at Wake Forest with a specific package put in for him, and again the following week versus Appalachian State. It was on his first snap in that game, a play in which he ran the ball, that Ruder broke his leg and was out for the season.

He’s healthy now and the likely leader to back up Howell again, so how does Ruder see his role for this season?

“All I can do is work, show up and work each day and be prepared for whatever comes at me,” Ruder said. “So, whether Coach Brown decides to play two quarterbacks or not, I’m going to be ready to go. And whenever my chance comes, I’m going to take it and run with it.”

True freshmen Jacolby Criswell and Jefferson Boaz are UNC’s other two scholarship quarterbacks.