CHAPEL HILL – North Carolins was supposed to start spring football practice Tuesday.

It was slated to commence in the morning at the Koman Practice Facility and go for two hours before Mack Brown and some Tar Heels were scheduled to speak with the media.

But that’s not happening. Spring football, along with everything else at UNC and the ACC, has been canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic that has essentially halted life across the United States.

For UNC, whether or not it will hold a pseudo spring practice as some point is uncertain, but for now and perhaps the next two months, there will be no formal gathering of the Tar Heels.

The March 17 start date for the Heels is later than the rest of the teams in the ACC. A year ago, Carolina opened on March 2, but UNC Coach Mack Brown said strength and conditioning coach Brian Hess requested a later start this year.

“We moved spring practice back two weeks because coach Hess has wanted two more weeks with them (players) in the white room and, and in the running and agilities,” Brown said. “And I wasn’t for it at first, but he didn’t feel like in his first year he was able to get enough strength improvement and he just, he wanted the two more weeks of consecutive work.”

Had UNC opened spring practice two weeks earlier on March 3, it would have practiced five times before the ACC’s announcement putting an end to all team sports gatherings last week.

So, what would have been the priorities for Brown’s program? He recently met with the media to discuss a variety of topics regarding his program, and among them were some points of emphasis for spring practice.

“Number one for spring is depth,” Brown said. “That’s the most important thing for this football team right now.”

The Tar Heels lost just one starter on offense and four on defense, but the Tar Heels didn’t have enough depth last year to help forge through a series of injuries as well as keeping starters fresher during games.

“We had some injuries last year, it really hurt us,” Brown said. “We weren’t able to replace the guys that got hurt as quickly. So, the number one goal this spring will be to try to get a two deep where there’s not much drop-off when you take one group out and put another group in. And, and that is, that is key for us.

“You’ll have fresher teams, you’ll have better team morale. You’ll be in a position where you’re less likely to get guys hurt because they’re not in the fourth quarter tired.”

The secondary, and the competition anticipated from perhaps the teams’ deepest position group, red zone offense and defense, getting long looks at several defensive tackles plus working sophomore Asim Richards in as the starting left tackle are also things Brown identified as points of emphasis for the spring.

Practice was slated to run from 8-10 in the morning with meetings starting at 6:30, and the spring game originally scheduled for April 18 was going to air on the ACC Network.

Carolina opens the 2020 football season at Central Florida on Friday, Sept. 4.