CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina held its second practice of fall camp Thursday morning, and afterward, and afterward, senior Jack/outside linebacker Kaimon Rucker fielded questions from the media.
The Q&A session focused on the jack position, the defensive front, including what he’s seen from Travis Shaw, and much more.
Above is video of Rucker’s interview, and below are a few notes and tidbits from what he had to say:
*Mack Brown said Wednesday that Shaw has made plenty of progress in the intangibles areas of being a college football player, and that the football is coming along, too. Rucker heaped praise as well.
“I feel like Travis Shaw’s mentality has gotten a lot better. I feel like he is stepping up mentally the way we need him to be. Right now, we’re still demanding a lot of physical talking; drop a little bit of weight; take care of his body; stuff what we do in the off time that he needs to be doing.
“Aside from that, I feel mentality wise he getting a lot better, he’s doing everything that we’re asking him to do.”
*Tomari Fox spent last season with the scout team, so he wasn’t really able to lead much when he wasn’t preparing himself for a game each week due to his suspension. But Fox is back and in the rotation up front on defense. Rucker said having Fox back in the room helps the defense in multiple ways.
“I feel like now that he’s the OG (old guy) in the room, he’s taken that ownership of being one of the oldest guys I feel like he’s taking care of that very well. He’s being that voice in the room. He’s got a lot of younger guys that guys that just got here, like Joel (Starlings) and Rodney (Lora) and people like that.
“He’s really just being that bigger brother that we need in the d-line room, and of course with others.”
Rucker is one of the strongest players on the team, but he yields to Fox, who has been the strongest Tar Heel for a few years.
Asked if he is as strong as Fox, Rucker replied while smiling, “He might got me.”
*Rucker spoke for a bit about how the defense is mentally “in a better space this season” because they learned a ton a year ago, in part the new system employed by Gene Chizik, but that Chizik has made some tweaks to it.
*In addition, Rucker said he is only working at jack and there are no plans for him to get any reps this month at rush end. He also said there are some packages in which he and Amari Gainer will be on the field at the same time, giving the Heels two jacks out there.
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