Thursday Players: Carter, Newsome, Gemmel & Conley

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina concluded its three-day stretch of full-pad, open-week practices Thursday morning, as the Tar Heels aren’t playing for the second consecutive week for the first time in 68 years.

The team had a spirited practice with an emphasis on the younger players scrimmaging and getting needed reps. Afterward, four Tar Heels were made available to the media via zoom and much of the focus was how the team continues handling the strangeness of the 2020 season, true freshman Ja’Qurious Conley getting ready for his first start, and some other elements of players such a Dazz Newsome and returning punts, a faster quicker and more explosive Michael Carter and Jeremiah Gemmel’s perspective on everything.

Here are some the video interviews of the four Tar Heels along with some notes and quotes from Thursday morning:

*So, what was on Dazz Newsome’s checklist of things to improve in the offseason, and even though it was just one game, did he see versus Syracuse the results of those efforts?

“I’m trying to improve my game by one, playing faster in general using my whole speed… and when catching the ball it’s all hands,” Newsome said. “Saturday, it was a pretty slow day, but we’re gonna get better.”

*Trey Morrison will start at safety and has been all over the secondary going back to since before fall camp started, so why does Newsome think Morrison is so effective playing all over the place?

“He know all of it,” Newsome said. “He’s been here for a (few) years now, Trey’s pretty smart, he knows everything that’s going on. He knows how to use leverages.”

*Newsome had 93 yards in punt returns versus Syracuse, a team whith which he returned one for a score in 2018. He managed just 81 yards on 12 returns a year ago with a long of 20 yards, his long versus the Orange two weeks ago was 38 yards. And that doesn’t count a 71-yarder for a score that was called back because of a penalty. So, what was the difference?

“I feel like this year we’re making punt returns more of an emphasis than we did last year,” the senior said. “And what I saw Saturday, it was just open. I was just trying to get what they were giving me.”

*Jeremiah Gemmel is keenly in tune with everything going on around him on Carolina’s defense. And, as a middle linebacker who barks a lot of pre-snap stuff and carries a responsibility of making sure the unit is on the same page, he’s always someone who can offer perspective and insight into the group or players on that side of the ball.

Plenty will be reported the next few days about true freshman Ja’Qurious Conley, who will start at Boston College next week. We will hit on a few things in this writeup and have something more in-depth later. So what are some of the things that impress Gemmel about Conley?

“Oh man, just the first day of fall camp, I think it was his organic talent that we saw on the first couple of days without even really knowing the schemes,” Gemmel said. “He’s got really good speed at the point of attack, and that’s something we really need at that nickel spot – someone who can cover but also go and fit in the run fit, and that’s something I saw from him from the first month he got here that he’s not scared to get and get in the run fit and get physical inside.”

*UNC Coach Mack Brown said earlier in the week the team was going to have a scrimmage for the younger players Thursday morning. This had the team fired up and spirits high, which is important given they’re in the midst of a 21-day stretch without playing a game.

“We just got done with practice and we had kind of a third and second-string little scrimmage going on at the end of practice, and everybody on the team was energized, hyping it up," Gemmel said. "Everybody just looked so alive and happy to be out here. And it’s kind of a practice where you come out and you’re like, ‘Okay, we’re not playing this weekend why do we have to be out here practicing?’

“But it didn’t look like that today. It looked like everybody was happy and ready to go and energized for practice.”

*After Ja'Qurious Conley finished his interview Thursday, he went back to the camera facing the media (zoom online) and let everyone know the correct pronunciation of his name: “juh-QWAIR-ee-us Conley,” he said.

It should be noted that several members of the media offered up different versions of the name Thursday, including us here at THI. So, duly noted and worth remembering.

*Conley has played one game in college (45 total plays, 23 at nickel, 22 on special teams), as this time a year ago he was tearing it up on high school fields in and around the Jacksonville, NC, area. So, with Myles Wolfolk ruled ineligible and Trey Morrison moving to safety, Conley will get the nod when the Tar Heels visit Boston College on Oct. 3. So how excited is he?

“I’m very excited, I’m ready to go,” Conley said. “No one else prepared me for this as much as my parents. My dad texted me once he found out the news the same day I did, and he told me, ‘Just stay humble and just stay focused on anything that you’ve got to do and focus on the task at hand.’

“So right now, I’m still trying to learn the plays, still trying to make sure I’m doing everything correctly. I’m so focused right now.”

*Getting his first start is a bit bittersweet for Conley. He looked up to Wolfolk as his “big brother” and got emotional when Wolfolk addressed the team last week saying he’d let them down. Conley had been relying on Wolfolk, among a few other teammates, to help him navigate through these early days as a college football player.

“I’d just lost my big brother and I kind of like had to just find my way through my freshman year of college without him,” Conley said. “The whole process with Myles gone and then me stepping up, it was just all emotional.”

*We will have more on Conley later today.

*In 1980, legendary Houston Oilers running back Earl Campbell gave each of his offensive linemen engraved Rolex watches for helping him rush for nearly 2,000 yards and around 500 yards more than anyone else in the NFL. The gifts were a show of gratitude for Campbell signaling the kinds of relationships backs have with the guys who block for them. Michael Carter was asked Thursday about some things he did well in the Syracuse game and he almost immediately heaped praise on the big guys up front, saying they opened some big holes just about anyone could have run through.

That recognition is important and it’s been going on forever in this sport. So what is Carter’s relationship with Jordan Tucker, Brian Anderson, Asim Richards Marcus McKethan, Josh Ezeudu, Ed Montilus and company up front?

“It’s probably the most important relationship, because you’ve got to trust them at all times to get the job done,” Carter said. “Any good running back has full trust in the offensive line and vice versa. Offensive linemen have some room for error, so if you’re one of those running backs that has no vision and you’re an ABC guy, you just follow the rules and you don’t have the true instinct it makes the job a little bit harder offensive line because they always have to be perfect.

“So, I think it’s just like a trust factor. Or if they mess up, I’ve got them, if I mess up they’ve got me. Our relationship is strong.”

How does Carter go about building those relationships with the o-line? Is it something he does one-on-one, in scrimmages, etc?

“All of the above, I’d say,” Carter replied. “I see them every day. The more I talk to them, the more we work together. Football really brings us together because nobody is really doing what we are doing around us. We’re really like a cult or something, a football cult.”