2008 Preview
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By Mike Hogewood for theACC.com
North Carolina was the youngest team in the ACC last season. In all, 28 freshmen or red-shirt freshmen saw game action with many of them in starting roles. Head coach Butch Davis' first season saw his Tar Heels finish 4-8 but six losses were by a touchdown or less. The freshmen have added maturity and strength and for that reason many are picking North Carolina to be the sleeper team in the league in 2008. Everything is much more comfortable in Davis' second season. "I give our players, the ones that I inherited a lot of credit. They bought in instantly to what we were doing. It didn't take much persuasion by me or our coaching staff."
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Wide Receiver
Hakeem Nicks
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It is hard to win in college football without great play at quarterback and North Carolina has a potentially great one in T.J. Yates. A red-shirt freshman last year, Yates set school freshman records for completions, attempts, and yardage. He missed spring practice after having shoulder surgery but reports are out that his arm is stronger than it was before. Starting wide receiver Hakeem Nicks worked with Yates all summer and was impressed. "He came back really strong once he started throwing. When they first cleared him, we ran about 60 routes and he was on the money on all of them."
Nicks set a school record with 74 catches last year. Senior Brandon Tate gives Carolina a deep threat. After searching all season, the Tar Heels found a running back in the final two games last season. Greg Little moved to the position from wide receiver and had 243 yards rushing in the final two games. Davis says his one regret from last year is that he didn't make the move earlier. He's expecting big things from Little in his sophomore season. "He's a talented kid. He catches the ball well out of the backfield. He's big and strong so he's durable but we need more than one. We need Ryan Houston and Jamal Womble to step up." All but one starter returns to what should be a very good offensive line.
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Safety
Deunta Williams
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The biggest loss from last year will be felt on the defensive line. Kentwan Balmer and Hilee Taylor both headed to the NFL. Highly recruited Marvin Austin had the luxury of playing behind Balmer last season and learning. Davis says he expects big things from Austin this year. "Marvin is a delight to coach because he just loves football. He has a burning passion to be good."
At linebacker Davis is particularly high on Quan Sturdivant who last year as a freshman was forced to play even though he had never played the position before. In the secondary, cornerback Kendric Burney is much improved after giving up baseball to focus full time on football. Safety Deunta Williams is a natural leader and just a sophomore after being honored at 2007 ACC Rookie of the Year. He says the big thing the defense needs to do better than last year is to be more physical particularly against the run. "I think last year we should have stopped the run a lot better but we were young and didn't understand our responsibilities. We gave up too many big running plays because of missed assignments." Expect this defense to be more mature and much more disciplined.
North Carolina made some big plays on special teams last season. Returner Brandon Tate is back after setting an ACC record for kickoff return yards. He has returned three kickoffs and two punts for touchdowns in his career. With Connor Barth and his school-record 54 career field goals gone, red-shirt freshman Jay Wooten should be the new Tar Heel kicker.
The schedule is tough. After opening with McNeese State on August 30th, Carolina plays Rutgers, Virginia Tech, Miami, Connecticut and Notre Dame in succession. Davis says the tough games excite him. "By the end of the first month of the season, we'll have a pretty good idea of what kind of football team we're going to have."
A year ago Davis says the learning process was slow and arduous. Now he knows the players and has established depth on both sides of the ball. "Once you've been there more than one year, you don't have near the experimentation that you did the first year."
This team is still young but the young players now have experience. Don't be surprised if North Carolina is indeed the ACC team that exceeds preseason expectations.
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2008 Preseason Information
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2007 In Review
In its first season under Head Coach Butch Davis, North Carolina finished the year with a 4-8 record overall and a 3-5 mark in league play, good for fourth in the Coastal Division...The Tar Heels lost six games by seven or fewer points... Quarterback T.J. Yates threw for 2,655 yards, the fourth-highest total for a freshman in ACC history... Freshman safety Deunta Williams was named ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year...Wide Receiver Hakeem Nicks, a second-team All-ACC selection, set a school record with 74 pass receptions...Kicker Connor Barth, a Groza Award semifinalist, connected on 19 of 22 FGs and finished his career with 54 field goals... Freshman Greg Little started at tailback in the final two games of the year and ran for 243 yards...Linebacker Durell Mapp was second in the ACC in tackles (11.0) and was named a second-team All-ACC choice along with defensive tackle Kentwan Balmer...Kick returner Brandon Tate became the ACC career leader in kickoff return yardage with 2,383 yards.
Who’s Gone
The Tar Heels will be without the services of five starters from a year ago including first round NFL Draft selection Kentwan Balmer (DT) and second-team All-ACC picks Durell Mapp (LB) and Hilee Taylor (DE) on defense, kicker Connor Barth and center Scott Lenahan on offense... Taylor finished second in the ACC in sacks with 10.5 on the year, while Mapp was second in tackles in the Conference with 132 hits.
A Look Ahead
Davis will welcome back 18 starters including nine on offense, 8 on defense and punter Terrence Brown (41.7)... Yates, who completed 59.7 percent of his passes for 14 touchdowns, leads an offensive unit that returns four of five starters on the offensive line in tackles Garrett Reynolds and Kyle Jolly and guards Calvin Darity and Aaron Stahl and receivers Hakeem Nicks and Brandon Tate (19.2 avg.), tight end Zack Pianalto (24 catches) and four tailbacks who played last fall in Greg Little (300), Johnny White (399), Anthony Elzy (321) and Ryan Houston (145). Defensively, the Tar Heels return four starters from a young, but talented secondary including Deunta Williams, a first-team Freshman All-America (FWAA), Trimane Goddard at safety, and Charles Brown and Kendric Burney at the corners... Up front, first team Freshman All-America defensive tackle Marvin Austin joins returning starters E.J. Wilson (DE) and Aleric Mullins (DT)... A pair of sophomore starters also return at linebacker in Honorable Mention Freshman All-America Quan Sturdivant and Bruce Carter.
Numbers and Notes
2 - The number of pass interceptions returned for scores last year. Both were in the same game as freshmen Kendric Burney and Charles Brown returned passes 76 and 90 yards for scores against NC State.
5 – The number of UNC freshmen receiving some sort of Freshmen All-America honors last year. Defensive tackle Marvin Austin and safety Deunta Williams were first-team honorees while defensive back Charles Brown, tight end Zack Pianalto and quarterback T.J. Yates were Honorable Mention Freshmen All-Americas.
27 - North Carolina’s national ranking in pass defense with a secondary composed of three freshmen and a junior. All four starters--cornerbacks Kendric Burney and Charles Brown and safeties Trimane Goddard and Deunta Williams-- return this fall.
113 - The number of pass receptions for junior wide receiver Hakeem Nicks in his first two seasons of college competition. By comparison, the ACC career record-holder, Desmond Clark of Wake Forest, had 85 catches after his first two years.
154 - The number of yards tailback Greg Little ran for in UNC’s season-ending, overtime win over Duke. Little started the final two games of the season at tailback and totalled 243 yards on 50 carries with two touchdowns.
1,765 - The number of all-purpose yards senior Brandon Tate totaled last year, leading the ACC.
2,655 - The number of yards T.J. Yates threw for last year as a freshman. It was the fourth-best mark in the ACC by a first-year player, topped only by Florida State's Drew Weatherford, NC State's Philip Rivers and Florida State's Chris Rix.
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| 2008 Schedule |
| Aug. 30 | McNeese State (6 p.m.) |
| Sept. 11 | at Rutgers (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.) |
| Sept. 20 | Virginia Tech |
| Sept. 27 | at Miami |
| Oct. 4 | Connecticut |
| Oct. 11 | Notre Dame |
| Oct. 18 | at Virginia |
| Oct. 25 | Boston College |
| Nov. 8 | Georgia Tech |
| Nov. 15 | at Maryland |
| Nov. 22 | NC State |
| Nov. 29 | at Duke |
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| Head Coach Butch Davis |
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Butch Davis, former head coach at the University of Miami and the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, begins his his second year as the 33rd head coach at the University of North Carolina and the ninth since the ACC was formed in 1953. Faced with his second rebuilding task as a collegiate head coach, Davis quickly made a positive impression leading the Tar Heels to a 4-8 mark in his inaugural season, and guiding an undremanned Tar Heel team to ACC wins over Miami, Maryland and arch-rival Duke with six of UNC’s eight losses coming by a total of just 24 points.
Davis’s first rebuilding task as head coach was at the University of Miami (1995-2000) where he led the Hurricanes to a 51-20 record, three Big East Conference championships and four postseason bowl wins in as many appearances. Davis has coached in 11 postseason bowl games as an assistant or head coach, including two wins apiece in the Fiesta, Orange and Sugar Bowls. In 1995, when Davis took over the Miami program, the Hurricanes were faced with NCAA sanctions that restricted the number of scholarships in his first three seasons. However, his Hurricane teams finished ranked in the AP Top 25 on four occasions including No. 2 in the nation in 2000 when the Canes went 11-1 and beat Florida, 37-20 in the Sugar Bowl.
His 2000 team was second in the nation in scoring, fifth in total offense, fifth in scoring defense and eighth in pass defense. The Hurricanes earned recognition from the American Football Coaches Association for outstanding graduation rates in each of his six seasons at Miami. Davis recruited or coached a number of players at Miami who were selected in the NFL Draft, including 28 first-round picks. He left Coral Gables following the 2000 season to join the Browns.
Previously, he served a six-year stint as a defensive assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys (1989-94) and was a defensive line coach at UM in 1984-88 under former head coach Jimmy Johnson. He played collegiately at Arkansas under Frank Broyles and earned his degree from Arkansas in 1974. After five years coaching high school football, he joined Johnson’s staff at Oklahoma State (1979-83).
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