this rollercoaster's hilarious, we're now best case scenario'n with potential transfers, and personally I'm here for it
mitchell and cone are the rumored two and i love it get aidoo offered as a developmental big behind mando and let’s ride
had a nice chuckle reading this from the practice scoop: UNC Strength and conditioning coach Brian Hess was yelling excessively, loudly, and at times nonsensically during the one-on-ones, the inside run period, and really the entire practice. Spoiler: Full Scoop * Saturday marked the first open practice period for UNC since the COVID-19 pandemic began. While protocols are still being stringently enforced, there was a sense of normalcy at Kenan Stadium. Mack Brown repeatedly told his players that they either needed their helmets on to participate or their masks up. Everyone in attendance other than players were required to wear masks and socially distance. * Saturday was the first of two days in shells. UNC’s first practice in full pads will come on Thursday morning. Practice included 24 periods and was split into four quarters, including a five-minute halftime break. * Standard suspects on special teams: Grayson Atkins at placekicker, Ben Kiernan at punter and Josh Downs at punt returner. Downs was joined by Stephen Gosnell and Kobe Paysour at PR. * Des Evans looks all grown up. He looks every bit of his 265-pound target weight. Impressive transformation in such a short stretch of offseason workouts as he’s bulked up in his lower body significantly. He took position group snaps with OLB and DL, but worked solely at OLB in team drills. * There’s quite a physical difference between Sam Howell and Drake Maye. The former is shorter and stocky, while the latter is tall and thin. Maye looks like a high school senior, for good reason. His potential is apparent, though. He has pretty good footwork for this stage of his career and has a big arm. Several vertical throws he made were not only on target, but had plenty of trajectory and got there in a hurry. There’s a lot of polishing that will need to take place over the next 12-18 months, but that’s to expected. He connected on a number of quality throws in skeleton drills, but threw high to Gosnell on one particular play that would have been troublesome on game day and threw a bit behind a running back on a sneak route. * Size has arrived on the DL. For the first time in a number of years, UNC’s has multiple big bodies taking snaps up front. Freshmen Kedrick Bingley-Jones, Jahvaree Ritzie and Keeshawn Silver are large individuals to be as young as they are. A year in Brian Hess’s strength and conditioning program will be beneficial as they lack they definition and proportions of players like Kristian Varner and Myles Murphy, but that type of development takes time. They all have good feet and pack a punch at the point of attack. * Ja’Qurious Conley and Welton Spottsville worked with safeties and nickels during position group drills. Conley only logged time at nickelback during team drills, to my knowledge. He made his presence known on various occasions with hard hits and pass breakups. * Nickels: Conley, Spottsville, Christopher Holliday and DeAndre Boykins * Corners: Storm Duck, Tony Grimes, Obi Egbuna, Kyler McMichael and DeAndre Hollins * We’ve seen various setups to maximize efficiency with regard to QB/WR work over the years, but this was the first time I’ve seen this approach. Phil Longo had four WR stations running different routes and all four scholarship QBs in a lateral line behind snappers. Each QB position threw to a specific route and then the QBs rotated down the line to keep the drill moving quickly. Lots of throws and catches packed into a five-minute period. * Caleb Hood is a different back than his teammates. He laid a couple of hits that knocked defensive backs back on their heels. He’s a big kid to be a freshman and is quick enough to run around defenders as necessary. His unique style may help him stand out once we get into training camp. * Dre Bly is placing an emphasis on creating turnovers with his corners. One drill consisted of his players starting in coverage and then breaking off to locate and secure overthrown passes in the middle of the field. * After one glaring drop on a crossing route, a coach bellowed, “Get your #$%@ eyes down!” * McMichael locked down Khafre Brown at the line of scrimmage on one snap, preventing the sophomore from even getting off the line, and Bly came running over, screaming, “It’s over! It’s over!” before jumping into McMichael in celebration. * Tight end Kamari Morales had two early impressive catches. The first came after outrunning a safety for a deep pass play and then he beat a corner on a 50/50 ball before turning up the right sideline for a long run. * I think it’s fair to say the offensive line was dominant in the run drill period. With Ed Montilus stepping in for the injured Joshua Ezeudu at left guard, the OL repeatedly opened up big holes for Josh Henderson, D.J. Jones and Ty Chandler. Freshman Diego Pounds blew up a defensive lineman on a pull and two staff members exploded in celebration. * Redshirt freshman tight end John Copenhaver made a solid contested catch on a dig from Criswell, even with Conley drawing a flag on the play. * Tennessee transfer Ty Chandler has a smaller frame than his RB teammates despite standing a legit 6-foot. He’s got a good initial burst and good hands out of the backfield. Chandler and Jones seemed to get the bulk of the reps with the ones, although there was plenty of snaps available for Green, Hood and Henderson as well. A long ways to go before any decisions at RB will be made. * Howell participating in skeleton drills is simply not fair for the defensive backs. Criswell and Maye made a bunch of good throws, but also had some throws they would like back. Not Howell. His ability to make pinpoint throws while also making a good throw every time is something to watch. * Justin Olson, Khafre Brown, Antoine Green and Emery Simmons are manning the outside receiver positions, while Josh Downs and Stephen Gosnell were constants in the slot. * Evans had an early tackle for loss against Howell in the team drills by slicing through the left side of the offensive line. Spottsville also picked off a Criswell pitch and returned the fumble for a touchdown. * Howell connected with Green on a 40-yard vertical against double coverage, which drew praise from Mack Brown for both the throw and the difficult catch. * “Coaches, if somebody’s not sprinting to the ball, get them out.” * Grimes and McMichael were primarily working with the ones at corner. * There were a lot of moving parts along the front seven, although staples were Ray Vohasek at nose, Kaimon Rucker at end and Jeremiah Gemmel at inside linebacker. If I had to guess at a first unit after watching practice, it would be Vohasek, Rucker and Myles Murphy on the line and Tomon Fox and Chris Collins at outside linebacker and Gemmel and Eugene Asante at inside linebacker. I can’t stress enough that the bodies were rotating quite often, however. The emphasis this spring is to build depth, not determine a two-deep and that goal was apparent on defense. Additional Notes by Ross Martin Offensive Line First Team LT Asim Richards LG Ed Montilus C Brian Anderson RG Marcus McKethan RT Jordan Tucker Second Team LT Cayden Baker LG Jonathan Adorno C Quiron Johnson RG William Barnes RT Wyatt Tunall Third Team LT Trey Zimmerman LG Malik McGowan C Chance Carroll/AJ Beatty RG Nick Mackovic RT Diego Pounds * UNC OL Coach Stacy Searels and veteran players were on Diego Pounds during position drill work. Pounds looked winded and there pushing him and encouraging him to give maximum effort and finish drills-Ed Montilus had a club on his right hand * William Barnes was the most vocal of the offensive lineman between drills. He was encouraging the group, “100 percent on everything. Let’s show them what we’re about.”-Former UNC offensive guard Nick Polino is working with the offensive line. * Coach Searels kept saying, “Four reps to beat Virginia." * On the extensive one-on-one portion of the practice when the offensive line faced off against the defensive line and UNC’s outside linebacker and pass rushers, there was a lot more energy and juice from the offensive side of the ball. That also proved true during inside run. * Ty Chandler gashed the defense for a few big runs during inside run (no tackling) which gained a few words of congratulations from head coach Mack brown -Running backs did a drill where Coach Larry Porter aggressive pulled the ball with a cord. * New UNC staff member Natrone Means was with the running backs. * True freshman early enrolled running back Caleb Hood stands out. Massive thighs compared to his running back teammates and a much bigger and stronger looking upper body. He fits the bill as UNC’s power back option. * Former UNC players Aaron Crawford, Michael Carter, Javonte Williams, Chazz Surratt, and Dyami Brown were in at Carolina’s practice on Saturday One on Ones (note that these are samples of a large practice period) * Dre Bly celebrated big plays by his DBs by jumping up and chest bumping the player who made the play * UNC Strength and conditioning coach Brian Hess was yelling excessively, loudly, and at times nonsensically during the one-on-ones, the inside run period, and really the entire practice. *WR Josh Downs beat NB Trey Morrison<br< * TE Kamari Morales over NB Ja’Qurious Conley * WR Tylee Craft over CB Oio Egbuna * WR Emery Simmons beat CB Tony Grimes * CB Storm Duck broke up a pass to WR Antoine Green * CB Ladaeson DeAndre Hollins defended a pass to WR Justin Olson * TE Johns Copenhaver with a touch catch over NB Ja’Qurious Conley OL vs. DL * DE Kaimon Rucker got inside on OL Jordan Tucker and overpowered him * OL Asian Richards handled DE Tomon Fox on a pass rush scenario * DE Desmond Evans blew past OL Trey Zimmerman * Nickelback Welton Spottsvile with an interception for a touchdown during the 11 on 11 period-Beau Corrales was not active, but in attendance Additional Notes by Gregory Hall 1COMMENTS * There was high energy the entire practice, an expectation by Mack Brown since Day 1, but it was at its peak during one-on-one drills. For the linemen battle, the offensive line was repeatedly opening up holes and dominating the D-line. One defensive lineman that stood out was Jahlil Taylor. He was using his low center of gravity to his advantage to keep low pads on whichever offensive linemen he was up against. It took redshirt freshman Malik McGowan to stop Taylor’s rampage. * With former star receiver Dyami Brown watching along the sideline, the young receivers showed they can hold their own against the secondary. Josh Downs, who worked out of the slot, took Ja’Qurious Conley and Trey Morrison head on and repeatedly found open space deep over the middle. In one route that found him 40 yards down the field on the right side, Sam Howell dropped a ball right into his hands as he had Conley and safety Cam’Ron Kelly trailing him in coverage. Kyler McMichael and Tony Grimes battled with Khafre Brown and Antoine Green on the outside. They took turns alternating who beat who. McMichael had a nice pass break up while guarding Green on an out-route. Green also had a 40-yard catch down the sideline with multiple steps on Grimes. Emery Simmons got into the mix beating Grimes by about five yards on a vertical down the left side. But Grimes got his fix with tight coverage preventing completions while covering Brown, Green and Simmons.
the ic rollercoaster's been off the hook this past week, Grady news sends everyone crashing back down today only to soar back up shortly after with this Mando update
Khafre's out for the rest of the spring, no further clarification yet on if it's more serious than that
pulled the bandaid off excited, scared, nostalgic, sad, thankful, probably really any emotion you can think of
yeah i was wanting a move on and it is exciting to think about the wes era (or few/stevens/wright era if we just get insanely lucky in my fantasy world). but also just stunned. say what you want about the last 2 years or so but he oversaw what is objectively the best stretch in unc history. he will never admit it but he outpaced dean. and saved the program. this is stunning
bwall saying caleb and bacot were aware of this when they made their decisions so thankfully we should be good roster wise
I have no idea who I'd even be excited about hiring. Don't follow basketball coaches nearly as closely as football. I think we've done a pretty good job with hiring recently but I don't see any slam dunk candidates out there.
betting favorite is hubert rn. he's claimed he has no interest in the head job. hope he sticks by that
actually believe that given his personality, just don't see him wanting to take on the criticism and stress that comes with the mantle
its nothing against him personally i just do not understand why we would go that route. if the georgia tech or south carolina or even vcu jobs came open tomorrow, would he even get an interview? i doubt it. so why is he going to get what is one of the 1-2 most coveted jobs in the sport? i know the answer but i am just telling myself how illogical of a decision it would be instead of thinking about the idea of going that route
o/u 0.5 number of players who would have any idea what you meant if you just said "i could give a shit about north carolina right now"
best job in college basketball and we are going to hand it to a completely unqualified candidate because “durr family” just have to hope bubba wins the power struggle because roy and his cronies will be pushing hubert
I'd 100% rather take the risky unknown in Hubert over the known meh in Turgeon tbh My hope is that this search has just gotten into motion so of course Hubert and Wes are the favorites right now, is a bit of a shock that Davis appears to be over Wes but Roy's pinky knows more about filling coaching vacancies than I do or something
I don't even know where to begin trying to keep up with those threads, this last page of the main one has 5 posts in a 47 second span
mario positioning himself as some insider when he clearly just comes up with stuff is a nice hustle. people still fall for it every time
I think it's clear there's a genuine search going on, just have to wonder how far down the list they go before settling on Hubert My guess is he probably slots in right behind the big fish tier one guys