Aug. 1, 2008

By Adam Lucas

Butch Davis doesn't refer to "practice sessions." Instead, he calls them "practice opportunities," as in, "We have a very productive 29 practice opportunities scripted." The first of those happened on Friday afternoon, as the Tar Heels gathered in shorts for the first practice of the 2008 season. Just like last year, the coaching staff staggered the first day's practice to provide some extra work for the younger players, as the true freshmen and other inexperienced players (known as the "Rams" group) went through a couple extra practice periods...

There's always one player who stands out on the first day as looking remarkably different from the last time you saw him on a football field. This year, that player is Zack Pianalto. The Arkansas native has gained 35 pounds since arriving at Carolina in January of 2007 and now weighs a more tight end-ish 255. On the other side of the scale, tailback Ryan Houston has made a similarly noteworthy weight loss and looked shiftier in drills. As Houston ran through a footwork session, Davis shouted, "Now that's the way Andre Williams used to do it!" Williams, now a football administrator, was standing just a couple of steps away with a smile...

There are some very inexperienced faces in the running backs huddle with veteran coach Ken Browning. Junior Bobby Rome is what passes for an old guy in that group, as he spent part of his first day coaching up his teammates on the finer points of drills...Two players you might have forgotten about, Greg Elleby and Cam Thomas, got snaps with the first-string defensive line during team periods. Of course, there will be substantial movement on the depth chart between now and kickoff of the McNeese State game...

Kevin Reddick and Joseph Townsend were the only players who didn't report with the rest of the freshman class. Both are still expected to join the squad before school starts...One of those freshmen, Casey Barth, looks like a carbon copy of his brother--albeit with slightly darker hair. Barth will be part of the kicking competition that also includes Jay Wooten. Punter Terrence Brown worked as the holder on Friday...

One of the best parts of the start of training camp is the opportunity to get a fresh dose of Butch Davis's unique sayings. On Friday, he referred to special teams players who get out of their lane on coverage as "blind dogs in a meathouse." In case you were wondering, dictionary.com says a meathouse is similar to a smokehouse. He also dropped a "slobberknockers," so camp is officially underway...According to Davis, none of the true freshmen enrolled in the second session of summer school made less than a B-...

If you want to take the same view of camp as Carolina's head coach, here's the areas he said he'd be watching carefully: finding five cohesive offensive linemen, developing depth at receiver, and T.J. Yates's shoulder (although Davis also noted, "It's to a point we don't even discuss it when we talk about injuries with the training staff"). Defensively, he's searching for an 8- or 9-man defensive line rotation and depth in the secondary...Yates's shoulder passed another test when he fired a perfect strike over the middle to Hakeem Nicks during a team period, hitting the receiver in stride and easily lofting the ball more than 40 yards in the air without appearing to exert much effort...Nicks would later follow that grab with a catch that sparked a chorus of "ooohh" from the sidelines, as he plucked a ball out of the air with his fingertips and changed direction all in the same motion.

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.