Aug. 10, 2007

By Adam Lucas

One of the first upgrades Butch Davis requested when he became Carolina's head coach will be completely invisible on game day.

Davis's time in the NFL sold him on the value of video as a teaching tool. Upon inspecting Carolina's video system--which catalogs every practice, game, and sometimes even opponent's games and then delivers that video directly to a computer at each coach's desk--he discovered it could hold just 150 hours of video.

"He said, `We have to upgrade to the biggest thing we can get,'" says director of video and computer operations Chris Allen.

The result? Carolina's video system, produced by XOS Technologies, now uses a 14-terabyte storage server. In plain English, that means the system can now hold 1,200 hours of video. Before the server upgrade, its small storage limit necessarily meant only Carolina footage could be stored. Now, the extra storage space has allowed Allen's staff to add other film requested by the coaches.

Players have already noticed the difference.

"Coach (John) Blake puts a big emphasis on technique," senior end Hilee Taylor says. "He says his 1994 Cowboys line had perfect technique. So this week some of us went in and watched some tape of the '94 Cowboys."

Taylor, who is frequently mentioned as one of Carolina's biggest tape junkies along with Kentwan Balmer, Trimane Goddard, and Joe Dailey, doesn't just watch non-Tar Heel tape. Every snap on the practice field is captured by one of the eight video cameras--two on the offensive field, two on the defensive field, and four roaming cameras--that patrol the field under the direction of video assistant Darryl Sanders.

By the time the coaches and players return to the Kenan Football Center, footage from that day's practice is already loaded into the video system and ready for review.

"I don't know how they do it that quickly," Taylor says with a shake of his head.

How do they do it? It's almost a science. When Sanders receives the day's practice plan, he makes his own personal version of the schedule, noting which drill will be shot by each camera. On the practice field, he's constantly on his walkie-talkie, reminding the video staff which camera should be pointed in which direction. Approximately every 15 minutes, tapes are collected from each camera and handed off to video staffer Joanna Hill, who takes the tapes back to Kenan, where Allen and another staffer are waiting. They immediately begin capturing the video and loading it into the system.

By the time the coaches sit down at their desks, they can cue up any play from that day's practice they want to see again.

The process is about to get even faster. The program recently invested in a pair of state-of-the-art high-definition cameras. Their delivery in about three weeks will enable practice footage to be captured on a memory card. The card will be delivered to the video room instead of a tape, enabling Allen to upload straight from the card. He estimates the HD cameras will make the process of loading practice tape ten times faster.

"These coaches really embrace technology," Allen says. "They push us to the limit of what we can do with what we have. We're always looking for a way we can get an edge without buying something that will just be a toy. Whether it's shooting more camera angles or finding a new way to shoot a drill, these guys can find it."

One of those toys that might look unusual but actually has an important purpose is the "eagle cam." It's a camera mounted on a 35-foot pole controlled by an LCD screen and zoom and power controls at the bottom of the pole.

Also known as the video staff as the "jack cam" because they have to jack it up to make it work, it has a simple purpose--to read the quarterback's eyes on every passing drill.

Davis's most recent technological upgrade is still in the final installation stages. The Football Center is in the process of having a 24-screen messaging center called Infocast placed in key locations. It sounds simple, but it's not.

Each 40-inch or 32-inch flat screen can display much more than messages. They can also handle high-quality video, graphics, and a real-time ticker with weather, scores, or news. The goal is simple: any time a player is within the football center, Davis can communicate with him.

If a Tar Heel makes a great play on game day, Davis can add that footage--along with a comment about the play--to the system's rotation to remind the rest of the team what he expects. If an opposing player makes a disparaging comment about the Tar Heels on the evening news, Allen's crew can have video of that comment playing throughout the building within the hour.

"The quality," Allen says, "is fantastic."

It's another way Davis has tried to put Carolina on the cutting edge. And while players might sometimes wish their practice miscues weren't so readily available, they've noticed the upgrades.

"When you're a young pup, you don't think watching film is important," says Tavares Brown, who apparently qualifies as a graybeard now that he's a sophomore. "When you get older, you start to appreciate it more. It can change the way you play."

Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven will be released on September 1. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.