Aug. 11, 2007

By Adam Lucas

Carolina went through the first scrimmage of training camp Saturday afternoon. No formal statistics were kept, but Butch Davis said he was pleased overall. "If you reflect back to the first five days of spring practice, there was a lot of inconsistency and a lot of areas where we weren't a very good football team," he said. "Today we got better. Just the cohesiveness of our offense, defense, special teams, nickel, and being able to do the things we asked them to do."...

The scrimmage was held with ACC officials and the offense did not commit a penalty in the first 45 snaps...No quarterback announcement was made, but Davis did indicate that T.J. Yates and Cameron Sexton might be ahead of Mike Paulus in the race to move into the top two quarterback slots that will receive most of the repetitions over the final couple weeks of the preseason...One freshman who is quietly competing for playing time is Charles Brown, who might be a punt return option...

Bruce Carter has moved onto the second team at SAM linebacker and continues to make some head-turning plays, including a tackle behind the line of scrimmage during Saturday's session. "He really shows up," as Davis put it. Carter played quarterback, safety and running back in high school, but a knee injury cost him the 2006 season. "His comfort level at making the transition from being an offensive player and a guy playing the secondary to a linebacker continues to get better," Davis said. Despite the knee injury, Carter has actually improved his speed after working with Jeff Connors. He ran a 40-yard dash in the 4.5's in high school but now runs a 4.43. "I can play a lot of positions," Carter said. "My athletic ability and speed and size make me pretty versatile, so adapting to linebacker wasn't a huge deal. I'm still learning the position."...

The first-string goal line defense had a nice stand on the first offensive drive of the scrimmage...Kendric Burney is listed at just 5-foot-9, 180, but he had the hardest hit of the scrimmage when he flattened Johnny White...Yates and Brandon Tate connected on a well-thrown touchdown pass...The punting battle has been one of the more low-key camp competitions. "Today we probably had the best punting exhibition since I've been here," Davis said. "Terrence Brown and Jay Wooten absolutely murdered the ball. Their get-off times were outstanding, around 1.99 to 2.08 every time, the hang times were well over 4.5, and the yardages were in excess of 45 to 48 yards. As important as all of that was their ability to directional kick and put it in a place where we know we can cover it." Wooten is a true freshman and Brown, a junior, is a product of Fresno City College in Fresno, Calif...

Carolina had record-breaking participation in Saturday's Kids Club Day. Over 600 kids signed up for the event. For more information on the Carolina Kids Club, click here...After a full winter and spring of making trips to various Rams Club and football-oriented events, Davis expressed a desire to make Saturday's Meet the Heels Day player-focused. In order to give his staff Sunday morning off, he and the coaching staff reviewed scrimmage film Saturday night while the team was signing autographs. Fans will have plenty of opportunities to see Davis at his weekly radio show beginning Aug. 30 at Top of the Hill on Franklin Street...The film review process will continue Sunday afternoon, which is an off day for the players, and then the entire team will review the film Sunday night before hitting the practice field again Monday morning.

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.