After a summer full of controversy, North Carolina football finally returns to the field

Just within range of the cranes and backhoes renovating Kenan Stadium, North Carolina’s football team is in the midst of a rehaul of its own.

UNC’s coaches and players are hoping to finish building an ACC Championship-level football team, even with the cloud of an NCAA investigation looming over training camp.

Fortunately for the coaches, they have a strong foundation.

Nine of UNC’s projected starters are going through their third training camp as starters — a luxury not afforded to many college coaches.

“That shows the growth of the program,” said senior tight end and four-year starter Zack Pianalto. “When you’ve got those experienced guys, you can bring guys along quicker.”

With the most experienced team since Butch Davis became coach in 2007, the Tar Heels are conducting practices with less of a focus on teaching the basics and more interest in fine-tuning the product on the field.

“We’re moving along faster than I’ve ever seen us do,” Pianalto said. “We’re in practice (No.) 14 or 15, and we’re definitely further along now than we’ve ever been at this point in training camp.”

UNC’s practices have continued with little impediment — except to the subjects of the NCAA investigation, defensive tackle Marvin Austin and wide receiver Greg Little.

Austin and Little have been chained to the second team by Davis for most of training camp in an effort to ensure that the team will be ready for its season-opener against LSU on Sept. 4 in Atlanta, with or without them.

Seldom used wide receiver Todd Harrelson has seen time with the first team in practice while Quinton Coples and Michael McAdoo have shifted across the defensive line.

Starting today, practices are geared more toward preparation for LSU, and Little and Austin are waiting on the NCAA verdict.

“We’ll have to take into serious consideration whether there has been any sort of revelation with the NCAA,” Davis said Thursday after practice. “We will revisit it at that time if we have to.”

If the NCAA rules Little and Austin ineligible, the number of three-year starters could drop to seven. With it, a little of the familiarity that permeates the roster could be lost.

The offense has the most to lose if Little were absent. The leading receiver for UNC last season, Little caught 62 balls while amassing 724 yards through the air. He was also the team’s most consistent offensive threat and a mentor to the team’s bevy of young, streaky wide receivers.

Austin is a stalwart at defensive tackle and projected to go in the first round of the NFL Draft.
But although the UNC defense would suffer without him, they have playmakers in the linebacking corps and secondary to compensate for his absence.

“We are definitely trying to hope for the best and that things will turn out well,” senior free safety Deunta Williams said.

The investigation hasn’t impeded UNC’s inclination to have fun during training camp. The team has continued its woofing with the coaches during stretching and hamming it up with each other when they aren’t on the field.

“We don’t have many (practical jokers) anymore,” Williams said. “Now we just have joke fest, man. We have guys joking on each other, going at each other, real funny stuff.”

Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.