After the North Carolina football team's first spring practice of the year – which took place on Sunday in the team's sleek new indoor practice facility, completed in November of last year – offensive lineman Charlie Heck encapsulated the feeling of the day.
"That was needed," Heck said. "Everybody has bought in, everybody’s energetic. They’re bringing it every day, and they’re excited to keep getting better as spring goes on.”
Indeed, the start of a new season in a new facility, led by new head coach Mack Brown, was a welcome change, especially for members of the Tar Heel veteran corps.
"Everybody’s focused, everybody’s locked in," rising redshirt senior Aaron Crawford said. "I think this is the first time I've really seen everybody buy in to every little single thing we’ve done. 6 a.m. workouts, people are up flying around, yelling, screaming, getting hype in the morning. Same thing with practice today. So I expect that to continue all the way through spring ball."
For rising senior Patrice Rene, the changes brought on by the arrival of Brown were wholesale.
"Its a whole different culture, really," he said.
It'd be easy for those Tar Heel upperclassmen to feel a more than a little jaded after finishing 2-9 last season and 3-9 the year prior. But with the return of Brown, who coached UNC from 1988 to 1997 and won a national championship with Texas in 2005, came a fresh start and hope for redemption.
"Coach Mack, he's a legendary guy," Rene said. "As soon as he walks in the room, you notice him. He brings a culture of winning, a winning culture here at Carolina. I feel like the guys are starting to buy into that, and we really believe it."
As for Brown himself, he seems to have made one thing clear to his new team above all else: the past is the past.
