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By Lee Pace
The sun came out Saturday morning, the temperature nudged into the 90s, the heat index topped out over 100. It was just after noon when practice number two of the Tar Heels’ August camp ended and the offense spread out the width of the field to run three across-and-back conditioning sprints, and then senior receiver Mack Hollins was called in front of the group to put the cherry on top: Two perfect jumping jacks.
And by “perfection” the drill is to be done in unison—50-some players moving together, slapping their thigh pads at the bottom together, cadence count in a one-two-three-one, one-two-three-two fashion.
Hollins didn’t like the first iteration. “Do it again,” he yelled. Carping and griping ensued.
He didn’t like the second one. “Do it again,” he yelled. More moaning and groaning.
“The toughest thing a leader has to do,” Coach Larry Fedora would say later, “is to hold your peers accountable.”
Finally Hollins was satisfied with the synchronization of his teammates’ efforts and called off the dogs, but not before gathering the group around him for a quick tongue-lashing.
“It shouldn’t take three times to get it perfect!” he yelled.
“I don’t care if you’ve just run two marathons, you should be able to focus enough to do two jumping jacks,” Hollins said later. “I get aggravated when guys don’t care enough to pay attention and focus. If you want to be great, if you want to be a champion, you can’t let up. Leading and getting criticism is part of the game. I know it will make our team better.”
And so it goes as the Tar Heels begin preparations for their Sept. 3 opener versus Georgia in Atlanta and hope to build on a significant step forward in 2015.
They are basking in the warm-and-fuzzy glow of having reeled off a school record 11 straight wins and snaring an ACC Coastal Division title in 2015.
But they are stung by ending their year with eight-point and 11-point losses to Clemson and Baylor, respectively, the latter defeat having felt much more severe given that the Bears ran through the defense for 756 yards.
“It’s been maybe 221 days since our last game,” Fedora says. “That’s a long time to have a bad taste in your mouth. We have some of the pieces of the puzzle put together, so it should be an exciting year, a fun year. The guys are biting at the bit to get at it.”
By Lee Pace
The sun came out Saturday morning, the temperature nudged into the 90s, the heat index topped out over 100. It was just after noon when practice number two of the Tar Heels’ August camp ended and the offense spread out the width of the field to run three across-and-back conditioning sprints, and then senior receiver Mack Hollins was called in front of the group to put the cherry on top: Two perfect jumping jacks.
And by “perfection” the drill is to be done in unison—50-some players moving together, slapping their thigh pads at the bottom together, cadence count in a one-two-three-one, one-two-three-two fashion.
Hollins didn’t like the first iteration. “Do it again,” he yelled. Carping and griping ensued.
He didn’t like the second one. “Do it again,” he yelled. More moaning and groaning.
“The toughest thing a leader has to do,” Coach Larry Fedora would say later, “is to hold your peers accountable.”
Finally Hollins was satisfied with the synchronization of his teammates’ efforts and called off the dogs, but not before gathering the group around him for a quick tongue-lashing.
“It shouldn’t take three times to get it perfect!” he yelled.
“I don’t care if you’ve just run two marathons, you should be able to focus enough to do two jumping jacks,” Hollins said later. “I get aggravated when guys don’t care enough to pay attention and focus. If you want to be great, if you want to be a champion, you can’t let up. Leading and getting criticism is part of the game. I know it will make our team better.”
And so it goes as the Tar Heels begin preparations for their Sept. 3 opener versus Georgia in Atlanta and hope to build on a significant step forward in 2015.
They are basking in the warm-and-fuzzy glow of having reeled off a school record 11 straight wins and snaring an ACC Coastal Division title in 2015.
But they are stung by ending their year with eight-point and 11-point losses to Clemson and Baylor, respectively, the latter defeat having felt much more severe given that the Bears ran through the defense for 756 yards.
“It’s been maybe 221 days since our last game,” Fedora says. “That’s a long time to have a bad taste in your mouth. We have some of the pieces of the puzzle put together, so it should be an exciting year, a fun year. The guys are biting at the bit to get at it.”
