Davis says Tar Heels are proceeding apace

CHAPEL HILL - One point that Coach Butch Davis has stressed at North Carolina since summer practice began is that a defensive line can set a program's personality by its play, strong or weak.

The linemen, according to Marvin Austin, believe Davis' theory and are hopeful of giving the team at least a slight nasty streak for the 2009 season, a trait that hasn't been seen in Kenan Stadium very often.

"We want to go out there and blow some people up," said Austin, a junior defensive tackle. "We want to go out there and punish. When they snap the ball, the ball is the issue.

"If you've got the ball, we're going to come and get you. If your momma's got the ball, we're going to come and get her, too."

Practice took a one-day break yesterday for the start of classes. North Carolina is about four-fifths finished with its preliminary work, with 11 days left before its Sept. 5 season opener against The Citadel.

Davis said he was pleased with his team's progress; he said it seems to be where it should at this point of summer practice, although he doesn't know for sure because of the college game's practice limitations.

He added that more work is needed in several areas before the first game.

"The uncertain part of everything as a coach is you don't get the luxury of preseason games," Davis said. "You don't get a chance to test drive certain things and go, 'OK, we need a week's worth of work on that'.

"The best way we can tell is the execution, the mental errors. How smart are we? How efficient are we? The scrimmage (last weekend) was a pretty good indicator. We didn't have very many mental mistakes in the first two groups. They were pretty sharp."

Monday's practice included the sixth drill of summer work for two-minute execution, for both offense and defense. Davis watched last season's team play strong in the last minutes of a nail-biting win against Notre Dame but break down in close losses at Virginia and Maryland.

Specific situations were scripted for the offense and defense to overcome. Quarterback T.J. Yates ran plays with Davis and offensive coordinator John Shoop standing behind him.

Yates said he doesn't mind Davis and Shoop looking over his shoulder and welcomes input from a different perspective. Yates said that he feels calmer running plays now in his third season as the starter, after sometimes stuttering the play calls in the huddle when he was a redshirt freshman, trying to remember what play was called.

Yates said he now understands better what Davis wants from him in a two-minute drill.

"Before I'd always try to go for the long shot," Yates said. "I'd try to get the ball downfield as quick as possible. You just hit little short under routes and little check downs, and move the ball down the field.

"You'd be surprised how quick you can get the ball down the field, like an up-tempo fast offense."

Davis said he was concerned about the Tar Heels' secondary when using five defensive backs after the loss of junior Matt Merletti, who tore the anterior-cruciate ligament in one of his knees last week and will be lost for the season after undergoing surgery.

Merletti would have played as a fifth defensive back. He was also a standout special-teams player as well. Davis said that the Tar Heels are now auditioning players to take Merletti's place in the defensive backs' rotation and has several candidates.

"I'm guessing that two years ago it would have been catastrophic," Davis said of losing a player as valuable as Merletti. "You don't like it for him, but I think we're in a better position today to deal with that kind of adversity."

Both top offensive-line units seem more efficient since practice started. Davis said he was pleased that the second-team linemen, who are mostly young, can be paired with a veteran on the first team and can learn from the experience.

Punting is still worrisome. Grant Schallock and freshman C.J. Feagles have strong legs, according to Davis, and have boomed high punts that help the coverage team limit returns. Davis wants consistency, however, instead of 50-yard punts followed later by 19-yarders.

Defensive tackle Marvin Austin said he was confident that the problems will be taken care of in the next two weeks. He said he considers this summer practice the smoothest of his three at North Carolina and said that he will continue to bring his "lunch pail" every day.

"I feel like we're definitely growing as a team," Austin said. "We're nowhere where we need to be to become a national-championship team, but we're getting there. We've had a good camp, but we've got to keep building on it."

Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com.