I’m so ready for football.  This gets me completely psyched.

Carolina Football — Remember the Name

In the last week, I experienced a milestone moment in my career and in my life as a Tar Heel fan. After years of “turning down the sound” and listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network radio broadcast while watch the TV, I recently got to hear WOODY DURHAM advertising my law practice.

We’ve only been open since March, but I’m trying to find a good marketing niche here in the greater Sanford, NC area, so we’re sponsoring the Tar Heel Sports Network on WFJA (the local Sanford radio station) this year. I’m completely geeked out about having the 37 year voice of the Tar Heels do our ad. Of course, at this point, it’s just an audio file on my computer. I can’t wait to hear it during a live broadcast. Unfortunately, that may have to wait, because it’s only a local ad and I don’t know if I can pick up our station up in Kenan Stadium. I’ll be happy to wait until the Rutgers game if I can witness a beat-down on McNeese St.
Woody Durham. TOO Cool.

After much impatient waiting, Carolina’s football season starts today as fall practice begins.  I’m looking forward to lots of reports from camp about the improvements at various positions, gelling of the O-Line, clearer pictures at linebacker and backup running back, all leading up to an opening day thrashing of McNeese State.

I’m so excited.  Think: Tyler’s run down the court after hitting the game-winner against VT in the ACC Tourney.

Let’s get it started. Woooo!

The LA Daily Breeze is reporting that Alex Stepheson, who announced after the season that he was transferring to be closer to his family due to his father’s ill health, will be matriculating at Southern Cal. Southern Cal loses OJ Mayo and picks up a fantastic person and player in Alex Stepheson. They definitely traded up in my mind. After sitting out the mandatory transfer year, I expect Alex will quickly become a fan favorite out in LA-LA land.

Alex Stepheson was a favorite of mine this past year because he showed improvement in so many facets of his game, and also because he always seemed to have an unselfish, team-first attitude. The fact that his family was such a priority that he would leave UNC to be closer to them just solidifies my respect for him.

I was really looking forward to seeing him play for us this year. I also hope we don’t have to face him and USC in the coming years. I would prefer to continue thinking of him as part of the Carolina family, and that’s hard to do after someone posts a double-double on you, which I expect he will do very often to USC opponents.

Good Luck, Alex.

You look mahvelous. — Fernando (Billy Crystal)

This month’s Tar Heel Monthly, a fantastic publication put out by Adam Lucas and Lauren Brownlow and their team (with regular contributions from John Kilgo, Lee Pace and Jones Angell) that is available by subscription and free to Rams Club members, has an update by Lee Pace on this season’s uniform changes:

The white pants will still have a [looks to me to be wider] truncated “squirt” down the sides of Carolina blue… The Carolina blue pants will not have the squirt.

…The new [home] jerseys feature a blue-on-blue look with the piping and trim in blue and the logo in white. A notch of white fabric with navy trim appears on the back of the neck of both home and road jerseys.

UPDATE: I found the picture below from Nike’s Eastbay site linked by JLeggette on the CarolinaBlue message boards. It’s a fan jersey and slightly different from the real deal but it’s pretty close. Among a few other things, the real thing has elastic sleeve trim (not loose).

The most notable changes, in my opinion, will be a move to white shoes, and the new material the uniforms are made from. In addition to modern wicking technology that will help the players feel dryer and less heavy, the new uniforms will fit much closer to the skin, and help frustrate opponents attempts to hold, clutch and grab.

The article also contains two important nods to tradition. Coach Butch Davis reiterates his love for the current interlocking “NC” helmet design (already evidenced by the helmet logo that has become prevalent in sportswear and around the stadium) and his intention to maintain it’s current look. In addition, Davis indicates that they are looking hard at a Navy jersey, perhaps as a way to pay homage to the Justice era of Carolina football. On the other hand, Davis does not want to change jerseys every year or every week like the Oregons of the world:

“You want to have a uniform that is recognizable across the United States,” Davis says. “You want people to turn on the TV or pick up a magazine cover and they instantly know, ‘That’s North Carolina.’”

I really wish that I could show you the picture and sketch from the article, but you’ll just have to wait for the official release on TarHeelBlue.com.

Let me close by encouraging everybody to join the Rams Club (for as little as $9 a month), and Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is, and get your free copy of Tar Heel Monthly.

I didn’t expect to stay gone for that long, but life gets in the way sometimes. Not that a whole lot has happened this summer in the grand scheme of things. In fact, I am perfectly content to pretend that none of the NBA speculation with Lawson, Ellington or Green ever happened. But some interesting news has rolled in over the last week that is worth noting, and it’s getting close enough to football season that we can already smell the unreasonably high expectations.

1. Lowell Dyer received a scholarship. Although Scott “Tank” Lenahan started last year at center, Dyer saw the yeoman’s share of the load at that position because of Lenahan’s unfortunate injuries during the season. Apparently Coach Butch Davis made the announcement while giving out team awards at the end of spring practice. I love this kind of thing. It’s so great for guys that have busted their butts on the scout team for the betterment of the program to have someone to look up to. More than that, Carolina has a great tradition of walk-ons contributing to the program, e.g. David Thornton, Kendric Williams, Lance Williams (RIP)… It’s great when they can earn a scholarship to recognize their efforts. I’ve always loved the walk-on tradition on the basketball side, too.
2. Football Season Tickets ARE SOLD OUT! This is just awesome. If we can just get some wins, we’ll have some serious momentum.
3. Chad Holbrook takes a position with South Carolina. I was upset about this one at first. Coach Fox readily admits that Holbrook has been a huge reason that UNC was in three straight College World Series. Moreover, the University community rallied around the Holbrooks when their son Reece was diagnosed with Leukemia. As it turns out, though, Holbrook’s wife is from Columbia, Reece is in remission, and USC’s Coach Tanner is likely to retire about a decade earlier than Coach Fox (and leave the program there in Holbrook’s hands), making this the time to make the move, and to do so on good terms, leaving the program in great shape. Good luck, Chad.
4. Ty Lawson is a dumb kid doing things dumb kids do. Darian Durant is ready to start at QB in the CFL. Joe Dailey gets a position at the University of Buffalo.

Now, if we can just get to the start of football practice, the world will be right.

I am not a very big baseball fan. Which is to say that I enjoy ball park hot dogs, the national anthem, the seventh inning stretch, Take Me Out to the Ballgame and Centerfield, but I like home runs and hits and not routine infield defense. Baseball games tend to drag for me. I understand the drama, but it’s much the same way that I understand the drama of a soccer match: I get it, but I’m still not interested in watching a defensive struggle. (It’s a little weird that I enjoy defense in football as much as I do. I guess I like seeing our guys plant the bad guys in the ground…). I’m not going to expound about the finer points of the game because I’m just not that knowledgeable a fan.

Even so, I’m never ambivalent about the Tar Heels, and I’ve been following the Boys in Blue through the NCAA tournament and enjoying their usual displays of hitting and solid pitching, but hoping for some ACTION. I got it last night.

UNC v LSU. Elimination game. Top of the Ninth, tie game. The Heels’ ace Alex White just got out of a bases loaded jam that involved pitching to the nation’s home run leader.

The bases are loaded with two outs and up walks Tim Federowicz. He’s 0-for the night. He’s only hit 4 home runs all year. He bats about .111 with the bases loaded. He gets behind in the count… and then… GRAND SLAM! WOO!! The Heels go up 7 to 3, close out the bottom of the ninth in routine fashion and survive. Survive and Advance. Even in June, that’s the name of the game in the NCAA tournament.

The Heels now join Georgia and Stanford in the final four of the CWS and face Fresno State tonight at 6, having to beat them twice to advance to the championship. GO HEELS!

The News and Observer reports:

The former University of North Carolina quarterback played through that pain to be Oakland’s leading receiver last year until it finally became too tough to handle this offseason. After undergoing surgery on his left foot that forced him to miss six weeks of offseason practices, Curry returned to his usual spot at receiver this week for the Raiders.  …  Curry said he had trouble planting on the foot before the operation but says he is now running pain free with six weeks before training camp starts.

I’m extremely excited for RC.  If there is anyone who deserves all the positive energy we can give, it’s Ronald Curry.  This guy stepped into two bad situations at UNC, at the dawn of dark times in football and basketball, and did his absolute best to help both teams succeed.   I (and many others, possibly including RC) will always wonder if he would have been more successful had he picked one sport and dropped the other.  Instead, he persevered at point guard and carried the football team as quarterback.  One of the only times I’ve been embarrassed to be a Tar Heel fan was watching fans boo Ronald Curry off the field in favor of a freshman Darian Durant.

For someone with so much talent and potential, Ronald Curry has endured a heart-wrenching amount of disappointment.  I hope Ronald has a stellar season and that it is just the start of greater things for this guy.

C.S. Lewis wrote in The Problem of Pain: “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” In reading that Danny Green is trying to make it through the Orlando NBA Draft Camp on a sprained ankle, I can’t help but think that maybe Someone is trying to tell Danny something.   [UPDATE:  Add hip and elbow injuries to the tally.]

Roy doesn’t think Danny should be thinking NBA. DraftExpress doesn’t think Danny will be drafted. Neither does NBADraft.net. Or nbadraftpress.com. In fact, nobody thinks Danny is “guaranteed contract” material, and most don’t have him getting drafted at all.

Which is about what everybody not named Danny Green expected. To be clear: I love Danny Green. He is obviously a great kid, an enthusiastic teammate, and a Tar Heel. He comes off the bench and does good things. But, God Bless him, he also is maddeningly inconsistent, having a tendency to follow up a stellar play with a boneheaded pass, an ill-advised drive or a defensive lapse. NBA Scouts can’t afford the risk that an inconsistent player represents, especially when there are plenty of good players in this year’s draft.

So, Danny… PLEASE… listen to what the Good Lord is trying to tell you, and go back to school.

I stayed up earlier in the week to hear the end of the 11 inning matchup against Virginia that didn’t start until around 10 pm.  It stinks to stay up that late and then lose a close game that basically came down to errors and stranded baserunners.   Add to all that the new law practice, my two troublesome daughters and the celebration of my 10th wedding anniversary, and the result is: I’m tired.