Spring Practice should really be called Development Days.

Football players don’t practice as much as they develop – on the field, in the weight and at the training table. They need to hone the fundamentals more than learn plays, build their bodies and sculpt their muscles and eat the right food that is going to make them leaner and quicker by the time the real season rolls around.

That’s why many of the veteran players don’t do as much as the younger guys trying to fit into the depth chart, and some don’t even participate at all. Sam Howell has to run plays because UNC is breaking in a new set of receivers and running backs, so timing is key.

But if they were all accomplished skill players, Howell would be off on an empty field working on old and new pass patterns they will use in the fall. As it was, Howell played about half of the spring game before giving way to a fourth-stringer named Jefferson Boaz, a 6-foot-6½ all-sport athlete who might be more visible on Hubert Davis’ bench than under a helmet on Mack Brown’s sideline in 2021-22.

The Spring Game, played in a rain that kept half the crowd away and the other half hanging under the overhang of the lower deck, was valuable for fans wanting to know the new names on Carolina’s ACC Coastal Division favorites.

And they got plenty to chose from, considering how long the roster is and which ones will be in the two-deeps when training camp begins in the dog days of summer.

Because Brown mentions them so much, Howell will be throwing to Josh Downs, who had all of six catches last season, and Khafre Brown, the fleetest kid on the team who missed the spring game with a lower leg injury; as did Beau Corrales, one of the super seniors getting ready for his fifth season allowed during the COVID disaster.

Other receivers to remember are senior Antoine Green, who has shown promise and is now healthy again, and athletic junior Emery Simmons, a leaper who turns 50-50 balls into 70-30s in his favor.

Tight end Garett Walston is also back for an extra year and played sparingly in the game. Super senior grad transfer Ty Chandler, the fifth best all-purpose back in Tennessee history, also didn’t get many touches, which says remember his name since he has the first chance to replace Michael Carter and Javonte Williams behind Howell.

Among the other half-dozen RBs vying to be in the top three by the first game on September 3 at Virginia Tech are early enrollee freshman Caleb Hood, a converted high school quarterback and son of Errol Hood, who was recruited here by Brown in his first stint; red-shirt freshman Elijah Green; and special teamers sophomore D. J. Jones, junior Josh Henderson, and senior one-time walk-on British Brooks, who if he doesn’t carry the ball will still captain the kick squads.

Sam Howell (7) hands the ball off to D.J. Jones (26) during the UNC football spring game at Kenan Stadium on Saturday, April 24. (Dakota Moyer/Chapelboro.com)

And note the name Kamarro Edmonds, a touted 4-star running back who enrolls this summer. So Brown, Phil Longo and new running backs coach Larry Porter will have some decisions to make by Labor Day weekend.

The other two quarterbacks in no-touch Navy jerseys (while the offense was in powder blue and the defense in white) were sophomore Jacolby Criswell and legacy freshman Drake Maye. Both had their moments, with Maye running and throwing better until his unit imploded with three straight false starts in the red zone.

When Howell left the game and went for an ACC Network interview, he was replaced by the gangly Boaz, who will be remembered for his longest run of the game, an option bootleg down the left sideline for a touchdown. He looks like a good kid who won’t play for a while.

On defense, where the Tar Heels must really improve to reach their loftiest goals, leader and senior linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel was only seen on a mid-game interview, which tells you he is a stud who didn’t need the snaps. Besides playng alongside junior Eugene Asante, who replaces All-ACC Chazz Surratt, Gemmel will be directing Des Evans, a 6-foot-6 sophomore who has bulked up to 265 and freshmen RaRa Dillworth and Power Echols, speedsters who add the coolest first names to the linebacking corps.

The names you know in the secondary are senior safety Trey Morrison, juniors Don Chapman, DeAndre Hollins and Kyler McMichael and sophomores Ja’Qurious Conley, Storm Duck and Tony Grimes, who didn’t play much, if at all, on Saturday.

The D-line will be deeper, if not better. You know senior Ray Vohasek, but remember massive freshman Keeshawn Silver, who is recovering from a sprained ankle and up to 306 pounds, and red-shirt freshman Kedrick Bingley-Jones, who is at 325 and will be ready after two surgeries since last season. Then there is true freshman Jahvaree Ritzie, highly rated enough that Brown has allowed him to wear No. 5, unconventional for a defensive lineman.

Brown praised the progress of red-shirt sophomores Devin Hester, Clyde Pinder and Myles Murphy, who are among the rotation of the front four, where the playing depth is up to at least six.

The offensive line will be even deeper with senior center Brian Anderson, who missed the spring game, and senior Jordan Tucker; super senior Quiron Johnson and slimmed-down junior Williams Barnes will give Carolina more depth in better shape to play through exhausting fourth quarters. Eventually, you won’t be able to miss 6-7, 330-pound freshman Diego Pounds in the rotation.

Clearly, the more names to remember will be good for the Tar Heels in 2021.


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