Carolina got more from Larry Fedora than Carter and Javonte.

When Mack Brown took over the UNC football program in late November of 2019, academic schedules were already set for most of the players. And classes were all in the afternoon, when Brown had conducted practice for almost 30 years as a head coach.

Fedora was planning to start practicing early in the morning. “I had never done it, didn’t like, wasn’t going to try it,” said Brown, who found it too difficult for a hundred players to revise their class schedules. “It’s one of the best things we’ve ever done for the players.”

Now, most of them leave the football complex by 10:30 a.m. and become more like regular students, going to class, studying, hanging out. And they’re all in bed at a reasonable hour because they have to be back at practice as the sun rises the next day.

“And it’s great for the coaches, who get to go home for dinner with their families because we’ve been here since 5:30 in the morning,” Brown said, adding that more programs are moving to early practices for those reasons. Duke has done it for years.

“I have asked the players two or three different times, do you like this? Do you want to go back? And they’re 100 percent that they like this and they want to continue doing it.”

In the “old days, probably only 5-7 years ago,” Brown said his teams would arrive early in the afternoon, get taped, go to meetings and be on the field from 4-6 pm.

“Then they would eat and go to study hall from 8-10 and be worn out. It’s not a conducive environment to study that night after you’re totally exhausted from practice.”

Brown said “except for screaming less” he is the same CEO-type of head coach he has always been – with added technology of mics for the coaches and cameras everywhere.

“I keep a mic on, if I need to address something. But if practice is going well, it’s better to stay out of it. And when I get back to the office, I’ll study practice videos and go over every competitive play at our staff meeting at 3 o’clock.”

In those old days, they’d still be on the field.

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