CHAPEL HILL — While waiting out an extended amount of time off between games, there are benefits to what has become an unexpected hiatus for the North Carolina football team.
Coach Mack Brown said the Tar Heels figure to have starting offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu and second-string linebacker Desmond Evans recovered from injuries and available to participate in their next scheduled game, Oct. 3 at Boston College.
“The negative is we’ll go to Boston College with a bunch of practice and one game,” Brown said Tuesday. “The positive is that you get (Ezeudu) back, you’ll have Des Evans back. We should be healthy, we should be fresh, and the guys will be excited about playing. It gives us two weeks to prepare for Boston College.”
When kickoff arrives at Alumni Stadium on Boston College’s campus, three weeks will have passed between games for No. 11 North Carolina (1-0), which opened the season Sept. 12 by defeating Syracuse, before coronavirus complications wrecked its Sept. 19 matchup against Charlotte, ahead of this Saturday’s still-open date on the schedule.
The extra practice sessions that have entered the mix should prove useful for the Tar Heels in the defensive backfield, where pieces are being reshuffled with the loss of safety Myles Wolfolk, the senior starter and veteran voice, who has been ruled academically ineligible after falling behind on graduate school coursework.
Brown said true freshman Ja’Qurious Conley will step into a starting role at nickelback, one of the five secondary positions in defensive coordinator Jay Batemen’s scheme. That moves Trey Morrison, viewed as perhaps North Carolina’s most versatile player on defense, from nickelback to the strong safety spot Wolfolk occupied alongside free safety Don Chapman.
Storm Duck and Kyler McMichael have stayed in place at the two cornerback positions, as have Giovanni Biggers and Cam’Ron Kelly, the backups at safety. Brown said Welton Spottsville will assume second-string duties behind Conley at nickelback.
“Ja’Qurious is one of the best athletes on our team,” Brown said. “A lot of those freshmen are getting more looks now that we’ve been practicing eight or nine weeks. We’ve been practicing a long time, so hopefully they’ll know what to do. But those are guys we’re just going to throw out there and let them play.”
Brown said North Carolina remains “in good shape” on the depth chart at defensive back, an area that already has experienced upheaval.
In August, defensive backs D.J. Ford, Javon Terry and Bryce Watts, who were expected contributors, opted out of playing this season because of coronavirus concerns. The multipurpose Morrison then spent the preseason cross-training at all five positions in the secondary — nickelback, free safety, strong safety, and both cornerback spots.
Wolfolk supplied five tackles, the most among Tar Heels defensive backs, during the 31-6 victory against Syracuse in the season opener. That became a dominant performance on defense, with North Carolina producing seven sacks and 11 tackles for lost yardage, while allowing just two field goals.
“We’re lucky that we have great depth at that position,” Brown said. “We feel like we’re still OK there, and that’s another thing, it gives us an extra week to prepare those guys without Myles being in there.
“Myles was a spokesperson for the team. He was very vocal during practice. He was one of the guys that had a lot to say with the (team’s) leadership committee. He is very smart and he gives some great ideas, and he helped line up the younger guys in the secondary, because a lot of those other guys haven’t played as much. He was definitely the coach on the field in the secondary, and that’s something we’ll miss.”
Brown has called Ezeudu, the starter at left guard when healthy, North Carolina’s best offensive lineman, and said he’s capable of handling four different positions on the line. Brown said Tuesday that Ezeudu “would’ve been very questionable” to play this weekend, if the Tar Heels had a game.
Ezeudu missed the defeat of Syracuse with what only was described as a lower-body injury. Evans, a promising true freshman, was sidelined against Syracuse with an upper-body injury.
North Carolina’s non-conference game against Charlotte scheduled for Sept. 19 was sacked by coronavirus, with contract tracing quarantines depleting the 49ers and effectively wiping out the availability of their offensive line.
North Carolina athletics director Bubba Cunningham and senior associate athletics director Rick Steinbacher pursued picking up a replacement game to plug into this weekend’s Sept. 26 open date on the schedule, but couldn’t find a suitable dance partner on short notice.
“Rick Steinbacher really worked hard to try to find somebody for us to play that fit the needs of both universities, and that didn’t work,” Brown said. “He talked to over a dozen, about 13 or 15 people or something to try to make it work, and it just didn’t work.”
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Extra time to refine: UNC works on putting extended break to use
