UNC fall camp starts Thursday. Mack Brown likes what he sees in secondary, Tony Grimes
After struggling with depth in the secondary last year, University of North Carolina coach Mack Brown spoke highly of the defensive unit, which gained a late addition in Tony Grimes, during a press conference Friday.
“I really like what I see in the secondary,” Brown said. “And then you add Tony Grimes to that. I’m sitting there looking at it the other day and I thought, ‘Oh, and we got Tony.’”
Grimes, a 2021 five star prospect from Virginia, announced Thursday he was reclassifying to the class of 2020 and will be enrolled at UNC this fall. Brown said Grimes is expected to arrive Sunday, move in to his dorm Monday and then begin team health and safety protocols to clear him for practice, which officially starts August 6.
Originally the No. 1-ranked cornerback for his class, Grimes is now the fifth-ranked for 2020, according to 247Sports. He had 48 tackles and four interceptions in his junior season at Princess Anne High School on his way to becoming Class 5 Region A Defensive Player of the Year.
“As a player, Tony is one of the best defensive backs we’ve ever recruited and one of the nation’s top players regardless of class,” Brown said. “He’ll have to come in and compete with a group of talented players, but we feel like he’ll have a positive impact on our program.”
While Brown said there’s so much depth in the secondary it’s like “being a kid in a candy shop,” other positions still need to fill out. Not having spring practice — a situation all programs faced due to the coronavirus pandemic — took away the opportunity for Brown and the rest of the coaching staff to watch young players that either didn’t get much playing time or redshirted last season. Specifically, he noted that the team needs to settle on a third-string running back and tight ends to backup Garrett Walston.
Brown said depth would be important this season due to the uncertainty of COVID-19.
“With COVID, you don’t know who’s going to be there,” Brown said. “You don’t know who’s gonna be out this week. And also you’re not sure with these masks and shields, if they get really hot, will they have to come out more? Will you have to substitute more?”
After a cluster of positive cases shortly after returning players to campus, UNC has not reported more positive tests, and all players have returned to practice.
On Friday morning, players were allowed to wear their helmets during walk-throughs to begin acclimating to the new double visors meant to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. While Brown said some players complained about the visors fogging up easily, most didn’t have a problem with the new style. Players are continuing to wear masks during practice when their helmets are not on and social distancing cannot be maintained.
“We’re putting more thought into stuff like this then you would ever dream that we would do,” Brown said.
One of our coaches asked me, ‘When will we stop talking about coronavirus. And I said, ‘When we get a vaccine.’ I don’t think until then we’ll quit talking about it.”
Another area of the season that’s requiring extra thought and planning is traveling. With the new, reworked ACC schedule announced Wednesday, UNC will travel to Boston College, Duke, Florida State, Miami and Virginia. Brown said he and his staff are already thinking about the best way to room players while at hotels for away games. The team will also still stay in a hotel for the Friday night prior to a home game.
UNC’s home schedule adds two opponents it hadn’t planned on facing: Notre Dame and Syracuse.
“For our coaches, Notre Dame, Florida State and Syracuse are the three games that we have not prepared for that they will start or are already in the process of getting gameplans for those games,” Brown said. “It’s an exciting schedule with the addition of these three for sure. Our guys are pumped about it.”
An official schedule with dates, times and locations for the season has not been announced, though the ACC tentatively announced all fall sports will begin competition the week of Sept. 7-12. Teams normally are allowed 25 practices prior to their first game, which could put schools in a tricky spot if competition is pushed back any later. Brown said UNC has practice plans prepare for competition starting on Sept. 12, 19 or 26.
“We’ll be so much happier when we get times,” he said. “The players are needing them. The parents, the fans that want to try to go to the away games if they can get tickets. We don’t know how many fans will be in the stands. We don’t know where the games are, we don’t know when they are. So right now everyone is excited about the schedule and very anxious to get those questions answered.”
UNC announced it would be reducing capacity at Kenan Stadium, though did not specify by how much, on Monday.