UNC football veterans are transitioning to leadership roles. Here’s what they’re seeing

It’s not uncommon for football players to refer to their teammates as brothers.

Older players mentor younger ones, their own transitions from rookies to veterans often happening without much thought.

Fifth-year senior linebacker Tomon Fox is embracing his veteran status this season. And for him, one of the teammates he’ll be mentoring is actually his brother — sophomore defensive linebacker Tomari Fox.

“I’m always wanting to try to do the right thing, be the first one up, 100 percent effort every play,” Tomon Fox said. “I think this year I’m gonna be more of a vocal leader, talk to the guys. I’ve been doing that here ever since we’ve been practicing, ever since walk-throughs, really. It’s really my job to make sure our young guys get right too. Gotta bring them along so you have depth this year.”

Tomon said his brother is one of the strongest people he knows. Tomari had 27 tackles, three QB hits, a sack and two and a half tackles for loss last year.

“He might be stronger than me,” Tomon said. “I don’t know about that, but he might be stronger than me. I know he got it in the legs, but I don’t know about everything else.”

Tomari is already vocal on the field, Tomon said, adding that his brother has been a leader on the field since his high school days.

Working alongside Tomari on the D-line is junior Raymond Vohasek. Following Thursday’s practice, coach Mack Brown said the coaching staff thought Vohasek did “a really great job” in the final three games of last season, his first with the Tar Heels. Vohasek had eight tackles, four tackles for loss and one sack in those games.

Those final games were a result of putting together the techniques he’d learned from coach Tim Cross and the strength work he’d done with coach Brian Hess, Vohasek said.

“I mean, before I got here I played middle linebacker,” he said. “I played outside linebacker. I played D-line. I played D-end. So, just having a position to play and being able to learn the techniques has been huge for me, and then also being in the weight room with coach Hess has been huge.”

Vohasek has been practicing at noseguard so far this season and will help with run-stopping. He said he wants to be the type of leader Jason Strowbridge and Aaron Crawford were for him last season.

“At practice you would rarely see them make mistakes,” Vohasek said. “They were there every day working really hard. Their technique was perfect and I just want to be that for these younger guys to show them what to do and just to show them the way. I think that really helped me last year.”

On the offensive side of things, sophomore quarterback Sam Howell wants to be more of a leader this year himself.

“Last year I was kind of focused more on myself, making sure I was doing the right things myself, but now it gives me the opportunity to lead these other guys and make sure everyone’s on the right page to push everyone every single day,” he said.

This time last season Howell was competing for the starting spot, which he ended up earning. He threw for 3,461 yards and 38 touchdowns, completing 259 of 422 pass attempts as a true freshman leading the offense.

“I could talk all day ways I’m trying to get better this year, but I think just being consistent,” I mean I missed a couple throws last year you know I made some mental mistakes so trying to be consistent. When I’m making the right decision and I’m making the right throws, I think I’m a really good player so I’m trying to be that player every single time.”