Meet The Newbies! Jamal Womble

Football Season: It’s creeping up a lot faster than you think. It makes no sense to cover the important players you already know. That’s the MSM’s job. Instead, let’s talk about the players with whom you may be less familiar: The players who will get significant PT for the first time. Today, we look at Jamal Womble, a redshirt freshman and the tiniest fully functional bulldozer in America. (Because there’s always smaller in Japan.)

What We Know: He set both school and Arizona state rushing records while in high school at Buena Vista. Let’s go to the video tape:

As you can see, his skills are…impressive. In the Spring game Womble ran exactly like he did in high school, except everyone was 30-60 pounds heavier and ran 40s of between 4.3 and 4.9. Shockingly, he was not quite as effective. Still he gave Heels fans a glimpse into the future. And the future is good.

We also know that since arriving on campus he has bulked up so much it would make Hans and Franz feel like Kip Dynamite.

What’s In the Way: Not so much what as who. Shaun Draughn and Ryan Houston took the bulk of the carries for Carolina last season, Draughn as the everydown back and Houston as the short yardage/goalline back. That means Womble is most likely to see playing time as a 3rd down or long yardage back, or in the 4th quarter of a blowout.

What We Can Expect: Womble will likely cut his teeth catching backfield passes and getting carries in garbage time. Draughn and Houston played well last season, but UNC’s run offense was still in the bottom half of Division I FBS. If Womble finds his way into significant playing time, expect that to change. It could happen one of many ways. IF:

• Womble destroys the front seven of the Citadel and/or Georgia Southern;
• someone pulls a hamstring;
• Ryan Houston is distracted by a Krispy Kreme truck;
• Shaun Draughn uses too much Vaseline on his jersey; or
• T.J. Yates and Mike Paulus decide to take up extreme discus (which is exactly like regular discus, but with LAND MINES and NINJAS!!!);

Then, in the words of Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles, “You watch your ass.”

LSU To Feast On Delicious Mutton in 2010

It’s pretty much official: UNC and LSU have agreed to meet at the Georgia Dome to open the 2010 season, the third year in a row the an ACC and SEC team will face off in Atlanta at the start of the year.

Advantages:

• An instant national audience

• It automatically boosts our schedule strength for 2010, making up for any FCS games

• If UNC wins, it would be a marquee win for the season, the program, and the Butch Davis era at UNC

• With 9 wins (bowl included) or more in ’09, the hype would be big enough to catapult Carolina onto the national stage with a win.

• This space left blank to make way for awesome:

Disadvantages:

• There is a substantial chance that, in spite of the strides that Carolina football have made, LSU could wipe the field with Carolina like Alabama did with Clemson last season;

• if the ACC doesn’t have a national contender in 2009, the pressure could be stratospheric for UNC to win this game and represent the conference well.

• Four of UNC’s most important defensive players may or may not be on our roster in 2010: Sturdivant, Carter, Austin, and Deunta Williams. (I don;t believe that Anyone on offense is going to leave early in 2009, and I think )

So, as with most things in life, this is either going to end very well or very badly. The positives for the Heels outweigh the negatives. With a win the Heels could be instant title contenders. And if they lose, hey, it’s against L-S-freaking-U.

I can’t wait for this game to come.  I can smell the deep fryers already.

(via EDSBS)

Meet The Newbies! Mister Jones

Football Season: It’s creeping up a lot faster than you think. It makes no sense to cover the important players you already know. That’s the MSM’s job. Instead, let’s talk about the players with whom you may be less familiar: The players who will get significant PT for the first time. Today, we look at projected starting wide receiver Dwight Jones.

Sorry. I had to.

What We Know: Dwight Jones was one of the most hyped players from Butch’s inaugural class, loaded with tall and/or fast wide receivers (Including Greg Little and Rashad Mason). Jones continues to excite fans, two years later, despite not having done anything yet. We have only seen him in short glimpses: a burnt redshirt here, a spring game there, and very few snaps in between. It is thus almost impossible to know how he will perform in 2009. He is the China of the roster: any prediction about him, positive or negative, is bound to be wildly imprecise. There is only two things we know about Dwight Jones: he’s fast, and he’s tall. Fortunately for him, that can go a long way at the WR position.

From The Vast Depths of Space…Or, Well, The Locker Room: Carolina’s vast inexperience at wideout has been the topic of more articles than I can count, this being the latest one. Jones has gotten rave reviews from coaches about his play in practice. If statements by Coach Davis about Jones’ high school days are an indication, we may expect Jones be a much more physical wideout than the wide receivers of 2008. (Except Brooks Foster. That guy was fearless.)

What We Can Expect: Don’t hold your breath for Hakeem Nicks numbers, but Jones should be an solid short- and long-range target for T.J. Yates game in and game out.

(Photo: Inside Carolina)