April 9, 2008

By Lee Pace

Kenny Browning has watched a lot of Carolina football over many years. He's been on the Tar Heel coaching staff for 14 years and before that was a long-time high school coach in the area, most notably spending 17 years at Northern Durham High.

He's watched and studied the running styles of all manner of Tar Heel tailbacks, once one of the most vaunted species of positions in all of college football.

Browning emits a quick shake of the head and whistling sound remembering the ability of Kelvin Bryant.

"He might have been the best of all of them," Browning says. "For a tall guy, his pad level was outstanding. And he had great pass-catching skills. A lot of people forget that."

He remembers Bryant's fellow thousand-yard rusher in 1980, the incomparable "Famous Amos" Lawrence.

"What a quick first step," Browning says. "You couldn't put a good lick on him, he was such a darter."

Before them in the mid 1970s, Mike Voight bounded to three straight thousand-yard seasons.

"I really enjoyed watching Voight," Browning says. "He punished you from the first play to the last play. As the game went on, he wore you out. The defense was hanging their heads in the fourth quarter.

"He was a special player. He was different, but special. All of them were special in their own right."

Browning enters his second year as the Tar Heels' running backs coach and his position is in the microscope as Carolina works to recruit, coach, train and develop its way into the kind of running game that is a bedrock of all championship teams.

During the Seventies/Eighties heyday of the Tar Heel tailback, Carolina routinely rushed the ball in the 3,000-yards per season neighborhood. Over the decade from 1973-83, Carolina averaged 2,475 yards rushing per season and went to a bowl game eight of 10 years.

Ironically, the decline of the Tar Heel running game started during their two finest back-to-back seasons ever, those 1996-97 years when Carolina won 21 games and averaged only 118 yards rushing a game. But those teams were so good on defense it didn't matter a lot what the offense did, and the passing game under Chris Keldorf and Oscar Davenport was productive. That was also the thick of the era in college football where defensive coordinators were jamming the line with eight and nine players and refusing to allow offenses to consistently run the ball.

The last decade has been a fallow one indeed for the Tar Heels along the ground. They have averaged 129 yards a game over that patch, never with a thousand-yard carrier. Last year, Carolina did not eclipse the 100-yard barrier; its 99.2 yards-a-game production was the lowest since World War II.

Across the board, Tar Heel coaches and players point to developing the running game as the lynchpin for the continued evolution of the Butch Davis era.

"You can't be very good without running the ball," Browning says. "To win a championship, you have to run it and throw it well. And that's not based on a 50-50 ratio necessarily. You just have to be able to keep the defense honest and keep them guessing."

"Everybody in the program wants to run the ball," adds offensive line coach Sam Pittman. "We think we know how to run the ball. All of us in our various backgrounds have run the heck out of the ball."

The Tar Heels' annual public showing during spring practice held Monday revealed three tailbacks in Greg Little, Ryan Houston and Devon Ramsay with some quickness and substance and an offensive line anchored by veterans Garrett Reynolds and Calvin Darity. The tailbacks averaged more than four yards a snap and each had a gain of more than 10 yards; the line has improved its ability to deal with defensive movement and to execute blocks in space after pulling off the line of scrimmage.

"One of the things we wanted to find out about was our running game," Davis noted. "This was very positive step forward. Not only did Greg Little perform and do what we thought he would do. But Ryan Houston, Devon Ramsay and Anthony Elzy, all four of those guys had a good day running the ball."

Little is getting his first his first concentrated dose of coaching at the tailback position since his junior year in high school, when played tailback at Hillside High in Durham along with the receiver position. As the Tar Heels failed to identify a go-to guy at tailback as the 2007 season evolved, Little auditioned with four or five snaps a game running the ball until he became the starter the last two games of the year. He gained 247 yards against Georgia Tech and Duke and scored the game-winner against Duke in overtime from 25 yards out on a power play.

Little will remain at tailback as he has best physical skill set, athleticism and knack for making plays of anyone on the roster.

"Greg has some of the qualities you'd like to see," Browning says. "He's got a competitive nature. He has a toughness about him running the ball. That's something you've got to have. He has instincts, he has vision. He's learning more about the scheme, he's able to anticipate a movement. He's got change of direction.

"I can see him having a lot of room to grow. As good as he does some things right now, I see a lot of room to grow. Greg is not satisfied with where he is, and neither am I."

Tar Heel defenders have taken note of the ability Little brings to opposite backfield.

"Greg's running the ball well," defensive tackle Marvin Austin says. "He never seems to be tackled by just one person - except me."

Pause for a laugh and a glance at Little, who has been listening.

"No linebacker can hit him and demolish him," Austin continues. "He's a hard runner and can break tackles. The better he runs the ball, the more it opens the passing game."

Adds linebacker Chase Rice: "Little's awesome. He's made some cuts I've never seen before. He'll definitely gives the offense some firepower they didn't have."

Little says he feels more comfortable at the position and is giving himself time to absorb all the nuances involved in pass protections and picking his spots to run.

"I've been working hard on my reads and being more decisive in my runs," he says. "Things are starting to more more naturally. If you're not thinking so much, you're able to react that much quicker and player better. It comes through repetition. Instead of worrying about your assignment, you just know what to do."

Reynolds and Darity started all 12 games on the right side of the line and provide the clear strength of the unit. Aaron Stahl moved to center from left guard, Byron Bishop ran with the first team at left guard, and Mike Ingersoll played left tackle in the absence of starter Kyle Jolly, who is recovering from a foot injury. Also competing for the center job is Lowell Dyer, who started six games in Scott Lenahan's absence.

Pittman says the staff will have "some decisions to make" between now and August on how center and the left side play out in terms of personnel. But he thinks the line overall will be much deeper than it was last year.

"Last year we played five guys," he says. "This year we're going to be able to play six-to-eight guys and keep a little more of a fresh guy in the game. If something happens at one position, we'll just play his back-up. That's comforting. You're never going to be as good as you'd like if you're always moving guys from one spot to another to fill the holes. Now we're close to the point, if something happens, we'll just roll the next guy up. That's really important for us."

The tight ends are a key part of the running game as well because they have to set the edge and block the defensive end, generally one of the strongest and most athletic players on the defense. Tight ends coach Steve Hagen was pleased with the improvement of Richard Quinn and H-Back Zack Pianalto during spring.

"We feel like we can win with these guys," Hagen says. "They have both played multiple games, and this time last year they hadn't played at all. Both have improved their blocking skills tremendously. They've stepped up their game and understand how important it is. Richard, for example, was sort of a `hop-and-hold' guy blocking. Now he uses more technique and fundamentals. He's fitting right and then running his feet after the fit. I think the progress we saw at tight end was reflected overall in the improvement of our running game."

Davis convened the Tar Heels for a 2 p.m. meeting Wednesday afternoon to officially put the wraps on spring practice. Players will be given reviews by their position coaches on off-season points-of-emphasis, and now it's on to the beginning of the summer conditioning program.

Browning, for example, wants Houston to improve his explosiveness to augment his powerful upper body. Ramsay needs to work on his flexibility and foot dexterity. And Little needs overall body strengthening as his tall frame will take a pounding running the ball 30 times a game.

And if all the pieces fit, the Tar Heels can improve considerably on their sub-hundred yards a game rushing total from 2007.

"You get what you practice, and we have certainly emphasized the running game," Browning says.

"Last year when we couldn't run the ball, people came after us," Pittman adds. "A lot of times when we were struggling in the running game, it's because we didn't understand the movements the defense was giving us. Anybody who saw us on Monday understands we know how to attack movements better and we're running the football better than we did last year."