News & Observer | newsobserver.com | 2008 NCAA Men's Bracket

CHAPEL HILL — Each week of training camp, North Carolina has ended the week with a Saturday scrimmage. But this Saturday — just one week before its opener against McNeese State — UNC will instead hold a "mock game" at Kenan Stadium, which will be closed to the public and the media.

"We're going to have about 90 plays scripted, and it's all going to be against our first opponent, and it will try to entail every conceivable kicking situation that could could up in the course of a ballgame, where players have to be alert on the sidelines,'' Davis said Thursday.

The coaches will divide the team into two squads — one on each sideline — and go through all of the game day operations with some coaches adjusting on the sidelines and some in the press box. One key difference from a real game, though: there will not be any full-speed live contact.

"It's something that we did last year, and I think it kind of helps, particularly when you have an inexperienced football team,'' Davis said. I guess it's maybe, kind of, somewhat the next best thing to an exhibition game in the NFL, a preseason game."

In other news:

• Davis said he hasn't finalized who will start at left guard, "but I've been very pleased with the job that Bryon Bishop has done, I think that Alan Pelc has done an excellent job. You'll probably see both of those guys play; you may see Alan go over and play a little bit on the right side. He's elevated himself that you would say he's in the top six, seven, eight guys right now."

• Davis has said that Kendric Burney will start at one corner. But it sounds like the other starting slot is still up in the air.

"Right now, the only real struggle that we've had has been with Charlie Brown,'' he said. "Charlie's had a really slow time getting over this ankle injury. And as a corner, you really have to be able to run 100 percent. There's no way you can go out and play in a game -- and you can't really practice less than 80, 90 percent. So we're a little bit slow there. For the most part, we've been happy with what Jordan [Hemby] has done, with what Kendric has done, Tavorris Jolly has done a very nice job. So I think we're making some progress."

• Terrence Brown is the starting punter. But Davis has not ruled out using three other athletes -- in one game -- for place-kicking and kickoff duties. Walk-on Casey Barth, redshirt freshman Jay Wooten and sophomore Reid Phillips are all still in the evaluation state, Davis said.

"Whether it's an onside kick, a kickoff, a short field goal, an extra point -- whoever gives us the best chance to make that play work, that's who's going in the game,'' Davis said. "We could use more than two kickers in a game, whatever it takes. Because each one of them now has something that they do well.

"The one thing that no one can answer ... is how will they will react when there are 65,000 people in the stands, and mom and dad are there, and if they miss the kick, we lose the game. There's no way to project that."

• The best thing to come out of training camp, according to Davis, is the relative health of the team.

"We were able to escape any serious injuries,'' he said. "We are so thin as a football program from the standpoint that we've got some guys who are experienced coming back from last year, but as far as the depth that you really need to withstand a lot of major injuries, we're not there as a football program yet.

"Our coaching staff and our players did a good job of being able to have good practice, have some good physical work, yet try to stay healthy. We've got some bumps and bruises, but as of right now, I don't foresee anybody that has been practicing during the month of August that probably won't be ready for the first ballgame."