UNC's Renner stepping up in and out of the pocket

North Carolina's Bryn Renner reacts during open practice on Thursday August 11, 2011 in Chapel Hill.  Photo by Robert Willett - robert.willett@newsobserver.com

See 96 photos from North Carolina's media day and open practice today.

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CHAPEL HILL -- Quarterback Bryn Renner was sitting near the back of the team bus last December after North Carolina’s dramatic postseason victory over Tennessee when he sent his fellow underclassmen a mass text message. It read, in a nutshell: “Hey, the Music City Bowl is great, but I think we can do bigger and better things.’”

It was the then-back-up signal caller’s first step toward becoming the leader of this year’s Tar Heels.

While much of the focus over the last 16 days has been about how interim head coach Everett Withers will fare after the sudden firing of Butch Davis, the fate of this year’s squad also rests on the arm, composure – and, perhaps, inspirational texts – of Renner, a redshirt sophomore who takes over for four-year starter T.J. Yates.

“You can see him growing every Day -- and not just football, but leadership skills, with the offense and the defense,’’ Withers said Thursday, during UNC’s media day.

“… Quarterback is like the point guard on the basketball team. He's got to run things. And I'm backing him 100 percent because I want him to feel comfortable in that role.”

Renner, despite only attempting two passes in his college career, doesn’t lack for comfort – or confidence. The energetic Virginia native was ranked the No. 6 quarterback recruit by ESPN in 2009, and this time last year he was competing with Yates (who went on to graduate with more than 40 school records) for the starting job.

When Yates edged him out, Renner spent the season under his tutelage – not only studying the ins and out of the offense, but how to lead a team through distractions. It was Yates, after all, who rallied the Tar Heels week after week as an NCAA investigation forced 14 players to miss at least one game.

“He taught me basically the whole quarterback position and how to play it here -- the way he prepared, the way he played through adversity, the way he kept his poise through everything that was going on around him,’’ Renner said. “He didn't let it affect him. That's one thing I learned last year: don't let anything affect you.”

It has come in handy, even though training camp is barely a week old.

After Withers, the former defensive coordinator, was promoted, Renner was one of the first players to approach his new head coach: “I just went to his office to say we’re ready to get this thing going.”

Then Renner became one of the most energetic guys on the practice field – fist-pumping during drills, hollering before warm-ups, pushing to get in sync with his Tar Heels well before UNC’s Sept. 3 opener. Teammates have lauded his arm, his accuracy and his feisty nature, and it shows.

“I used to challenge Bryn every day when I was defensive coordinator to go down there and complete every ball on the scout team against our defense,’’ Withers said. “He used to make them mad because he's a competitor and some of those guys really truly get upset with him because he would tear us up in practice. But he made us better.”

In order to continue that improvement trend, though, Renner said it will take a group effort: “My job is just to kind of stay out of the way this year,’’ he said. “Get the ball to Dwight [Jones], hand off to Ryan [Houston], kind of just let the line take over and do my little role on the team.”

On, and off the field.

Renner, part of the team’s 21-player Leadership Council, hasn’t hesitated to try to keep his team upbeat during the last two weeks of distractions, looking forward and thinking big – much like he did during that post-Bowl bus ride last December.

“I’ve got a little file on my iPhone that says ‘Group Text,’’’ Renner said, adding that he last used the function Tuesday night after a team meeting.