CHAPEL HILL — With nine starters back on defense, UNC coach Butch Davis expected the defense to be ahead of the offense, which is trying to break in two new linemen and a new set of receivers.

The defense hasn't let Davis down after the first five days of practice.

Greg Little was a five-star recruit at Durham Hillside in 2007 and after a labored recruiting process announced he was going to sign with Notre Dame.

Little had given no public statement he had any second thoughts, but on signing day he chose the University of North Carolina.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — North Carolina quarterback Cameron Sexton was frustrated with himself after tossing two interceptions during Saturday’s 16-13 overtime loss to Virginia, saying “I feel like I let down our fans, the state of North Carolina, I feel like I let down the University, I really feel like I let down my teammates pretty good today.”

But the redshirt junior said he plans to take that frustration out on future defenses.

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina sophomore Greg Little doesn’t see himself as competing for the starting tailback position with Shaun Draughn, who ran for over 100 yards against Connecticut, instead, Little said, “he’s pushing me, and I’m pushing him … to try to make each other better.”

Draughn, a converted safety, came in on UNC’s second offensive series of the game and rushed 19 times for 109 yards and a touchdown. Little, a converted wide receiver, made his fifth consecutive start in the backfield but rushed only three times for six yards.

CHAPEL HILL — UNC sophomore Greg Little hopes to apply a lot of what he learned while playing for the basketball Tar Heels to the football field this year.

And when he returns to the Smith Center next season, it will be as a spectator, not a player.

"[Football coach Butch Davis] looks at me as a pretty smart guy, and me being his featured back, I don't think he wants me on the court,'' Little, UNC's starting tailback, said Friday.

"That's what I understand, and that's what I understood going into it last year — if I couldn't get the majority of the the [playing] time or be a heavy contributor, this is where I was going to be."

GREENSBORO, Ga. — North Carolina coach Butch Davis called Greg Little’s time as a walk-on with the basketball team “a good experiment,” considering it kept the starting tailback conditioned and other football players had tried it before. 

But it sounds as if the sophomore won’t be returning to the hardcourt next season.