UNC coach Larry Fedora said the pace of practice has been consistent early in the preseason. PHOTO: Robert Willett

CHAPEL HILL — The Larry-Fedora-likes-Red-Bull storyline has been beaten into submission but it is in fact true. He drinks a lot of the stuff, which is part of the reason why he’s so energetic. He wants his North Carolina football team to reflect that energy and, given that, Fedora has been pleased early in practice.

Four practices in, he likes the pace.

CHAPEL HILL — Couple quick tidbits to pass along from North Carolina’s open portion of practice earlier this morning: First, T.J. Thorpe, the sophomore receiver who led the ACC in kickoff returns a season ago, watched practice on crutches, his broken foot in a boot.

Thorpe suffered the injury during practice on Sunday, a source close to the team confirmed on Monday night. It’s unclear how long he might be out, but any time he misses would be significant given the role he was expected to play both on special teams and in the Tar Heels’ new spread offense.

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina began preseason football practice earlier today. And if you’re curious to know what it looked like, and sounded like, here’s a bit of an idea:

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Head coach Larry Fedora and his UNC team earlier today began practice for the 2012 college football season. PHOTO: Robert Willett

CHAPEL HILL — At long last, North Carolina earlier this morning began practicing for the 2012 football season. (In fact, the Tar Heels are still practicing as I type this.) Players began walking en masse over from Kenan Stadium to the practice fields at about 9:30 or so, before the workout officially began at 9:50.

If you remember from the spring, the Heels like to practice amid music. And that was no different today. The first song of the first preseason practice of the Larry Fedora era: “Forever,” by Drake. And yes, I did have to use Shazam to identify the song. (If it’d been Pink Floyd, or the Beatles, or even something by the Killers, I’d have known it.)