Throughout Kenan Football Center and Navy Field this spring have been the little clues that the 2016 Carolina football team is hardly resting on its 11-win laurels from last year. An ACC Coastal Division title and historic win streak were sublime, of course, but reality hammered the door flat when the Tar Heels ran into the speed and depth of Clemson and Baylor. And those defensive fronts in orange and green? The Berlin Wall was never so onerous in its day.
Receiver Mack Hollins, for example, insists on starting on all four core special-team units when, as a senior, in many programs he’d be given a pass to rest on those snaps when the ball is kicked.