Five Heels on 1st Team All-ACC

All-ACC Squad

The Atlantic Coast Conference released their pre-season All-ACC squad, and as most would have thought there is plenty of Carolina players, when it comes to the defensive side of the ball. The top vote getter, getting 47 out of 52 votes, was junior defensive end Robert Quinn. Along with him other four UNC players made the first team, and they are: senior safety Deunta Williams (41), senior defensive tackle Marvin Austin (32 votes), senior line backer Quan Sturdivant (32) and senior Kendric Burney (27). If you have not watched this defensive unit yet you need to do so this season because all five of these players (who decided to come back to Chapel Hill last year) will be playing their last go around with head coach Butch Davis. Sturdivant, Burney and Williams were all selected last year.

I guess I should be happy seeing this list, especially seeing Austin on it, but instead I am confused a bit. First off, did the defensive tackle get this number of votes on what he did last year or is it because some in the media know more than we do and know that the senior will be playing plenty this season? As I said before Quinn got the most votes of anyone, which is great, but on the other side I am baffled that he wasn’t a unanimous selection. And lastly, the biggest question of them all, are these five players (which is the most from any team) going to live up to the hype that the media has handed them?

Carolina has one All-ACC player at every position (and two on the line) on this pre-season ranking. This means that running the ball should be a problem (if Austin is eligible that is), throwing the ball is not going to be easy either, with both a corner and a safety being top in the conference. Having said all of this the key is always going to be if the offense can be a positive and not a negative for coach Davis and the rest of the coaching staff. As I keep looking at the list I am pretty amazed how UNC has the most players of any of the twelve schools, without having any on offense! Which makes me think: are we that good on D or that bad on offense? Hopefully the answer is yes to the first part and no to the second!

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