Butch Davis: Maximizing the Tar Heel Spring Experience

(Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)

Adding to the experience of the Super Saturday are four other sporting events to immerse attendees in the college sports atmosphere. UNC’s men’s and women’s lacrosse, softball, and men’s tennis will all take their respective fields to put on a show; all free of charge.

The culmination of the day of course being the No. 5 Tar Heels taking on the No. 24 Virginia Cavaliers on the baseball diamond. Fans not only get to take in a promising young Tar Heels football team projected to open the season in the top 20, but they also get to take in their choice from the UNC sports buffet.

Prospective Players

This is the biggest plus for Davis and the Tar Heels entering the summer recruiting season. Getting kids on campus to the spring game is a major recruiting tool, it allows for them to witness practice intensity, simulated game scenarios, and interact more openly with staff and players than during the high pressure atmosphere of a game day Saturday. 

UNC has a leg up on area schools in getting all the kids they want to visit Carolina for the spring game.

While Clemson, Georgia, and South Carolina are battling over who will come to campus for their April 11 spring games, the Heel’s March 28 date is almost exclusively their own as Miami is the only team of note to share this coming Saturday. 

The 11th is only modestly crowded compared to the full slate of games on the 18th, most notably including ACC (Duke, GT, NCSU, UVA, Wake), SEC (Alabama, LSU, Florida, Tennessee), and recruiting threats West Virginia and East Carolina.

Schools such as OU (11th), Texas (5th), FSU (4th), and the aforementioned Miami, have set themselves up to be in the catbird seat just as the Heels have done. 

With OU and Texas’ games coming on back-to-back weekends, they can show off for the same group of individuals and with staggered scheduling Florida, Miami, and FSU can push to get the cream of Florida’s crop on campus. 

For UNC, the major recruiting threats of Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Clemson, South Carolina, and Georgia won’t be a factor in recruits deciding to visit the spring game; Davis takes the guess work out of it.

This recruiting season, Davis has taken a stranglehold on recruiting in the state of North Carolina, landing the majority of the states top recruits, as well as swiping big names from the border states of Georgia and Virginia. 

His Spring Showcase is another step in the right direction for the Tar Heels football program. By moving up spring practice, the savvy veteran has taken some monumental strokes towards painting yet another recruiting class masterpiece for 2010.

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