With less than two weeks until Carolina takes the field against LSU, Butch Davis says he has "a pretty good idea" who will be starting on both sides of the ball, according to a piece by Inside Carolina's Greg Barnes and posted on WRAL.
The big news is that T.J. Yates has appeared to secure the nod at quarterback when the Heels take on the Tigers. This is not surprising given Yates has 31 career starts and Renner has never thrown a college pass. But Davis did not rule out Renner seeing action against LSU:
"Obviously, it would be nice to be able to have the opportunity to stick him [Renner] in where there are comfortable situations," Davis said. "But none of us have a crystal ball. You don’t have any idea how the health of the team is going to be [and] you don’t know how games are going to unfold, so basically you just have to prepare the best that you can and if opportunities present themselves, you want to certainly give him those opportunities."
Translation: Ideally we'll be up 2 or 3 touchdowns before we let Renner in the game; but if Yates gets hurt or starts playing catch with the other team's defensive backs, we might see Renner a lot sooner.
The IC piece points out that with 18 returning starters, there was not a lot of mystery about starters and the holes were filled pretty quickly. As a result, the staff has spent a lot of time developing depth. The pleasant news is that the offensive line seems to be healthy and may be deep enough to play a 7- or 8-man rotation, as opposed to last season where injuries were prevalent. Also, as previously reported, the ongoing questions about Greg Little and Marvin Austin and the NCAA investigation have relegated the seniors to the second team; Jheranie Boyd and Dwight Jones have split time in Little's spot, while Quinton Coples has moved over from end to tackle to replace Austin and Michael McAdoo, Coples' backup, has taken over at defensive end.