UNC will shuffle its assistants

Davis says he will expand his duties to help shoulder the load

By: By Bill Cole | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: September 08, 2010

CHAPEL HILL

North Carolina will shuffle duties among three assistant football coaches to make up for the absence of John Blake, its former defensive-line coach.

Art Kaufman will take over the defensive line after previously coaching linebackers and will run all the linemen position meetings. Defensive coordinator Everett Withers will take over the linebackers and Troy Douglas will take over the secondary, after previously sharing the coaching duties there with Withers. Additionally, Norris McCleary, employed in the player-development program and a former conditioning assistant coach, will help Kaufman with the defensive line.

Kaufman has coached defensive line previously, most recently at Southern Mississippi in 2008. McCleary, a former East Carolina defensive lineman, spent two seasons in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2000 and 2001 after making the team as an undrafted free agent.

Blake, who was also North Carolina's associate head coach and its recruiting coordinator, resigned on Sunday, amid allegations that he might be involved with possible illegal contact by North Carolina players with a sports agent that has led to an NCAA investigation into the program.

Coach Butch Davis said that the staff decisions were made after he consulted with Withers, who is in his third season as defensive coordinator.

"We just felt like it was in our best interests to try to handle this internally, for the time being," Davis said yesterday before practice. "These are guys that are familiar with our players, are familiar with our schemes and are familiar with the concepts of what we're trying to do schematically defensively."

Davis said he will expand his coaching duties to help shoulder the load.

"I'll be a little bit more involved," he said. "I'll be able to help in meetings a little bit more maybe than I have in the past, at least through the first couple of weeks just to help those guys get ready."

Blake resigned less than 24 hours after North Carolina lost to LSU 30-24 in Atlanta last Saturday. Twelve defensive linemen were called to a special meeting on Sunday in the Kenan Football Center, where Blake told them of his resignation.

"It was shocking," said Quinton Coples, a junior defensive end. "It was a stunning thing. Nobody would have thought that it would happen. We always thought he would be here for life."

Freshman Kareem Martin, a defensive end, said that Blake had a tough time telling his players goodbye.

"I could tell he really took it tough," Martin said. "Obviously it was a big shock to everybody involved. It really hurt us."

Thirteen players were declared ineligible or were held out of the LSU game because of concerns caused by the NCAA investigation and a school investigation into academic impropriety. Davis said yesterday that all 13 are now practicing, except for Marvin Austin, a senior defensive tackle.

North Carolina is off this week and will resume its season on Sept. 18 with its home opener against Georgia Tech.

Austin was suspended early last week by Davis for breaking unspecified team rules. He traveled on his own to Atlanta and sat in the stands at the Georgia Dome.

Davis and Austin met on Monday for about an hour to discuss his situation.

"Marvin is a good kid at heart," Davis said. "Marvin and I had a very healthy conversation. We talked at length and in detail about him."

bcole@wsjournal.com