Re: Who was the guy on unc sideline running around with a headset on and bills jersey on?

CU Guru [1929]

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Sep 28, 2014, 8:34 PM [ in reply to Re: Who was the guy on unc sideline running around with a headset on and bills jersey on? ]

College coaching staffs have come up with all sorts of names for the extra people who populate football offices nowadays.

Interns. Special assistants. Quality control. And on down the line.

Well North Carolina has come up with a first in this realm. Something called "Supervisor of Morale."

Wait, isn't the head coach sort of supposed to do that?

Actually, it's a pretty cool arrangement as you can read in this feature by USA Today.

Pressley is a UNC senior, technically a student manager for the football program he's been a part of these last four years. For the first three years, he was one of UNC's backup quarterbacks, trying to work his way up in the pecking order.

He lost any and all ground he'd gained last spring, when he skipped all of UNC's spring practices while studying abroad in Scotland. Pressley spent the semester at the University of Edinburgh's School of Divinity.

When he returned to Chapel Hill, he realized it was time to retire from playing football. His coaches realized they might have another role for him.

"We decided the best way we could utilize him is he could be a manager on the team and he could do multiple things for us," UNC coach Larry Fedora says. "We've had managers signal for us before."

So Pressley began his new role as UNC's play signaler. He's made the most of his new position - claiming office space down the hall from the coaching staff (and decorating his office walls with Fatheads and a poster of Eastbound & Down's Kenny Powers) while also raising the bar for signaler fashion nationwide.

The NCAA does a lot of head-scratching stuff, but there's some good in there too. One example is their move to allow former players to return to school and work with the football program while completing their degree requirements.

At Clemson, the football offices are a who's-who of former players. Michael Hamlin. Phillip Merling. Corico Wright. Leroy Hill. Roscoe Crosby. Others.

This is something that doesn't really fit into the cynical narrative of colleges treating their athletes as indentured servants during their eligibility and then heartlessly tossing them aside thereafter. This is something missed by people who say these kids don't get anything beyond room, board and books.

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Who was the guy on unc sideline running around with a headset on and bills jersey on?