ACC media kickoff: Yates touts Draughn, Adams

GREENSBORO - Earlier this week, North Carolina coach Butch Davis said he’s looking for some big playmakers to step forward now that wide receivers Hakeem Nicks, Brooks Foster and Brandon Tate are gone from the 2008 team.
At the ACC media kickoff on Sunday, quarterback T.J. Yates identified two skill players who’ve demonstrated in offseason workouts that they’re ready to make big contributions. Yates said Shaun Draughn has taken the raw talent he showed last season and developed into a well-rounded running back with pass catching and blocking skills.
Yates said freshman wide receiver Josh Adams, who enrolled early and went through spring practice, immediately impressed his teammates.
“He’s been working his tail off all off season,” Yates said.

Ken Tysiac

Lewis praises improvements

GREENSBORO - Sometimes the smallest improvements can make all the difference for a football program.
Quarterback Thaddeus Lewis said renovating the rest rooms at Wallace Wade Stadium should help Duke get better fan support. He said female fans had brought the sorry condition of the rest room facilities before the renovation to his attention.
“It was like, ‘Wow, the bathrooms were old and beat up, and sometimes we’d hold it until we came home,’ ” Lewis said fans told him.
Earlier this month Lewis worked at Peyton and Eli Manning’s football camp for high school players. He was impressed with how the fundamentals the Mannings teach mirror those of Duke coach David Cutcliffe.
Cutcliffe coached both Manning brothers in college.
“They have nothing but good words to say about the man,” Lewis said.

Ken Tysiac

Seats for 2010 championship on sale soon

GREENSBORO — By early fall, tickets for the 2010 ACC football championship game in Charlotte should be on sale, ACC associate commissioner Michael Kelly said Sunday at the ACC media kickoff at Grandover Resort.

Kelly expects an announcement on availability of tickets and the structure of the leadership of Charlotte's local organizing committee in September. After the championship is played in Tampa this year, it will come to Bank of America Stadium in 2010 and 2011.

Ken Tysiac

Pack's Young hopes for big catch

GREENSBORO - Somebody told N.C. State defensive end Willie Young that there are ponds on the golf course at the Grandover Resort.

Young quickly got out his fishing rod and went to work, according to N.C. State sports information director Annabelle Myers. Young is in Greensboro for the player interview portion of the ACC football media kickoff today at the Grandover.

There's no word yet on whether Young caught anything. We'll keep you up to date on that and what Young and the 23 other players had to say at the media kickoff.

The kickoff is under way with John Swofford's commissioner's forum. The preseason media poll will be released Monday.

Ken Tysiac