Football team moves on after removal of three players

In the wake of Marvin Austin, Greg Little and Robert Quinn’s removal from the football team, North Carolina’s remaining football players are left with a difficult dilemma.

While some on campus are ready to demonize the trio for putting their individual wants above the needs of the team, those in the locker room consider them friends and compatriots.

“There’s a lot of feelings that I feel,” sophomore defensive end Donte Paige-Moss said. “They’re still my friends and still my brothers. I would still ride for them anytime. I still love them with all my heart.

“As far as what they did — don’t change how I feel about them.”

Instead of blaming them, Paige-Moss believes that they were punished for doing something everyone does: putting themselves ahead of the team.

“Who doesn’t?” Paige-Moss said. “All of us. We’re human. All of us have selfish mindsets sometimes. They just got caught. If 10 people rob a bank, the only person that gets in trouble is the person who gets caught.”

Little released a statement Tuesday about his banishment from the team. He pointedly apologized to his teammates first.

“I want to apologize first to my teammates, coaches and the support staff for letting them down,” Little said.

Senior running back Johnny White has been playing with all of them for two years, and he also acknowledges the struggle to balance the team and his friendship with the trio.

“It’s pretty tough, not having those guys,” White said. “I think we’re strong enough mentally that we’ll just overcome it.”

White said he has not talked to any of the exiled players since the news broke.

Not only did the team lose three of its most talented players, but it also faces a leadership void other upperclassmen will have to fill.

“Those were also proven leaders on our team,” safety Da’Norris Searcy said. “To have those three leaders down, it just means that the rest of us have to keep stepping up.”

Searcy, who also missed three games due to the investigation, repeatedly refused to discuss his personal feelings toward the players who were dismissed.

With the futures of Charles Brown, Linwan Euwell, Michael McAdoo and Brian Gupton in limbo, the remaining defensive players have developed their own specific mentality toward playing football at UNC.

“Us against the world, regardless,” Paige-Moss said. “We already had the what-ifs. We probably knew that we would have to sacrifice somebody.”

The defense has played all season without Quinn and Austin. Both Searcy and Paige-Moss pointed out that the defense has done fairly well without them, with UNC sitting 38th nationally in total defense.

So they feel the news won’t change their performance or their schemes.

“We see what we can do,” Searcy said. “We saw that when they weren’t here, and now that they’re not going to be here for sure, we’ve got to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”

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