By Briana Gorman

bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668

CHAPEL HILL -- The North Carolina football team returns nine starters on defense this season, putting it in position to be one of the best in the ACC.

But as the Tar Heels kicked off their first official game week of the season Monday, it was clear the players believe they'll need more than talent and depth to be one of the top defenses in the conference.

"Consistency is a big issue because last year we had signs and flashes that we were maybe one of the best defenses in the ACC" senior defensive end E.J. Wilson said. "Our goal is to shut every opponent out, but realistically that's not going to happen every week. We just want to play a consistent, tough, physical brand of defense."

The Tar Heels had the second-worst defense in the ACC last season as it gave 365.4 yards per game. But the defense also had the second-most interceptions at 20 and ranked sixth in pass defense efficiency.

Last year UNC held just one opponent to single digits -- Georgia Tech in a 28-7 victory -- but then the following week couldn't stop Maryland at the end of the game and then gave up 41 points to N.C. State for back-to-back losses.

"I think during the course of the season last year at any given time there were pieces of the defense that played brilliant," Davis said. "There were games where we created turnovers, there's games where we played extraordinary well against the run, ... there's games where we played extremely well against teams that threw the ball. But we've got to put those kinds of games together for 60 minutes."

New look

For the past year Kenan Stadium has been undergoing phase one of renovations, and one of the first things fans will notice during Saturday's 6 p.m. game against the Citadel are the new lights. The old lights, which are placed on poles in each corner of the stadium, have been replaced with strips of lights on top of the press box and chancellor's box. The old lights will be taken down after the Citadel game.

Last year the old lights went out during the UConn game, causing a 22-minute delay, and some of the players said the corners of the field were a little dark during night games. The new lights, however, will provide a 200-foot average candle reading compared to the old lights reading of 130-feet.

But exactly how bright is that?

"Extremely bright," Wilson said. "I mean we practiced under them and it looked like it was a 12 o'clock game. It's like 6 or 7 o'clock at night and the field looks exactly the way it does [in the afternoon]."

Supporting Sexton

After leading UNC to a 5-2 record after starter T.J. Yates went down in the third game of the season last year, backup quarterback Cam Sexton transferred to Division II Catawba during the offseason.

And when Sexton made his first trip back to the area with Catawba to play St. Augustine's on Saturday at Broughton High, about 15-20 current UNC football players to showed up to cheer on their former teammate.

Sexton led Catawba to a 25-7 win over St. Augustine's as he went 23-of-40 for 336 yards and two touchdowns. Yates was one of the players in the stands, and he said even though Sexton wears a different uniform now, the team still loves him.

"[It was a little weird] seeing him out there in a completely different setting than I've ever seen him," Yates said. "But he did the same thing as he always does, he went out there and competed, threw the ball very well and he looked very comfortable in the pocket and everything."