BY BRIANA GORMAN

bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668

CHAPEL HILL -- Through the first six weeks of the season, North Carolina's defense is ranked fifth in the nation and is giving up just 237.67 yards per game.

The only teams ahead of UNC's defense are top-ranked Florida, No. 2 Alabama, unranked Arizona State and No. 3 Texas.

And while most players say they usually don't pay attention to standings, the Tar Heels are keeping an on eye on their defensive ranking.

"There's a lot of pride in that," junior cornerback Kendric Burney said. "It gets you pretty jacked up to see that you're one of the top five defenses in the whole country, so we're just working hard. We want to go to that number one spot."

The defense is having a vastly different season from two years ago when the Tar Heels lost six games by no more than seven points and finished the season 4-8. Burney said the team was young and inexperienced -- seven current starters were freshmen in 2007 -- and he's amazed by how much they've grown.

"[Back then] it was just guys out there who were real athletic just going out there just playing football," Burney said. "We didn't watch film like we were supposed to. We didn't practice the way were supposed to."

Burney said the defense is spending the bye week continuing to concentrate on forcing turnovers. The Tar Heels hadn't forced a turnover in two straight games but came up with six in the win over Georgia Southern.

"It's unbelievable that we can actually be a lot better," Burney said. "There's a lot of things that we've still got to correct, but for the most part, we're real happy with the way we're performing. We're flying around to the ball, even if we make mistakes we're doing it at 110 percent."

Injury update

Coach Butch Davis said center Lowell Dyer won't be back in the next week or two, but there is a slim chance he will return this season. Dyer, a Riverside alum, injured his shoulder in practice after the first game of the season. He originally was thought to have injured tendons and ligaments, but further tests showed he injured the muscle tissue in his shoulder.

"When the injury first occurred, there was almost 100 percent certainty that there was no way that he would ever return this season," Davis said. "[But tests revealed] it was just the actual muscle tissue [injured], which no one knows how fast that muscle tissue repairs. But it did open the door slightly that there could be, depending on how fast that he recovered, that he might make it back at some particular point in time."

With third-string running back Jamal Womble undergoing surgery on his wrist Friday, Davis said there are a couple of possibilities of who would replace him on the depth chart. Fullback Anthony Elzy and receiver Johnny White both have experience at tailback, and true freshman Hunter Furr, a top running back recruit, also could move into the slot.