Greensboro — It's nowhere near basketball season, but North Carolina is on the map again, threatening to become relevant in football for the first time in years.

You can thank second-year coach Butch Davis for this.

The Heels were just 4-8 in his first season, although they lost six games by a touchdown or less, and were 19-40 in five previous seasons under former coach John Bunting. Yet UNC is being picked by some media to finish in the middle of the Coastal division or higher (ACC media predictions come out today). At least one handicapper, Jason Lowry, sees North Carolina in the ACC championship game.

A pair of Heels at Sunday's ACC preseason meetings at Reynolds Plantation offered a deep reason for increased media attention given to the basketball team's stepbrother.

They say Davis has overhauled attitudes.

"You look at how it's changed in one year," said junior wide receiver Hakeem Nicks, who last season caught 74 passes. "When I first came, there weren't too many guys who fired up. Guys now want to live football."

UNC has nine starters back on offense, and eight on defense.

What's new? Confidence.

"Coach Bunting was a great guy, but [the university] hiring Coach Davis was the best thing that could have happened to me because I switched from receiver to safety," said sophomore safety Deunta Williams, the ACC's defensive rookie of the year last season. "And I think people do respect us more. I think that's why we're getting some semi-attention. I feel like that's respect."

Having sophomore quarterback T.J. Yates of Marietta's Pope High, who passed for a school-record 2,655 yards in 2007, to build around helps, too.

He had surgery Dec. 17 to repair torn cartilage in his throwing shoulder, and missed spring practice. Davis said last week, though, that Yates will be the starter when practice begins.

The Heels have several moving parts. Their No. 1 running back, Greg Little, rushed for 247 yards while starting the final two games — after moving from wide receiver. Former running back Johnny White, who started the first eight games, has moved to cornerback.

Superb defenders Hilee Taylor (end) and Durrell Mapp (linebacker) have moved to the NFL, and the Heels' non-conference schedule daunts with a trip to Rutgers and visits by Connecticut and Notre Dame.

But there's a different feel in the Chapel Hill air.

"Guys like being in the football building, and being around the guys," Nicks said. "That's different. We're like brothers. When you have guys like that, when you get on the field you're going to stick together. It rubs off."