He played a season with a labrum tear. Now this tough UNC football player is ‘going 100.’
North Carolina coaches rave about nose tackle Raymond Vohasek with tales of his physicality and strength that would make Paul Bunyan proud. These are not tall tales either. When it comes to the junior from McHenry, Illinois there’s no need to stretch the truth. The reality just makes it seem like you’re lying.
Vohasek played his entire first year of junior college with a torn shoulder labrum that wasn’t discovered until the offseason when his upper body couldn’t lift the amount of weights he was used to and he decided to see a doctor.
“He’s an old school, hard hat kid,” Matt Foster, who coached Vohasek at College of DuPage, told the News & Observer. “He didn’t say a word to anybody - anybody - about his shoulder. He hurt it in high school but still had a phenomenal year.”
It is because of that shoulder, Vohasek didn’t fully show his promise until the end of last season for the Tar Heels. If the season opener is any indication, Vohasek is at full strength, is fully healthy and is making up for lost time against opponents.
Vohasek had a sack and two quarterback hurries in the Heels’ 31-6 win over Syracuse in the opener on Sept. 12.
“One thing I’ve noticed is the game has slowed down for me a lot,” Vohasek told reporters on a video call Tuesday. “That’s what I noticed with like A.C. (Aaron Crawford) and Stro (Jason Strowbridge) last year, they would see things before it would happen or they’d have a key and I feel like I’m starting to pick up on things like that.”
Vohasek is poised to stand out at a position that rarely goes noticed to casual fans. At nose tackle, he might not make the sack, but he’s likely responsible for disrupting the blocking scheme so a teammate could.
From a beekeeper suit in McHenry, Illinois to Tar Heels football
UNC co-defensive coordinator Jay Bateman says Vohasek’s improvement goes back to his strength. Even though he sat out the 2018 season at junior college to allow his shoulder to heal, he didn’t begin realizing his potential until he started adding strength.
“Physically he’s so much better than he was,” Bateman told reporters on a video conference. “Ray is a kid that plays with a really high level of effort, a really high level of physicality. When I talked to one of the guys from Syracuse staff who I know after the game, I said, ‘Who jumped out at you,’ he said, ‘51.’”
The last thing Bateman and Vohasek’s coaches are worried about is him letting a taste of success spoil his effort. As both Foster and his high school coach, Nat Zunkel, can attest, they had a hard time getting Vohasek to take it easy. He doesn’t understand nuance when it comes to effort.
That approach traces back to Vohasek growing up in the silhouette of Chicago, in places where city folk would call ‘country.’ Vohasek and his buddies all around the age of 10, would sell roadside honey decked out in full beekeeper outfits. McHenry, a town of about 27,000, and its namesake high school are located about 55 miles northwest of Chicago.
Despite the proximity, it wasn’t exactly an established locale on the recruiting radar. That’s partly why Vohasek ended up in junior college. He was originally recruited by Larry Fedora’s staff and Mack Brown continued to recruit him when he was hired.
“I just like to play with a chip on my shoulder,” Vohasek said. “I’ve always played like that growing up. I always kind of idolize people like that just playing with a chip on your shoulder whether it was basketball players, football players. I just always took pride in that just playing with an edge.”
‘Sky’s the limit’ for Raymond Vohasek
To say he’s a hometown hero may be a bit much, but understand, everyone back home is rooting for Vohasek.
“He was our defensive MVP his senior year,” Zunkel told the N&O. “Everybody liked him, everybody rooted for him and everybody knew what kind of talent he had. For him it was just figuring out how to go about utilizing that talent at the college level.”
He’s figured it out, or at the very least, he knows how hard he has to work at it. His teammates at North Carolina attest to how hard he works.
“Ray is just a dog,” UNC safety Don Chapman told reporters on a video conference. “Like every day in practice, you see — regardless of what’s happening — he’s going 100 all the time.”
That comes as no surprise to Foster, who called it a misnomer to say Vohasek has a high motor because, “he doesn’t have an off button.”
“He’s a student of the game and he really digs down to know the details and be perfect at whatever he does,” Foster said. “Once he has that mastered and he’s healthy, I think the sky’s the limit.”
Charlotte at North Carolina
When: 3:30 p.m., Saturday
Where: Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill
Watch: RSN
This story was originally published September 16, 2020 at 6:00 AM with the headline "He played a season with a labrum tear. Now this tough UNC football player is ‘going 100.’."