• A healthy Ronald Curry, who could end up playing both quarterback for the Tar Heel football team and point guard for the basketball squad.
• The return of linebacker Brandon Spoon.
• The possibility that defensive end Julius Peppers could be one of the best players at his position in the country.
• The possibility that the athletic Peppers could play basketball, too.
• The chance that basketball recruit Jason Parker, a power forward from Charlotte, will make the SAT score needed to enroll at Carolina.
• Kentucky at the Smith Center in early December.
• Albemarle native Woody Durham beginning his 30th season this fall as voice of the Tar Heels.

Tar Heel supporters heard these things and more Wednesday during the annual meeting of the Rowan-Cabarrus-Stanly Chapter of the UNC Educational Foundation at Salisbury’s Holiday Inn.

Guests for the luncheon included Durham, head football coach Carl Torbush, assistant basketball coach Pat Sullivan and Educational Foundation President Moyer Smith.

Torbush, an East Spencer native, had encouraging comments for the Tar Heel faithful about the outlook for the upcoming season, which opens at home against Tulsa Sept. 2. Following a 3-8 season in which Torbush nearly lost his head coaching job, the alumni need some good news.

Torbush returns 10 starters on a defense that includes senior linebacker Spoon, who was a 1999 preseason All-America before going down to injury last year, and sophomore defensive end Peppers, who Torbush believes has the chance to be the best ever to play his position at Carolina.

The linebacking corps and secondary should be strengths for the Tar Heels this fall, Torbush predicted.

More questions center on the offense, though Torbush likes what he saw in spring practice and praises the work of new offensive coordinator Mike O’Cain, the former N.C. State head coach.

Curry is more than a month ahead of schedule in recovering from the achilles tendon injury that cost him most of the 1999 football season and all of the basketball campaign. Torbush said he considered Curry about 95 percent recovered.

Torbush said he hoped both Peppers and Curry could continue to play two sports.

Others that will be competing for the quarterback job include Antwon Black, Domonique Williams and Luke Huard.

Torbush promises to start senior Alge Crumpler at tight end, freshman Willie Parker at tailback and junior Kory Bailey at wide receiver. He also likes the talents of Bosley Allen and Sam Aiken at wide receiver.

The offensive line, with the addition of six redshirts, has a chance to be the best group of linemen he has seen at UNC during his 12 years at the school, Torbush said.

Torbush has his biggest question marks in the kicking game. He lost punter Brian Schmitz and placekicker Josh McGee to graduation. Asked about the highly touted Daniel Davis, who came to North Carolina last year as a Parade and Street and Smith All-America, Torbush acknowledged that Davis has not met certain team standards and rules at this point.

Torbush said the disappointing 1999 season did not hurt recruiting, thanks to the big wins at the end of the season against N.C. State and Duke.

Asked whether the Tar Heels and State will ever return to Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, where they’ve played the past two seasons, Torbush had his doubts. He added that he thought the perfect game for Ericsson Stadium would be a University of North Carolina vs. University of South Carolina game.

The Tar Heel basketball team salvaged what many alumni considered a disappointing season by having a strong run in the NCAA tournament and reaching the Final Four.

Sullivan, a member of the Tar Heels’ 1993 national championship team and one of only 10 players at Carolina to have gone to three Final Fours, said he learned a lot as a coach by watching how Torbush and head basketball coach Bill Guthridge handled adversity.

Both Torbush and Guthridge shouldered blame for their teams without making excuses, Sullivan said. But they also showed how to work hard and make corrections that were important to winning again.

“He mainly was the one who got us over the hump,” Sullivan said of Guthridge.

North Carolina will open the coming basketball season Nov. 10-11 with a weekend tournament that includes Winthrop, Arizona State and Tulsa.

The annual Charlotte tournament will be held Dec. 29-30 with Richmond, Charleston and University of Massachusetts as the other teams.

Other schedule highlights will include an away game at UCLA, an away game at either Michigan State or Wisconsin and a home game vs. Miami.

Sullivan predicted a tough Atlantic Coast Conference season with Maryland and Duke returning most of their players and having good recruits coming in.

The educational foundation provides scholarships and money for athletic facilities at the University of North Carolina. In recent years, the foundation raised the money to pay for the Smith Center, an expansion of Kenan Stadium, new soccer facilities, a golf course, locker rooms and indoor track facilities.

Established in 1938, the foundation has 45 chapters.

Durham reported that North Carolina had won six Atlantic Coast Conference championships during the 1999-2000 school year, including the women’s national championship in soccer. Since 1990, North Carolina has captured 90 ACC championships, Durham said.