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SALLEY STEPS UP LEARNING PROCESS
A study in safety
Panthers rookie a smart starter when it comes to learning system
STAN OLSON
SPARTANBURG - The word that keeps coming up when you ask Carolina Panthers coaches about rookie safety Nate Salley is "smart." He's picking up the defensive schemes quickly, they tell you, and this week he's even been playing with the first team.
That's not likely to last; starter Mike Minter left camp Tuesday after the sudden illness and death of his mother, and Colin Branch, another potential starter, is working back in slowly after missing last season with a knee injury.
Still, Salley, a fourth-round draft pick, is getting noticed.
"He's very smart, he's picked things up very well," defensive coordinator Mike Trgovac said Thursday. "He's doing a nice job of picking it up; we like his intensity, the way he studies, and we'll see in the games."
That starts Saturday night against Buffalo at Bank of America Stadium, when Salley is likely to be in the starting lineup for the exhibition. If that's something of a surprise, his intelligence shouldn't be.
Salley is the youngest of three siblings and the first to attend college. The first, in fact, to graduate from high school, he said recently during a break between practices. He attended Ohio State and majored in economics, not simply in staying eligible for football.
"I've got two classes left," he said. "They're tough, but my mama always told me if you want something, you've got to work for it."
His mother, Patricia Salley, has helped, even to the point of calling him before each of his college games and singing him a poem called "Persevere."
Graduating, he thinks, is partly about paying her back.
"My mom definitely wants me to graduate, but she knows that this is very important also," Salley said. "School's going to be there, and she knows I'm going to go back and get it done; I'll definitely take care of that."
Salley's enthusiasm rose as he talked about his family, his words coming in quick bursts.
"Even for my family as a whole -- nieces, nephews, cousins -- this is like the biggest thing we've ever had," he said. "So I'm definitely grateful that I kind of opened the doors and set some goals for them and the people in my neighborhood to have something to look up to and set goals for themselves, knowing that it's possible."
While Salley hasn't made it yet, he believes playing at collegiate powerhouse Ohio State is smoothing his NFL transition.
"Coming from Ohio State, you've seen a lot of things, and a lot of fast guys," he said. "I believe the speed of the game is honestly pretty much the same, like the practice tempo there, which is a good thing. So it's not like I got caught off-guard."
Those words prompted a chuckle from Trgovac.
"The difference is he hasn't seen Smitty (receiver Steve Smith, shelved by injury) out here in practice every day. If he sees Smitty out here every day, he'll probably have a little different opinion. But he'll see. Believe me, it's a much faster game."
Salley will see.
And he'll likely be smart enough to figure it out. SAFETY
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Dreaming of Tar Heels
SPARTANBURG - By the time Carolina Panthers rookie safety Nate Salley reached the ninth grade in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., he had talked his parents into letting him paint his bedroom Carolina blue.
Not Carolina Panthers blue -- North Carolina Tar Heels blue.
It seems Salley had an uncle attend St. Augustine's and the family made the trip to Raleigh to see him graduate.
"That's when I first started having the dream that I wanted to be a Tar Heel," Salley said. "From then on, I started loving the Tar Heels in basketball and whatever. I painted my room baby blue and I wanted to play basketball for them."
While Salley was a fine basketball player at St. Thomas Aquinas High, he was even better at football. He told recruiters he wanted to play both sports in college, and just about all of them agreed he could.
He took a football recruiting visit to Chapel Hill, and also met with basketball coach Matt Doherty. Although his scholarship would have been for football, he would have been a freshman along with Raymond Felton, Sean May and Rashad McCants.
"But football wasn't really what I wanted to be at North Carolina, so I just decided to go to Ohio State," Salley said with a smile. He played both sports as a freshman before deciding to concentrate on football.
Had he been a Tar Heel, he might have gotten a basketball national championship ring. As a Buckeye, he got one in football instead.