Lee Pace, Carolina Football and the Passing of the Microphone to Bryn Renner

An outlet that many of us grew up utilizing is becoming less appreciated with each passing sports season. With streaming, podcasts and more games being on television than ever before, the role of the radio broadcaster has changed. Yet there is still something comforting about hearing the familiar voice of your team when you cannot be at the game. The play by play or color commentator becomes part of the experience, giving you a connection to the game that is different from simply watching it on a screen. There is also the person down on the field, providing a perspective you cannot get from your couch, recliner or even your seat in the stadium.

At Kenan Stadium, there will be a missing piece this football season with Lee Pace moving on from an outstanding career as the Tar Heels' sideline reporter and passing the microphone to former UNC quarterback Bryn Renner. For those of us who have listened to Carolina football for years, this is more than simply a change to the broadcast team. Lee became part of the Carolina football experience.

Regardless of what was happening on the field, Lee was the ultimate professional. Whether the Tar Heels were winning big or getting clobbered by Furman, Lee was there to paint a picture from the ground level. Sometimes the picture was not particularly pretty, but his words never demeaned the players or coaches. He could describe a difficult moment without making the people involved the story. That is a quality that is easy to overlook until you hear someone who does not have it.

That approach was not limited to his work on the sideline. Lee's writing has always reflected an appreciation for the people and places that make Carolina football what it is. His work on Kenan Stadium and Football in a Forest showed that he understood the stadium was more than a place where football games happened. It was a collection of stories, memories and people, and Lee had a knack for finding those stories.

That is what makes the transition to Bryn Renner particularly interesting.

Renner is not simply a former player being handed a microphone. He is someone Lee covered when Renner was the quarterback at Carolina. Pace once wrote about Renner and the team following difficult moments on the field, including the 2011 loss to Miami, focusing not just on what happened in the game but on what it looked and felt like for the players experiencing it. Pace revisited Renner's play and the 2012 NC State game, another reminder that Lee was interested in the story behind the game as much as the statistics attached to them.

Now the roles have changed. The quarterback Lee once covered is going to be standing on the sideline telling the stories of the quarterbacks and players who come after him.

I cannot help but wonder what advice Lee would give Renner.

The first would probably be simple: tell the story. Renner knows football. He does not need to convince anyone that he understands quarterbacks, formations or what is happening on the field. His value will be explaining the things we cannot see. Why did the quarterback come off the field frustrated after completing a pass? What happened between the receiver and defensive back before the ball was snapped? Why is a defensive player celebrating a tackle that will barely register in the box score? Those are the details that television and statistics often miss, and that is where someone standing on the sideline can make the broadcast better.

I also think Lee would remind Renner to remember that the players are people. They may be wearing Carolina uniforms and playing in front of thousands of people, but they are still young men experiencing some of the biggest successes and disappointments of their lives. Be honest, but be fair. Carolina fans do not need a broadcaster to protect the program, but they also do not need someone looking for the next opportunity to criticize a player who just made a mistake in front of an entire stadium. Bryn knows this but I have a feeling Lee would just mention it anyway.

That may be one of the most important things Renner can take from Pace's career. Lee never seemed to confuse being critical of what happened with being critical of the person involved.

And then there is Kenan Stadium.

Lee understood what the place meant. His work around Carolina football often went beyond the scoreboard and into the history of the stadium, the people who filled it and the traditions that have made it such an important part of the university. Renner understands that from a different perspective because he once walked onto that field as the starting quarterback. Now he gets to experience it from the other side of the microphone.

That has to be a little strange.

The guy Lee once interviewed is now taking over the spot Lee occupied for so many years.

It also seems like the perfect passing of the microphone.

I've always wondered what Lee really wanted to say during some of those Carolina moments. We heard the professional version because that was his job. He had to ask the right questions, provide the information and describe what was happening without allowing his personal feelings to take over. But now that he is moving beyond Football in a Forest and into retirement, there is a part of me that would love to hear the unfiltered version.

Imagine a podcast featuring people who spent their careers around the games they loved and, once they no longer had to worry about the professional filter, could tell us what they were actually thinking. What was Lee thinking when Carolina gave up another third and long? What was going through his mind during one of those games when the Tar Heels found a way to make a comfortable lead uncomfortable? What did he really think about some of the decisions that coaches made that he had to professionally explain to the audience?

Now that would be a podcast I would listen to.

But maybe there is something fitting about not knowing. Part of what made Lee Pace so good was the filter. He understood his responsibility to the program, the players, the coaches and the listeners. He could tell the story without making himself the story.

Now Bryn Renner gets his opportunity to do the same thing.

He has some big shoes to fill, but he also has a perspective that Lee never had. Renner has been the player on the field. He has heard the crowd, taken the hits, made the mistakes and experienced the pressure that comes with being the quarterback at Carolina. If he can combine that experience with the storytelling and professionalism that defined Lee Pace's career, Carolina fans will have something pretty special on the other end of that microphone.

So maybe this is not really about replacing Lee Pace.

It is about passing the story along.

Lee spent years telling us what was happening on the field. Now Bryn Renner gets to tell us what he sees from the sideline.

And if Lee has any advice for him, I suspect it would be pretty straightforward: Tell the story. Respect the people who are living it. Appreciate the place where you get to do it.

And every once in a while, when Carolina gives you absolutely nothing good to report, just remember that the microphone is still on.