For a guy in his first season, he has already won over players’ support, and the main reason why has been his coaching staff’s creative ideas and approach to everything. It has kept the players’ interest and attention, which isn’t easy to do.

Whether it’s been having a scavenger hunt in Coconut Grove, or giving index-sized concentration cards daily to each player with three things that player needs to focus on, or putting together a “soft tape” to point out lack of toughness or having a few veterans serve as player-coaches during practice, Golden has put his master’s degree in pyschology from Virginia to good use.

He has also tried to inject some fun into training camp.

If you didn’t get a chance to see InsideTheU.com’s story about it, Golden has invited the entire team to his house Sunday night after the scrimmage for a pool party [I wish I was there to see 340-pound DT Darius Smith do a cannonball]. The ‘Canes will have their first day off Monday since fall camp started Aug. 6.

“It will definitely be fun,” TE Cory White told InsideTheU. “He just loves for everybody to have a good time. He loves seeing smiles on all of his players’ faces. He’s a real big father-figure to all of us.”

In addition to the party for players, Golden invited prospects and their families to campus for the day Sunday.

“A lot of coaches don’t want to do that because you really don’t have control over everything, but for us we want to see how we coach, how we are, how our team reacts, all of those things,” Golden said before Saturday’s practice.

“It will be about as close as it is from being here as a student-athlete because it’s very real. It’s not like we’re over there talking to them every minute of the day.

“We’re out there coaching, we’re running the scrimmage, and they’re watching. They’ll have a chance to meet some players, have a meal with the guys, get around our deans and professors, and be around our student-athletes, which will be good.”

Sure, none of this will matter to most fans if the ‘Canes don’t win enough this season. But the fact Golden has been able to make the headway he has with this team — gaining their trust, attention and commitment — matters in the ‘Canes getting to where they want to be.

There will be some that will dismiss this as rah-rah stuff, which to an extent, it is. But it’s also what separates college football from the bland brand of the NFL.