Despite not practicing with the Pack until August 15, Michael Lemon, a redshirt junior defensive lineman, found himself on the two-deep going into the 2009 season opener Sept. 3 against South Carolina.

On a defensive line many consider the strength of the team, Lemon, a transfer from Georgia, had taken just two weeks to crack the depth chart coach Tom O’Brien released August 28. 

Defensive line coach Keith Willis thought Lemon’s arrival so close to the start of the season might make for a difficult adjustment in learning the defense, but said once Lemon adjusted to the new playbook, he began displaying the talent the coaching staff had noticed from his game tape from Georgia.

“The good thing about him is he’s played at the top level at Georgia and there was no question he could play,” Willis said. “He came here on short notice so there were questions – could he actually pick up the system in a short span of time? He proved that he could do that and once he got into the system, he was able to go out and play well.”

A little more than a half into his first game with the Pack, Lemon made a play representative of the athleticism Willis first noticed while watching Lemon’s video from his time at UGA.

Late in the third quarter, Lemon dropped back into coverage and created the defense’s first turnover of 2009 on a highlight reel diving interception that set up the offense’s only points of the South Carolina game. 

The pick had many in the crowd of 57,583 frantically searching their program to find a name to match Lemon’s jersey number, 94, and many of those fans were left scratching their heads in uncertainty upon seeing Michael Lemon, No. 94, listed as senior defensive end Shea McKeen’s backup.

The interception in the Thursday night opener did not come as a surprise to redshirt senior defensive end Willie Young, who said he has never seen anyone catch on to a defense quite so quickly.

“Mike Lemon catches on to stuff so fast, which has allowed him to play faster, faster than I’ve probably seen anyone come in and play,” Young said.

Lemon followed up his Wolfpack debut by recording two quarterback pressures and a tackle for loss against Murray State last Saturday.

Willis said he is pleased with Lemon’s play so far and feels his newest defensive lineman is capable of an All-ACC caliber season.

“He’s doing some really good things out there. His potential could be second team, first team [All-ACC] perhaps,” Willis said. “It all depends on how bad he wants it. He has all the intangibles, on record and on paper. But he now has to prove it, and he’s well on his way to proving it after his first two games.”

Lemon arrived in Raleigh with a troubled past, including the loss of his mother to murder-arson at the hands of her fiancé in 2007 and an assault charge in the summer of 2008, for which he was dismissed from the UGA football program. 

According to Scout.com, Georgia coach Mark Richt said dismissing Lemon was the hardest disciplinary decision of his career.

“My goal for Michael as he leaves this program is to go somewhere where he can continue his education and play football,” Richt said. “I hope for him that it can be at Georgia (in the future) because that’s what he wants, and I love him very much.”

Coach Tom O’Brien said he received more than enough reassurance from everyone with whom he discussed the young man’s case to make him feel comfortable giving Lemon, who played one season at Georgia Military College before coming to Raleigh, a second chance to play college football.

“We’ve done extensive work with him and we’re very satisfied with the issues that he had when he left Georgia,” O’ Brien said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations with coach Richt and a lot of people and we are very satisfied with the individual we are getting.”

Thus far, it looks as though O’Brien has done the right thing in giving Lemon a second chance. Though Lemon is not yet ready to face the Triangle football media frenzy, his coaches and teammates are willing to speak out on his behalf.

“You see him off the field and he is just a sweetie. He is just the nicest guy,” Young said. “I can’t even explain how nice he is, he just got here not too long ago and it already feels like he is a natural brother, a great teammate.”