After being hospitalized with sepsis, UNC’s Randy Clements happy to be coaching again

North Carolina was set to begin fall football practice a few weeks ago, and everybody was ready for it.

Everybody but Randy Clements.

The Tar Heels’ offensive line coach was experiencing bad chills, a high fever and unrelenting nausea. Clements soon was headed to the emergency room, and his hospital stay would last for more than a week before he was medically cleared and able to return to camp.

Clements, speaking Monday to the media at the Koman Practice Complex, said he was suffering from sepsis, which can be life-threatening if not treated quickly.

“I developed a digestive tract infection over the summer and it’s something I dealt with,” Clements said. “It was kind of off and on. I’d feel good then I’d feel bad, then feel good.

“Then, a week before we started I went to the doc and got some meds to help it. But my infection got worse and spread to parts of my body.”

There are a number of nasty complications that can come with sepsis, and the Mayo Clinic has this description:

“A serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection. The infection-fighting process turns on the body, causing the organs to work poorly. Sepsis may progress to septic shock. This is a dramatic drop in blood pressure that can damage the lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs.”

UNC coach Mack Brown called Clements’ condition both scary and dangerous, and Clements, 57, did not disagree. Clements said his blood pressure was “something like 80 over 40” and his pulse at about 160 beats a minute.

“I was out of whack,” he said.

“It was good I went to the doctor when I did. … I was going into that stage of whatever they call it, sepsis or shock. I was in a bad way there.”

With Clements hospitalized, Brown used Kyle Fuller, Clements’ assistant, to head up the O-line drills along with some voluntary help from Corey Gaynor, the Heels’ starting center last year who is back in Chapel Hill.

Clements, who joined the UNC program in December 2022, said he used Zoom to monitor football meetings and watched some video, even as Brown told him not to – to just get well and get back.

“The hospital is a sobering place,” Clements said. “No matter how bad you feel, there’s somebody in there who’s worse off.”

A week ago, Clements was out, He was able to return to practice, to work with his guys.

He takes antibiotics every day to ward off a recurrence, adding, “I’ve gotten myself back on track.” Clements said he constantly hydrates to keep his blood sugar from getting too low and regaining some weight he lost.

“I feel good, I feel fine,” he said. “It’s just something I’ve got to deal with and get past.”

Clements said since his return he has constantly felt behind, calling it a “panic feeling” and noting, “You always feel like you’re chasing something.”

But the offensive line, he said, is making progress, saying the line is “in a good spot.”

“We’ve got a lot of leadership in our room,” he said.

Howard Sampson, a 6-foot-8, 325-pound offensive tackle is a transfer from North Texas. First recruited by Clements when Clements was offensive line coach at North Texas, Sampson now will play for him and is glad to see him healthy again, back on the field.

“Once coach Clements got back, everybody was back in good spirits,” Sampson said Monday.

That includes the guy they call “Coach Clem.”

“Any time you’re sitting in the hospital you feel like the world is going on without you,” Clements said. “I was anxious to get back.”