Some football players might use something that happened to them on the field — say a 6-3, 305-pound defensive tackle deliberately stepping on their hand after a play was over — as motivation heading into a big game.

North Carolina running back Giovani Bernard doesn’t need to do that this week. In fact, what former Hurricanes defensive tackle Micanor Regis did to Bernard last season has little to do with why the former Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas standout is excited about facing UM again.

For Bernard, a 5-9, 205-pound jitterbug who ran for a career-high 262 yards in a win over Virginia Tech last week, Saturday’s pivotal ACC Coastal Division showdown at Sun Life Stadium will be the first time his older brother and father get to see him play in a college football game in person. And get-togethers don’t happen quite often enough in his very proud, hardworking Haitian family.

“This game definitely has a little extra meaning for me,” said Bernard, who missed the only two games the Tar Heels (4-2, 1-1 ACC) lost this season with a knee injury and who has run for 475 yards and five touchdowns on 52 carries in his four games. “The last time my dad saw me play was my junior year in high school. Right now, I’m just thinking about Saturday and performing well in front of my family and friends and hopefully getting that win.”

Familiar foe

The Hurricanes, who rank 116th out of 120 FBS schools in run defense, know Bernard well. He ran for 110 yards and a touchdown and caught nine passes for 72 yards in UM’s heart-stopping 30-24 win in Chapel Hill a year ago. Bernard went on to lead all freshmen in the country with 1,222 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns, and became the first Heels back to run for more than 1,000 yards since 1996.

UM right guard Brandon Linder and receiver Phillip Dorsett — teammates of Bernard on St. Thomas’ 2009 national championship team — say they’re proud of how the redshirt sophomore has battled back from injury to become the budding star he is today. Before NFLDraftScout.com tabbed Bernard as the No. 1 running back in college football in the class of 2015 this fall, he had to battle back from a hamstring injury that cost him his senior season at Aquinas, and then a torn ACL in his right knee his first year at UNC.

“I’m really happy for him,” Linder said Tuesday. “I know he had some family problems, injuries, but he never let it affect him. He’s always been the same guy every day. He’s tough, hard to bring down especially on the field. He’s so low to the ground, sometimes you think his [butt] is actually touching the ground when he makes a cut.”

Hard times

Injuries are only part of what Bernard, the ACC’s 2011 Brian Piccolo Award winner has overcome. His mother, Josette Liberus, died from thyroid cancer when Bernard was 10. Bernard, who turns 21 in November, writes her initials on his shoes and gloves before each game and points to the sky in her honor whenever he scores a touchdown. He also has a tattoo on his chest that says “She lives in me” and another tattoo on his left wrist with her name on it. Bernard refers to his mom as his “lead fullback.”

“That story,” his older brother Yvenson says, “a lot of people know.” But what they don’t know is what else the Bernards have overcome, he said. It’s a tale of rags to riches back to rags, Yvenson describes.