Ronald Curry and Julius Peppers are running on fumes. From being stars at QB and DE of North Carolina's 6-5 football team to playing point guard and forward on the Heels' 26-7 hoops squad, the two haven't had a chance to rest since Aug. 8.

"It just takes all the energy from you," Peppers says. "Moving back to football right now is the hardest part."

Missouri WR Justin Gage agrees. The Tigers' leading receiver caught six passes in a season-ending loss to K-State, then caught a flight to join the hoops team in the Great Alaska Shootout. Regular season, conference tourneys, midterms, March Madness. Then football again.

Burnout? "I'm tired, but adrenaline takes over," Gage says. "This spring, they'll probably tell me which routes to run, and I'll just go on raw ability."

Good News: Both coaches, UNC's John Bunting and Mizzou's Gary Pinkel, are holding their two-sporters out of the first week of spring ball. ("My vacation," Curry laughs.) Bad News: Both are first-year coaches with new systems who need their stars in cleats.

"We can only do so much when Ronald's not taking snaps," says UNC offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill, who didn't meet his QB until mid-March. "I'm worried, because he hasn't been exposed to any of it." Practice for most Tar Heels ends on April 21. That's when Curry and Peppers get the film rooms to themselves. Says Curry: "That's what that time of year is for."

Bouncing balls and chasing rebounds also keeps them away from the dumbbells. Peppers, a 6'6", 270-pound rising junior, is being held out of practice to bang in the weight room and regain the 10 pounds he's lost. Says Stanford O-coordinator Bill Deidrick, whose backup quarterback, Teyo Johnson, is also a 6'7" power forward, "Not only are they not involved in the off-season lifting program, but they're doing the opposite--taking wear and tear through basketball."

Sometimes just staying awake is hard. After the Heels' second-round Tournament loss, Bunting treated Curry to three hours of yawns in the form of The Deer Hunter, a flick produced a year before Curry was. "It was sooo long," he says. "But it's about last chances, and I'll be a senior next year, and I've got to get back to work."

As if he'd ever stopped.

This article appears in the April 16 issue of ESPN The Magazine.