University of North Carolina Athletics
View From The Press Box
September 3, 1999 | Football
Sept. 3, 1999
North Carolina opens its 1999 football season on Saturday facing an early schedule that is as ominous as the Phantom Menace.
After battling Virginia Saturday afternoon, the Tar Heels must travel to Indiana, come home and take on Florida State and then play road games at Clemson and Georgia Tech. Much has been written of this Murderers' Row, since Florida State, Virginia and Georgia Tech have been rated the top three teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Clemson is always especially tough to beat at Death Valley and should have plenty of enthusiasm with a new coach in Tommy Bowden. Indiana has 19 returning starters and a multi-talented quarterback in Antwaan Randle El.
However, most of the attention has centered on this first game with Virginia.
Shackled by graduation losses and injuries to key players, the Tar Heels staggered to an 0-3 start last year before recovering in time to earn a bid to the Las Vegas Bowl and a final 7-5 record. A similar start this season, with those road trips to Clemson and Georgia Tech to follow, might be impossible to overcome.
Considering the opposition, Carolina will have to be near top form very quickly in order to prevent that from happening. A fast start would be much easier with a veteran team, but only 10 starters are back from a year ago. The biggest rebuilding job is on defense where inexperience in the front four and the secondary are major concerns.
However, at this time of the year everyone is optimistic and Coach Carl Torbush has been pleased with the progress his team has made in pre-season practice. "I think last fall's 0-3 start may have served as a wakeup call for this group," he says. "I've been pleased with how hard our players have worked to get ready for the season. Because of the success we'd had recently our guys may have had a false sense of security last year.
"They may have thought that since we'd been winning on a regular basis that it would simply continue. They found out quickly that wasn't the case and that probably has helped us get ready for this fall."
The challenge of facing Virginia in the first game has also been a factor in Carolina's pre-season preparations.
"There certainly has been more of a sense of urgency among the players this year," says linebacker Brandon Spoon. "Miami of Ohio was a really good football team last season, but we didn't know anything about them. Despite what our coaches may have told us, the players probably weren't as ready to play as we should have been.
"With Virginia, we won't have that problem. We know how good they are and the type of rivalry that exists between the two schools. If we aren't prepared to play, it's going to be a long afternoon."
The Carolina-Virginia rivalry, in fact, is one of the oldest in the history of college football. The two teams have met 103 times, equalling the fifth-most showdowns of any two teams in the country. Amazingly, this 104th game will mark only the second time in history the two schools have faced each other in a season opener. On only one other occasion have they played anytime in the first three games of the year. For a long period the two teams ended their seasons against each other. Many of those games were played on Thanksgiving Day, giving them an even more unique atmosphere.
Duke replaced the Cavaliers as the Tar Heels' season-ending opponent in the early 1950's with an occasional exception being made. But, for the most part, Virginia has remained a late-season game.
Now each Atlantic Coast Conference school only schedules its outside opponents. The league office then takes that information and generates the conference schedule by computer. Natural rivalries, such as the traditional season-ending Carolina-Duke and Georgia-Georgia Tech games, are taken into consideration during this process. The major reason the ACC handles the scheduling is to put together an attractive television package, since that's how each school now generates so much of its revenue. But, it can occasionally lead to some overloaded schedules, such as Carolina faces in the early part of this season.
The only time prior to this fall in which the Tar Heels opened the year against Virginia was 1963. That proved to be a most memorable season with a 9-2 finish, including a 35-0 victory over the Air Force Academy in the Gator Bowl. Carolina entered that fall with especially high hopes. Those were almost ruined by a Virginia team that would finish 2-7-1.
The Tar Heels dominated play all afternoon in Kenan Stadium. Carolina ran 86 plays to just 39 for Virginia and outgained the Cavaliers 330 yards to 80. Each team committed only two turnovers and Virginia did not complete a pass all day. However, a 27-yard field goal by UNC's Max Chapman was the game's only scoring in the first half.
The Cavaliers' Henry Massie then stunned the Tar Heels with a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to open the second half and a 7-3 lead.
Carolina drove to the Virginia 22-yard line in the first quarter and to the Cavalier six and five in the second half without getting any points. "Our players were really getting frustrated," said UNC Coach Jim Hickey afterwards. "We were moving the ball all over the field, but couldn't get in the end zone."
Midway in the fourth quarter the Tar Heels began a drive at their own 47-yard line. Faced with a third-and-nine at the 48, Gary Black completed a 21-yard pass over the middle to Joe Robinson. On first down at the 31, Robinson ran the same pattern and Black hit him for 13 yards.
Two plays later Black again found Robinson over the middle for 14 yards to the two-yard line. On third down from the one Ken Willard finally blasted into the end zone. Black threw to Willard for a two-point conversion and an 11-7 lead with only 5:01 to play. With Virginia unable to move the ball against the Tar Heel defense, that was enough for the win.
After dropping a 31-0 decision to powerful Michigan State the following week, Carolina reeled off five straight wins. Only an 11-7 loss to Clemson would mar the rest of the season, which may well have been saved by that opening win over Virginia. Carolina tied for the ACC championship and when Chapman's late field goal beat Duke, 16-14, the team was extended the Gator Bowl invitation.
Considering the next four opponents, in particular, Saturday's game also could set the tone for the rest of this year. The Tar Heels need a win Saturday. Just as importantly, they need to play well to avoid the type of start they had last fall.
