University of North Carolina Athletics
LEE PACE'S EXTRA POINTS: Affairs Of State: World Order Returns.
October 1, 2001 | Football
Oct. 1, 2001
NOTE: Readers are encouraged to view this week's Extra Points in the convenient PDF Format. PDF Format contains all material seen below, as well as additional content that is only available through PDF, including The Inner Game. 
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By Lee Pace
A sea of parents, girlfriends and assorted glad-handers had convened to the rear of A.E. Finley Field House at the west of Carter-Finley Stadium Saturday afternoon. Smiles, backslaps and good tidings permeated the happy atmosphere of a Carolina contingent
two touchdown passes against NC State. |
And then there were the perfectionists.
While head coach John Bunting was still talking to the media on the other side of the building, his chief lieutenants--Gary Tranquill for the offense and Jon Tenuta for the defense--made their paths to transportation waiting for the 25-mile ride back to Chapel Hill.
The win? Each would take it, no question.
"You're always happy when you win," said Tranquill.
"Any win over a rival is a big win," added Tentua. "A big win."
These guys, however, are cut from the bolt of fabric that demands perfection. Sloppiness and imprecision drive them nuts. The glass is forever half empty--even if there's just room for another drop or two. You feel their pulse and you feel their aggravation--no matter that the day was essentially a good one. Tranquill and Tenuta do not, you can be sure, put smiley faces on their correspondence. The Tar Heel offense: 347 yards total, 4.4 yards per snap, one 83-yard, six-minute-plus scoring driving, its longest of the year, one fumble lost, two interceptions thrown, two sacks yielded, some good things from tailback Andr? Williams, quarterback Darian Durant and an offensive line that has freshmen or sophomores in seven of 10 positions on its two-deep roster.
"We've still got all the same problems--we turn the ball over too much, we get too many penalties, we have too many negative plays," Tranquill lamented. "We can never be what you need to be if you do those things.
"The guys are playing hard. I don't have any qualms about that. We're just shooting ourselves in the foot too many times. We had three turnovers. We're in field-goal range and take a sack. Those kinds of things. You can't do those and be a good offense. We had field position all day, but we couldn't do anything with it. We had sacks, two interceptions. It's frustrating."
The Carolina defense: 361 total yards allowed, with 309 of them via the air, five fumbles forced, two recoveries, no interceptions, seven of 15 stands three-and-out, the upper-hand for most of the day until State throws for 103 yards on its final two, last-ditch possessions, including a 26-yard pickup on third-and-23.
"Giving up 309 yards passing is no good, that's the thing that bothers me," Tenuta said. "The effort was there. When we had to stop them, we stopped them. I believe in the kids. But I can't remember the last time I had 309 yards thrown on me. That bothers me. That third-and-23 especially bothers me. I don't think that's ever happened. Maybe it has, sometime in 20-some years, but I can't remember when.
"We got more positives than negatives out of this one. But we've got things to
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My, how far the Tar Heels have come--whether your measurement is two weeks ago, when they were 0-3 and being fitted for losses by many fans and media experts all the way to the Duke game, or your frame of reference was 50 weeks ago, when State marched into Kenan Stadium and collected a 38-20 victory. You win. You win kind of ugly. You win over an arch-rival. And you're finding plenty of things to grouse over. Reminds me of four and five years ago, when Mack Brown was fielding questions about why his teams started games slowly or protected punts poorly--no matter that they were 21-3 over two years.
"We've found ourselves again," said senior wideout Kory Bailey, a primary recruiting target and then a freshman with those vintage 1996-97 Tar Heel editions. "We had to pick ourselves up, but we've done it. We're back."
Senior linebacker Quincy Monk, another true freshman in 1997, nodded toward the Wolfpack's home playing field and noted the contrasts in how the victors the last two seasons have celebrated their respective wins--the Wolfpack in 2000 by stomping on the "NC" logo in Kenan Stadium and the Tar Heels minutes earlier by congregating in front of their fans in one corner of the stadium and singing the Carolina fight song.
"They danced on our field," Monk said. "They'd talked a lot of trash all summer. They thought we were a down-and-out program. We came over here today to show them we could win and win with class."
In a world seemingly gone mad, a certain amount of sanity has crept back into the pecking order around the state of the North Carolina. Kudos to the job State coach Chuck Amato has done injecting the Wolfpack program with some purpose and direction. Props to former coach Mike O'Cain and staff for finding QB prospect Philip Rivers in Alabama and then to Amato for reeling him in, and to O'Cain & Co. for signing outstanding players like Koren Robinson, Ray Robinson and Levar Fisher, the mainstays of last season and, with the exception of Koren (who's in the NFL), this year as well. Those guys can suit up on any team in the country.
But please give me a break with this malarkey that State, with a 4-4 ACC record in 2000, with three non-league wins over teams with a combined record of 7-27, and with two victories so far in 2001 over teams breathing fire with an 0-6 mark, has somehow passed the Tar Heel program by.
Apparently, many of the red persuasion had bought into that line of thinking and saw their world come crashing down Saturday against a Tar Heel squad well-schooled in the kicking game, very good on defense and good enough on offense. One irate State fan busted a fine pair of binoculars onto the concrete leaving the stadium. Other grown men yelled obscenities.
I don't know if the Tar Heels are going to reel off another stretch of seven-straight victories over the Wolfpack, as Brown and Carl Torbush did from 1993-1999. But I do know there's not a streak like it coming in the opposite direction.
"I'm not sure if I expected to be 2-1 (in the ACC) at this point, but we are. I'm happy about that," Bunting said. "I'm happy about the way the guys have hung in there and hung tough after some real tough times."
Added All-America defensive end Julius Peppers: "I think we're a new team. I really think we're a new team. We finally started believing in each other. This win was huge,
three scoring drives in Saturday's win in Raleigh. |
That burdensome schedule of August and early September is paying dividends. At Oklahoma. At Texas. At Maryland, which is turning out to be pretty good. A solid win over Florida State. There was nothing the Wolfpack could toss at Carolina any more harrowing than what it had seen before.
"We've been on the road in environments like this, against No. 3 and No. 4 in the country," Bunting said. "When we came in at halftime, I told the team we'd been here, we've done this before, so let's go out and play a great second half."
Carolina took control of the game in the third quarter, scoring 10 points and controlling the ball for 13 minutes. Had true freshman Jacque Lewis not fumbled early in the fourth quarter with the Heels moving the ball again, the margin could have been more.
"It was not picture-perfect," Bunting said. "But we gave great effort and it was enough to overcome what I think is a very fine N.C. State football team."
Meanwhile, Tranquill and Tenuta will hammer away at the little things. Reminded of Durant's wounded-duck aerial pulled in by offensive tackle Jason Brown, Tranquill managed a smile and shook his head.
"I'm gonna nail Durant," he said. "I told him that. What's he doing, putting the ball up for grabs like that? He's done that about four times this season. I'm gonna nail him."
Looks like this might be an interesting management team running Carolina's football program these days--John Bunting riding herd on the big picture and perfectionists agonizing over the details.
NOTE: Readers are encouraged to view this week's Extra Points in the convenient PDF Format. PDF Format contains all material seen below, as well as additional content that is only available through PDF, including The Inner Game. Download Free Acrobat Reader
Many Tar Heel fans enjoyed Lee Pace's six-part series chronicling the playing and coaching careers of coach John Bunting that appeared at TarHeelBlue.com last spring. Now those same stories are available with new material in a book that promises to be a collector's item in the future.
Born & Bred is now available. It is on sale at a variety of venues around campus and Chapel Hill, as well as in the TarHeelBlue.com FANStore and by mail order.
New chapters cover Bunting's coaching staff, his visit in May to Tar Heel legend Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice, and efforts to improve the game-day experience in Kenan Stadium. In addition, there are sidebars on the 1980 Carolina championship team, led by Kelvin Bryant, and Bunting's key role in the 1982 NFL players' strike. Contact Lee Pace today at leepace@earthlink.net for ordering information.
Extra Points, now in its 12th year, is published 15 times a year, once following all Carolina football games as well as at the beginning of the season, the end of the season and at the end of recruiting and spring practice. Subscriptions $30 per year, payable by check or MC/Visa to:
Extra Points Publishing Co.
101-A Aberdeen St.
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Lee Pace, Editor & Publisher
919/933-2082, leepace@earthlink.net
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