University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: QB Tandem Paying Off
October 14, 2001 | Football
Oct. 14, 2001
By Adam Lucas
TarHeelBlue.com
"Cur-ry!" "Cur-ry!"
University of Virginia fans expected to get the chance to chant that name plenty of times during his four years in college. The 'Hoos will tell you that they don't care about the senior from Hampton, but the singsong, mocking way they screamed his name Saturday afternoon in Kenan Stadium belied their intentions.
The Cavaliers thought Curry was one of them, thought he was going to be a 'Hoo. Four years later, they still haven't quite gotten over him reneging on his verbal commitment to Virginia and enrolling at Carolina.
After he took a sack and fired an incompletion on UNC's first drive, the chants picked up.
"Cur-ry!" "Cur-ry!" Loudly and derisively, they screamed his name, all the while looking like a crowd of investment bankers dressed up for Halloween in their orange neckties and khaki pants
Darian Durant got the Tar Heels on the scoreboard first and Virginia answered right back with a score of their own.
But then Curry started running and passing the way they remembered he could, looking like the player who was a star at Hampton High. Here he was lofting a perfectly underthrown touchdown pass to Sam Aiken, and there he was darting for two yards on third-and-1.
Then he ripped off a 39-yard scamper that almost looked like vintage, pre-Achilles injury Ronald Curry. He left would-be tacklers scattered across the field, making fans flash back to those heady days of 1998 when they wondered that any quarterback could be that mobile, that agile.
"Cur-ry!" "Cur-ry!"
It turns out that he's not still capable of being that quarterback. His Achilles injury flared up on that run.
That left the entire second half to Durant, who occasionally suffers in comparison because he doesn't make "Wow" plays like Curry sometimes does. But he makes plays. The kid from South Carolina has a little bit of another Sandlapper, former Georgia Tech signal-caller Joe Hamilton, in him. He's got a touch of an edge to him, a bit of wanting to prove the naysayers wrong.
Unlike Curry, there was no signature Durant play in Saturday's game. He never made jaws drop or heads shake.
What he did do was stand in the pocket and deliver a 13-yard strike to Sam Aiken on third-and-3 in a drive that led to a field goal. Two plays later, on second-and-16, he took off on a scramble and gained an unsurprising 17 yards. It was unsurprising because it was exactly what Carolina needed, and Durant has a way of providing it.
He's also rapidly showing that this much-discussed two-quarterback system has a way of paying off. While Curry and Durant have the reputation of being similar quarterbacks, Durant is much more likely to take a quick drop and fire off a sharp pass, while Curry is more prone to running around in the pocket and then dashing off on a scramble.
Want to argue with John Bunting about the two-quarterback system? Then you'll need to explain how 477 yards of total offense is a bad thing, and how winning the time of possession battle for the third straight game is a negative. Bunting and offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill have developed a system in which neither player is the clear star. Durant is capable of playing the whole second half and directing the win, just as Curry sparked the first-half exploits.
Ronald Curry beating Virginia isn't the story that it would have been three years ago. These days, he's not the focus of the entire pregame and postgame attention. Almost as soon as the contest was over, instead of looking back at a solid win, it was time to look ahead to next week's contest against the quarterback who plays like everyone thought Curry would, Woodrow Dantzler.
Carolina doesn't have a quarterback the equal of Dantzler. But the hope in Chapel Hill is that two are greater than one.
Previous Columns By Adam Lucas
Adam Lucas is the co-publisher of Basketball America. He is a lifelong observer of UNC sports and can be reached at JAdamLucas@aol.com.
