University of North Carolina Athletics
LEE PACE'S EXTRA POINTS: Three's A Charm As Heels Sink Pirate Ship.
October 8, 2001 | Football
Oct. 8, 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
John Bunting stood in a cramped little adjunct to the visitors dressing facility deep in the bowels of Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas, four weeks ago. Behind him was loss No. 3 in as many games as Carolina's new football coach. Done was Oklahoma,
David Thornton celebrate a big win over East Carolina |
Is the burden lifted, one reporter wondered, now that the onerous start to the season was over?
"No, not at all," Bunting answered in a flash. "These are opportunities to get better, to make our football program better. Anybody who's watched us play sees that and understands that. We've seen a lot of very fine football being played. Now we've got to go on and grow. It's time to grow up. We've got to do it now."
Carolina has not lost a football game since.
It has indeed grown up.
Florida State, N.C. State and East Carolina lie in its wake.
How improbable is all of this?
"This third win in a row should really give us some confidence--not cockiness, but confidence about the way we can overcome adversity and bad situations," Bunting said Saturday after Carolina defeated the Pirates, 24-21.
"Spirits are high," linebacker Quincy Monk said. "We keep getting better every week. Every game from here is winable."
"Talk about digging yourself out of a hole," receiver Kory Bailey added .
Installment No. 3 in this winning trifecta came Saturday in Kenan Stadium on a chilly, gray, sodden day, an afternoon when emotions ran at a candescent pitch on the field and in the stands, a day when the heavens anointed great fortune on the purple and gold in one instant and waved a magic wand for the baby blue a heart tick later. It was a game decreed by governmental intervention--the N.C. General Assembly telling Carolina in the mid-1990s to back off its scheduling snub of the Pirates of more than a decade or risk having monetary repercussions.
The first Saturday in October, 2001, was circled by Pirate fans from Stumpy Point to Piney Green back in 1995 as East Carolina's football Armageddon, a day to march into haughty and highfalutin Chapel Hill and rub the Tar Heels' noises in their stilton. Pirate coach Steve Logan has laughingly claimed that his school owns east of Interstate-95 as a recruiting haven, but it's been hard for the Tar Heels to get too worked up over the doings in Greenville when each fall they have to worry about Tallahassee, Clemson and Charlottesville.
I've been against playing the Pirates for all the standard reasons. It's a no-win situation for Carolina--win, well, you're supposed to, lose, the program's falling apart. The ECU lineup is dotted with players who wanted to come to Chapel Hill but couldn't qualify academically. You risk a riot a la the mid-1980s at N.C. State if the Pirates win. They vandalize the home of a strength coach who's moving from Greenville to Chapel Hill in a clear career advancement, as they did last winter with Jeff Connors. Logan accented these reasons to dodge the Pirates Saturday night when he made a half-hearted attempt to find Bunting at midfield at game's end for a congratulatory handshake, then waved off the effort and told his security guy, "C'aint find him." Try harder, Logan, he was actually very easy to spot.
But I have to admit, it was fun around town last week as students stood in line all day Wednesday for tickets, as the news media hyped the game, as every friend and acquaintance with an ECU connection phoned for a line on tickets. The parking lots around campus were full early, despite the raw weather. Then to see the Tar Heels come out in all-blue uniforms (attire planned for Virginia a week later but bumped up at the request of the Tar Heel seniors), ratcheted the pulse a notch an hour before kick-off. The hitting and the emotion over three hours were ferocious, anyone else notice Pirate defensive tackle Hosea James (No. 93) yelling at the Tar Heel sideline whenever a play took him there?
"That was a football game," Bunting said when all was done. Translation: Only manly men apply, not for the faint of heart.
"They talked a lot of trash, but we don't get into that very much," Monk said. "Trash talking doesn't get you anywhere."
It was an ordeal that left everyone involved spent.
"I am completely drained. This is the most exhaustion I've felt this season," said tight end Zach Hilton, who made a key touchdown catch of a potential interception in the third quarter. "Both sides were really excited. We knew it was a big game. We knew it would be a fight and a battle. That's exactly what it was."
The Tar Heels prevailed because of the collective effort of a number of people.
* Quarterbacks Ronald
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"I told Ronald after the game I'd go to war with that guy," said Bunting, who awarded Curry the game ball. "He's a tough guy. I'm proud of him."
* Place-kicker Jeff Reed nailed a 49-yard field goal with 2:48 to play, providing the winning margin. Reed had missed from the same distance in the first half, perhaps as a result of a high snap from center that disrupted his timing with holder Richard Moore.
* Tailbacks Andr? Williams and Willie Parker led a second-half eruption of the Tar Heel running game, Carolina picking up 133 second-half yards on the ground after mustering only 41 in the first half.
* A variety of wideouts made excellent catches, including Bailey snaring one between double coverage for 37 yards and others by Chesley Borders for 29 and a score and Sam Aiken for 21 yards and a TD.
"I knew from August that if we were to have success on offense, the wide receivers would be the key," Bunting said. "I knew we'd struggle some with the running game because of our youth on the line. If we were to have any offense prowess, we had to get the wide receivers to make plays. They certainly did against East Carolina."
* Reserve cornerback Derrick Johnson sped from behind on a kick-off return seemingly headed for a touchdown, spearing the ball from the clutches of Pirate Art Brown inside the five yard-line. Carolina's taking possession at its 20 after the touchback still holding a 24-13 lead was a mammoth sequence of events.
"Huge," Bunting said.
"The kind of play you see on Sports Center," Monk added.
* Offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill installed this week a pass play specifically for the ECU defense, and it resulted in Durant's 29-yard strike to Borders with 5:25 to play in the first half. The Pirates play an aggressive 3-4 scheme up front built around fast and athletic linebackers with a three-deep zone behind. At times, Tranquill noticed, the backs will not pass off coverage from one to the next as you normally do in a zone, instead having a linebacker remain with a slot receiver on a deep pattern. He felt that provided an opportunity for some big yards, and it did indeed.
"I can't say enough about how well Gary Tranquill manages a game," Bunting said. "Darian and Ronald also did a nice job finding the holes."
* After two suspect 
series to start the game, the Tar Heel defense found its bearings and played well. The Pirates, running an option attack led by senior QB David Garrard, gave the Heels fits their first two possessions, gaining 141 yards and scoring 10 points. After that, ECU gained only 158 yards, and five of nine possessions were three-and-out.
"I knew our defense would get settled," Bunting said. "It's very hard to simulate their offense in practice. It took a while for us to adjust to their speed."
"We knew pretty much what they were going to do by personnel group and how they were going to attack us," coordinator Jon Tenuta said. "We just didn't get it done. We didn't make plays. We regrouped and went through every play and over exactly what we didn't do right. After that, we did a good job until that last drive."
* Finally, Sam Aiken, with the set of surest and softest hands on the team, gathered in ECU's last-ditch onside kick attempt with 23 seconds left and the game was over, the bitter issue between Carolina and East Carolina to be put on hold until Carolina visits Greenville in 2003.
By then, Carolina's problems at O-line and quarterback will have worked themselves out, the Tar Heels will have rebuilt on defense after losing eight starters this season, and John Bunting's program will be in high gear. Meanwhile, the Tar Heels will keep striving for small steps, for improvement and perhaps even their first win over Virginia since 1997.
"Overconfidence?" Bunting wondered Sunday. "There's no reason whatsoever for this team to be overconfident. There are a whole bunch of things we need to get corrected."
Nonetheless, it's a remarkable turnaround from a month ago in Texas.
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
First Annual
"Wreck Tech"
UNC Golf
Tournament
followed by
Pre-Game Party.
Make plans now for a golf tournament, pre-game social and then the Tar Heels vs. Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Thursday, Nov. 1. Play "The Frog Golf Course" at the Georgian Resort at 10 a.m. The pre-game party will be held at 5 p.m. at the Atlanta Brewing Company (located on Williams Street in downtown Atlanta). Cost is $50 for golf and $21 for dinner. Call the Eductional Foundation at 919/945-2000 for more information.
Fall is the perfect time of year to visit Pinehurst, and this month is better than ever with our Bed, Breakfast & Birdie offer. Now through November 17, you can get two nights' accommodations, complimentary breakfasts, three rounds of golf (including one round on No. 8) and a sleeve of Titleist golf balls for one low price-$496 per person, double occupancy, and $246 for non-golfers.
Call 1.800.IT'S.GOLF (487-4653) and ask for the Bed, Breakfast & Birdie offer, or visit Pinehurst.com/bbb.
Players Mentioned
