University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points Thursday
September 13, 2001 | Football
Sept. 13, 2001
By Lee Pace
Carolina's 80-yard scoring drive in the first quarter of Saturday's game at Texas provided some clues to the potential and strategy of the offense for the rest of the season. There's no question that the Tar Heels will see a lot of man-coverage and blitzing from every defense it faces, which is why quick-hitting passes, max-protects and moving pockets will be keys to Carolina moving the ball via the air.
Figures 1-4 illustrate four means of attacking aggressive defenses employed Saturday by coordinator Gary Tranquill. Three of them worked and were integral to Carolina's first sustained drive of the year when the outcome was still an issue. The fourth, unfortunately, was a disaster.
Let's look at the bad one first.
Figure 4 shows a three-step drop by QB Ronald Curry with a throw to receiver Bosley Allen on a quick slant on third-and-eight from the 18 on Carolina's second possession of the game. Texas defensive coordinator Carl Reese called a zone blitz, with end Cory Redding (40) feigning a pass rush and then dropping into zone pass coverage. Curry never saw Redding and threw a pass which Redding intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
While it was a play Tranquill, Curry and everyone on the team wished hadn't occurred, it was the kind where you're more inclined to give the opponent credit than wail away at your own mistakes.
"That's the hardest read for a quarterback to make," Tranquill said of the zone blitz, which puts a down lineman into pass coverage.
"Great call by them," receivers coach Gunter Brewer added. "You 
account for all your pass defenders, and an end isn't one of them. Ronald never saw him."
You can be sure that Curry drew more criticism for an interception the previous week at Maryland, when Tony Okanlawon picked off a ball misaimed by 10 yards, than he did for the one by Redding at Texas.
Nonetheless, the Tar Heels will continue to mix in these quick slants as well as hooks and out patterns, with Curry releasing the ball quickly.
Three more plays designed to elude a heavy pass rush are the quick screen, a downfield pass with maximum protection and a moving pocket. They're shown in Figures 1-3.
Figure 1 is a quick screen with Chesley Borders gaining 13 yards on second-and-14 at the Carolina 19. These are the short passes that Curry has had trouble with, but this pass was on target. Borders feigns a downfield pattern with a quick jab step, then backs up to receive the pass. Two other wideouts in a three-wide set up their blocks, with the tailback coming to block as well. Actually, this play was blocked poorly, but Borders did what receivers and running backs have to do in a successful offense: He made the cornerback miss him.
Figure 2 shows a first-and-15 play at the 28 two snaps later. The Tar Heels are in "22 personnel," which means two running backs and two tight ends, with TE Zach Hilton set in the backfield as wingback rather than on the line of scrimmage. This is a max-protect play, with only two players running pass patterns and both running backs remaining in to block. The good news is that with eight players providing protection, the QB should have time to throw. The bad news is that if the defense is playing zone, it's hard to find someone open.
"If they're in zone, they've got two-on-one and it doesn't work," Brewer says. "Against man coverage, it's pretty good. Then it's just a matter of the receiver beating the defender."
That's exactly what happened on this play. Curry had time, and receiver Sam Aiken ran a good route--downfield eight yards, two quick steps angling inside to make the cornerback think he's running a post, then cutting back to the outside on a corner route.
Curry had time. He made a good throw. Aiken was open. He caught the ball. Twenty yards for the Tar Heels. This is not rocket science.
Three snaps later, Carolina faced third-and-five at the Texas 47 (Figure 3). Tranquill sent three wideouts left, with Borders running a corner route. Curry took the snap and executed a sprint-out, where he takes the ball and sprints directly into passing position, with the tailback providing a lead block on the corner. Borders beat the Texas defender in man coverage, Curry had time and made another good throw. This one picked up 27 yards.
Two more varieties of moving-pocket passes the Heels have used are bootlegs (which involve a handoff fake to a running back and a lineman pulling and providing an escort for the QB), and nakeds (which involve a handoff fake with no pulling lineman).
The result of these plays--plus the "Power O" running series outlined in the Texas-game issue of Extra Points--resulted in a touchdown for Carolina.
"If we execute, we move the ball," Tranquill says.
A casualty of the postponed Carolina-SMU game is a reunion of the 1946-49 "Justice Era" teams. Players from those four teams, which went to three major bowls, were scheduled to convene in Chapel Hill for a weekend of golf, socializing and fund-raising. The group is attempting to raise at least $5 million for an endowment to be used for Tar Heel football scholarships and operations. They are hoping to reschedule the event the weekend of the Duke game.
With many of those Tar Heels having come to Carolina after service in World War II, you can imagine the mindset of the ex-Tar Heels this week as they discussed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
"We don't have the physical skills we once had, but the competitive instincts are still intact," says Bob Cox, a member of those teams. "The people I've talked to are very upset. They want revenge. Five or six have said to give Afghanistan fair warning, tell them to get the women and children to safety, then we're coming in."
From this week's Emailbox:
Jonathan Watkins writes from Columbia that he'd like to see the Carolina-South Carolina football rivalry renewed. "Just imagine Holtz against Bunting. Need I say more?" he says.
Actually, in the mid-1990s Carolina AD John Swofford shared your opinion and tried to get South Carolina AD Mike McGee to agree to playing a series of games in Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte. The Gamecocks were not interested, given the strength of their SEC East schedule and their annual grudge match against Clemson.
Dick Baddour, who followed Swofford as Carolina AD, was asked the same question again in 1998 when Carolina played N.C. State in Charlotte in the first of a two-year run in Charlotte. He said the issue has not been revisited.
Speaking of scheduling, those who ripped the Tar Heels in the early 1990s for weak non-conference scheduling are hopefully satisfied now. In the first month of the 2001 season, the Heels will face the current third, fifth and sixth-ranked teams in the Associated Press Poll in Oklahoma, Texas and Florida State.
Future non-conference schedules include the following: Syracuse, Texas and Arizona State in 2002, Syracuse, Wisconsin, East Carolina and Arizona State in 2003, Utah, Virginia Tech and Louisville in 2004, Wisconsin, Utah, Louisville in 2005, Rutgers, Connecticut and Notre Dame in 2006, Virginia Tech and Colorado in 2007, Colorado, Rutgers and Notre Dame in 2008, Connecticut and Michigan in 2009, and Michigan in 2010.
Jeff Lowrance writes that he fears a repeat of the 1988-1990 era of Tar Heel football, given the Heels' 0-3 start and the apparent improvement of every team in the ACC, with perhaps the exception of Duke. "You see the team up-close every week. Are you seeing improvement that hasn't been noticeable during games?" he asks.
Caulton Tudor, a columnist for the News & Observer of Raleigh, made a similar comparison in last Sunday's editions. "North Carolina probably has a little more football talent now than when Mack Brown arrived in 1988. But if so, it's marginal at best."
Carolina has more overall team speed and athleticism on defense than when Brown took over 13 years ago, but Bunting faces a variety of problems:
* Developing a quality offensive line.
* Find quarterbacks who are accurate passers, astute decision-makers and good leaders.
* Developing depth on defense so that seven senior starters can be replaced in 2002.
Jeff, I wish I could say that Curry plays perfectly and that the offensive line makes every correct decision in practice, and that it's just a matter of time before it all jells in a game. I wish I could say that a little better tackling on defense and we'd be back to the glory days of those 1996-97 seasons.
Unfortunately, the Tar Heels are what they are:
They are a
|
What I see most behind the scenes that can give Tar Heel fans encouragement is an emphasis on developing among the current players and finding among future players a sense of toughness and love for playing the game personified in John Bunting. Losing and mediocrity breed more of the same, and the trials of the last three years have dampened the players' confidence and swagger. It's a hard job to reinstate those qualities, particularly against a schedule as difficult as the one Carolina is facing.
Previous installments of Extra Points Thursday:
Send your questions to Lee Pace to answer in Extra Points Thursday at leepace@earthlink.net. Please provide your name and tell us where you live.
Players Mentioned
