University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points Thursday
September 27, 2001 | Football
Sept. 27, 2001
John Bunting and everyone associated with the Tar Heel offense has been saying since training camp opened in late July that the evolution of the attack would be a gradual process. They promised improvement if onlookers would exercise a breath of patience.
The improvement has indeed come. To wit where the running game is concerned: Carolina had exactly four running plays in the season-opener at Oklahoma to its tailbacks/fullbacks that gained four or more yards.
It had eight against Maryland.
It had 11 at Texas, but nine of them were in the first half.
It had 10 Saturday against Florida State in a landmark 41-9 triumph.
"We're not there yet, but we're getting better," says Kenny Browning, the Carolina assistant who works with tight ends and also extensively this year with the offensive line along with Robbie Caldwell. "What Saturday did was give our players some proof that we're getting better. And it lets us coach them a little harder this week."
Carolina traditionally has found nothing but a stone wall between the tackles when it's played
|
Why do some work and some don't?
It's a combination of factors. The two most important are how well the offensive linemen recognize their blocking assignments and then, how well do they execute them? The third key is on the running back to find the available running room once he gets the handoff.
Another important factor is the particular scheme the defense is running on that snap of the football. Where are its linemen and linebackers? What twists, games and deals are they playing on the snap of the ball?
These two diagrams illustrate two plays that were big gains for the Tar Heels Saturday not only because of good execution by the Tar Heels but also that coordinator Gray Tranquill happened to have the right call for what FSU was doing on a particular play.
Florida State always plays aggressively with its front seven, dogging frequently and sending its linebackers from a variety of angles and in numerous combinations. With Carolina's problems in picking up the blitz this season, the Seminoles turned that heat up.
"That obviously creates problems with your passing game," says Browning. "But sometimes it can help your running game. If you catch them in the right call at the right time, you can bust one."
That's exactly what Bunting said after Carolina's loss at Maryland, a game in which the Terps confounded the Tar Heel quarterbacks with four sacks and a number of pressures. "If you can slip a couple of big gains underneath all the dogs and blitzes, you can stop some of that junk," Bunting said. "That's one thing we're not doing."
The Heels did do that on Saturday.
Figure 1 illustrates Williams' nine-yard run on second-and-three
|
Figure 2 illustrates Lewis's 27-yard gain on a counter play in the second quarter. Here, the game played by middle linebacker Jerel Hudson (42) and defensive tackle Darnell Dockett (45) played perfectly into the Tar Heels' hands. Dockett is shaded over the left guard and rushes through the gap outside the center. Hudson comes around the gap vacated by Dockett and blitzes. Lewis on the snap of the ball shuffles to the left, drawing the defense into thinking the play's going that way, then takes the handoff and angles back slightly to the right--the "counter" measure and thus the name of the play. The spread created by Dockett and Hudson combined with Lewis's speed allowed him to shoot through the hole at the line of scrimmage. The line blocked it perfectly, the Florida State safety missed a tackle just beyond the line and Lewis found clear sailing for a big gain. It also helped that the FSU strongside linebacker was blitzing. Just as on the play in Figure 1, if he'd stayed at home, he might have been able to make a play.
"We can call plays a lot better if the defense would tell us in advance what they're going to do," running backs coach Andr? Powell says with a smile.
Powell has been encouraged that his tailbacks are showing steady improvement. Willie Parker has been slowed by an ankle injury since the Texas game, but Williams is running well and Lewis showed a lot of explosiveness.
"Jacque showed what we thought he had--the ability to make people miss," Powell said. "With Andr?, it seemed like the light has popped on the last couple of weeks. He's more aggressive, his technique is better, he's more confident and aware of what's going on. He's much further along than he was two or three weeks ago."
Bunting noted Williams' improvement Tuesday at his weekly press conference. "It's important to Andr? to play the game of football well," Bunting says. "If you love to play football, if you make the right choices in the classroom, and you care about the team, that's about all you need to do to impress me. Andr? is doing those things."
Tar Heel defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta has gotten a lot of attention in the news media this
|
His teen-aged years were spent growing up in Columbus, Ohio, worshipping coach Woody Hayes and the Ohio State Buckeyes. He fulfilled a dream in 1997 by landing a coaching job at Ohio State under John Cooper. Imagine the thrill when Tenuta bought a house for his family in the Upper Arlington area of the city across the street from the one where Hayes lived for many years.
"I used to joke with the other coaches, saying I'd go out in my front yard, stare at Woody's house and wait for the wisdom to come over me," Tenuta says.
Tenuta and Tar Heel offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill have some interesting history as well. Tenuta was riding high with the Buckeyes in 1998, unbeaten in eight games and ranked No. 1 in the nation. Then they ran into Michigan State, a team with an offense coordinated by Tranquill.
"We were up 17-9 at halftime, then they get some breaks in the second half," says Tenuta. "Then Trank schemes us up and goes da da da da da .... they beat us 28-24 and knock us out of a shot at the national championship. He's busted my chops on that one. Well, not really. But he has reminded me of it."
One of the most significant series of downs in recent Carolina football history was the Tar Heel defense holding FSU scoreless after Carolina surrendered the safety late in the first half, allowing the Seminoles to take a 9-7 lead and get the ball back with 3:31 left. A touchdown in that situation over a team fragile emotionally after three losses to open the season could have been devastating. Instead, the Tar Heels held and went into the dressing room down by a scant two points.
"That possession set the tone for halftime and the start of the second half," Bunting said. "We score to open the second half, then sack them on their first play. You could sense through that stretch that our team really believed they could win this football game."
On that crucial series at the end of the first half, FSU did notch one first down, but then Carolina shut the Seminoles down.
Tackle Will Chapman batted a pass down.
Linebacker David Thornton broke a pass play up.
Cornerback Errol Hood fought off the block of a Seminole offensive tackle on a screen pass to make a tackle on Nick Maddox.
"That's what it's all about--making plays," Bunting said.
"That was a key element of the ball game," tackle Ryan Sims said. "Don't give them anything positive going into the locker room."
That safety was the result of the only glaring error of a much-improved special-teams performance Saturday. With Carolina lined up to punt at its 15 yard-line, deep snapper Greg Warren snapped the ball over punter John Lafferty's head and out of the end zone. There is, of course, no excuse for such a miscue, but later Bunting said a possible reason for the bad functioning of his deep snapper was a disruption in the punt team's carefully planned rhythm.
You might have noticed the Tar Heel punt team huddled differently against Florida State. On punting situations, 11 players ran onto the field, with Lafferty taking his spot 15 yards behind the ball, Warren standing over the ball, and the two gunners taking their positions between the hash marks and sideline.
The other seven players--a fullback, two wingbacks, two tackles and two guards--formed a tight huddle, five yards from the line of scrimmage. On the command of the fullback, they broke the huddle, moved quickly into position at the line of scrimmage, and the snap of the ball followed on a quick count.
This "muddle huddle" for the punt team was installed last week by Bunting and special-teams coordinator Dave Huxtable to help combat the fierce aggressiveness of the FSU punt-block team as well as the one Carolina would face the following game against N.C. State. No longer would the Tar Heels take their positions along the line of scrimmage and allow the defense to dig in for its rush while waiting for the official to blow his whistle to signify the ball is in play. Instead, the Tar Heels are now set at the line of scrimmage for only a fraction of a second before the snap of the football. There's less time for the defense to jump around and try to confuse the blocking assignments.
"If we can remove just a hair of their aggressiveness, if we can make them stop to think for just a second while we're lining up, that might be the difference in whether they get to a punt or not," says Bunting.
The problem Saturday was that right-wing DeFonte Coleman was shaken up, and backup Sam Aiken was slow to recognize he was due on the field. Aiken rushed onto the field, joining the huddle, and then for some unknown reason, the officials called a brief time out. Two of the officials conferred with one another for about 30 seconds, then finally declared the ball ready for play.
All the while, Warren was standing over the football.
Performing athletic functions from static positions--hitting a golf ball, serving a tennis ball, punting a football, shooting a foul shot--are made easier by the establishment of routines prior to the function. A disruption of that routine can lead to malfunction.
"I don't think Greg having to stand and stand and stand over the ball helped him any," Bunting said. "That's no excuse. We can't have those kinds of errors. But he'll learn from that and next time that happens, he'll be ready."
A section of the Hall of Honor museum area in the Kenan Football Center will be devoted to the Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice Era of the late-1940s. The new exhibits will be displayed beginning the week of the Duke game in November, which is the weekend set for a reunion of members of those teams. In my role as unofficial curator of the Hall of Honor, I've been sent by end/placekicker Bob Cox and manager Tom Lindley a stack of old game plans, scouting reports and manager's notebooks from that era.
A few tidbits of note:
The managers carried many of their supplies in a trunk nicknamed "Little Lucy." One checklist of its contents references "rubber teeth."
Oranges, lemons and chewing gum were to be available to players before every game and at halftime.
Coach Carl Snavely, in a post-game memo to his players grading their performances, made the following comments to Justice, the All-America tailback in the single-wing: "On 184 you made a poor fake after the hand-off. On 395 your fake was no good, you were too far from the fullback. On two passes you overthrew the receiver. On 393 you stopped your fake too soon. Of course, there are some good and favorable comments too, but they don't need correction. Your punting, passing and running were mighty, mighty good."
Snavely began his scouting report on Texas prior to the 1948 opener as follows: "For our opening game this year we will play one of the strongest football teams in the nation. Last year Texas ranked right behind Notre Dame and Michigan on all the big national ratings. This year they are reported to be faster and stronger than a year ago."
Carolina traveled with 38 players to its game at Georgia in 1948. The Tar Heels traveled by train, leaving at 9:30 p.m. the Friday night before Saturday afternoon's game. Starters got the lower berths, reserves the upper berths.
The scouting report on Oklahoma, the Tar Heels' opponent in the Sugar Bowl following the 1948 season, referenced a Sooner safety named Darrell Royal: "Their best defender. Very fast. He has intercepted 15 passes in three seasons. Plays very close to the line of scrimmage, 5 to 6 yards, then retreats fast on passes. Averages 34 yards on punt returns. The fact that they retreat fast on passes should make our hook and bend passes good."
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.
