University of North Carolina Athletics
October 22, 2002 | Extra Points
Oct. 21, 2002
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By Lee Pace
Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will be established.
Proverbs 19:21
 The Tar Heel defense looks on from the sideline.  |
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Running is a great salve for what ails you, particularly when you've just made another trip to that chamber of horrors in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia's Scott Stadium, and endured another of life's dirty little tricks. A potential Fiesta or Orange Bowl date in 1996 washed out with a fourth-quarter meltdown by the Tar Heels, allowing Virginia a 20-17 victory, and Saturday Carolina imploded lock, stock and barrel in the second half, wasting a 21-0 halftime lead and watching helplessly as the Cavaliers roared back to a 37-27 triumph.
The plan for John Bunting and his team was to open the second half of the 2002 season and rebound from last week's disappointing loss to N.C. State with a victory no one expected -- what would be the first triumph for the Tar Heels in Hooville since 1981. "This team is beatable," Bunting said last week of Virginia, "if we play well. And we have played well at times."
The plan for the offense was to work true freshman Mahlon Carey into the lineup at tailback with the injuries to Jacque Lewis and Andre Williams, to attack Virginia's six-under, two-deep zone defense with patience, with short passes and a running game that hopefully could grind out four-yard runs regularly.
The plan was to work with QB Darian Durant on his game management, the one soft spot in his sophomore year performance so far. Once Durant worked through center-exchange problems early in the year and that rash of fumbleistis against Miami (Ohio), he's performed well physically. It's his mental game that's needed tweaking -- his ability to get players into the right places, to make the correct checks at the line of scrimmage, to make the proper decisions on throwing or running or heaving the ball out-of-bounds.
The plan was for the defense to do fewer things and do them better against a Cavalier offense that uses few personnel groups but more formations than the Heels had seen all year. The idea was to play more coverage and contain the Cavaliers' screen game and their potent running attack led by tailbacks Wali Lundy and Alvin Pearman.
The plan included the element of surprise -- the perfect fake field goal that called for holder John Lafferty to place the ball on the ground, then wait to see or feel a defender diving to block the kick before pulling up, rolling out and hitting Bobby Blizzard on the wing with a pass.
The plan was to continue to work the younger players into every slot possible across the board -- a Larry Jessup, for example, in passing situations at defensive end -- and to continue to hone their technique -- keeping defensive tackle Jonas Seawright low and beneath the pads of the offensive player blocking him, for example. Seawright can be effective when he stays low; he gets whipped around like a scarecrow when he does not.
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Running is a great salve for what ails you, particularly when you've just made another trip to that chamber of horrors in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Virginia's Scott Stadium, and endured another of life's dirty little tricks.
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The plan was to pull off the monumental upset and return to Chapel Hill buoyed and confident and ready for a nice little October-November run.
And the plans were working. Durant hit 10 passes in a row at one point and did not make a major miscue. Carey provided some spark to the running game. Sam Aiken, Chesley Borders and Jarwarski Pollock locked in every pass thrown their way. The defense held on six-of-eight third-down conversions, its best ratio of the year. Lafferty-to-Blizzard on an apparent 44-yard field-goal try by Dan Orner went for 24 yards and set up a touchdown just before halftime. The Tar Heels led 21-0 at intermission.
The Man obviously had a nice little chuckle at all that malarkey.
Virginia returned the opening kick-off of the second half 100 yards, Marquis Weeks slicing through a porous kick-off cover team on a hundred-yard sprint (Carolina is last in the ACC defending kick-offs with 27.8 yards allowed). Weeks sped from west to east across the field just as Antwan Harris did six years ago with his 95-yard scamper with an interception that turned the tide in what was amounting to a Tar Heel rout. So too did this play lift the spirits of the Cavaliers and their boisterous partisans.
"Some familiar things took place out there today," Bunting said. He was referring to last week's game when the Heels led 17-7 early the second half before State set off on a 27-0 run. This week the Cavaliers blitzed the Heels on a 37-0 run that had Carolina fans dredging their memories of other heartbreaks in Charlottesville while Bunting was off playing and coaching in the pros and Division III over the last two decades.
Last week's State game turned on a dime -- Durant's fumble at the four that gave State the ball and almost guaranteed the Wolfpack some points.
This week's did as well. Carolina recovered from that "smack in the face," as Bunting called it, to open the second half and drove deep into Virginia territory. But Aiken fumbled at the two, taking sure points from the Heels and further sprouting the seeds of doubt in their fragile psyches. If Carolina could have gone up 28-7 at that point, it could have been a different story. Instead, Virginia drove 98 yards in 12 plays to cut the lead to 21-14. With Durant's effectiveness at that point limited by a broken thumb, the momentum was clearly favoring Virginia.
The onslaught was on.
"Momentum can be a powerful thing," reserve quarterback C.J. Stephens said. "Good teams know how to turn it back when it shifts."
"Young players cannot respond sometimes when things turn against you," Bunting said. "We even had some older players lose focus. Hopefully, they'll learn in time."
I pondered the big picture and the lessons to be found amid the rubble as I pounded the sidewalks Sunday morning. I confess I have no deep revelations.
Humility? Is that the lesson? Are the trials of the Carolina basketball and football programs at the turn of the new century meant to teach us to appreciate the glory days when we have them and not consider them our birthright? When the Heels won the Peach Bowl following the 1992 season and then the basketball team prevailed in New Orleans in April, 1993, I remember thinking, "Cool. How about more?"
Compassion? The pain Tar Heel fans are experiencing is nothing compared to what the players and coaches must face. It's one thing to sit in the stands or lounge chair and issue edicts on which plays to call and personnel to substitute. It's another altogether to be in the arena getting bloodied about the face. "My heart breaks for him," Bunting said Saturday of Aiken and his fumble. But he could have been speaking for the entire team.
Patience? I have the market cornered on impatience, but I have a keen awareness right now how thinly supplied the Tar Heels are in quality and quantity of Division I players on defense now that Julius Peppers, Ryan Sims, David Thornton et al have departed. A solution to that problem comes only through outstanding recruiting over a period of years.
When Mack Brown was getting pummeled in 1988 and '89, his answer to anyone who wanted to know how long it would take to start winning again was simple and consistent: How fast can we sign a bunch of great players? Carolina signed enough over the next five to six years to stock the rosters of those seven straight bowl teams from 1992-98 and, most notably, Brown and staff recruited the 11 future NFL players who populated the starting defensive lineups in 1996 and '97. Anyone pondering the Heels' fates in 2002 need only look at the current defense and figure how many would have been taking snaps six years ago. Dexter Reid, certainly, and a healthy Will Chapman. But that's about it, particularly with Michael Waddell not having a very good year.
Bunting said last summer that the 2002 season could be one of the most challenging of his life. He had that right. It's his job to lead and motivate his staff and players through the forest and hopefully into the warm light of victory during the last five weeks of the season. More importantly, though, it's his job to recruit and sign what is in reality and perception an outstanding class of high school players. Carolina obviously needs more good players. But Bunting needs the world to perceive that he's signing good players as well -- given the success Chuck Amato is enjoying at N.C. State and Al Groh at Virginia. If Bunting can prove that he's getting a firm grip on this difficult business of recruiting, there should be no question that he'll be successful over the long term at Carolina.
Already the Tar Heels have 12 commitments leading toward the signing period in early February. Bunting obviously went through a learning process in his first full year of recruiting -- remember, Amato had 18 years at Florida State and Groh 17 at various schools before taking their current jobs -- and has had the courage to acknowledge he and his coaches made some mistakes during that year.
A number of changes to the overall recruiting operation have been made over the last eight months. Bunting has invested in a new computer system and software package to manage the flow of recruiting information and player tapes. Staff has been reallocated to concentrate on the management of tapes and correspondence. Bunting has seen the need to move the recruiting calendar up, to start offering players sooner. He and his staff have done a good job getting to know coaches at key high schools around the state where the Heels have traditionally had trouble signing players. Bunting even spent a couple of hours every afternoon while on vacation in Maine this summer hand-writing letters to recruits.
He also learned how important salesmanship is in hiring assistant coaches. Former defensive coordinator Jon Tenuta was a liability in recruiting because he didn't think Carolina was up to snuff with Ohio State, his former employer and the school Tenuta had followed since boyhood, and Bunting was careful in replacing him -- as well as offensive line coach Robbie Caldwell, who went to Vanderbilt -- with men who were excellent talent evaluators and salesmen in addition to being good coaches. Hal Hunter and Jim Fleming give every indication they'll be winners in recruiting -- Hunter particularly in the difficult realm of projecting offensive linemen and Fleming in working the Mid-Atlantic.
Anyway, I don't know if you feel any better following the debacle at Virginia. A good run and a little philosophical waxing seem to help me. I might get pretty good at both before it's over.
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Many Tar Heel fans enjoyed Lee Pace's FANStore and assorted other locations on Franklin Street. To order by phone, call (800) 554-6862.
Extra Points will be published 16 times during the 2002-03 subscription cycle -- on the Mondays following 12 regular-season games, in addition to pre-season, bowl/post-season, recruiting and spriing practice issues. Subscriptions are $30 per year, payable by check, money order or Visa/MC. The newsletter is available in its entirety each week at no charge right here at TarHeelBlue.com.
Lee Pace, Carolina '79
Editor & Publisher
101-A Aberdeen Dr.
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
(919) 933-2082 | lpace@nc.rr.com
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. Download Free Acrobat Reader
