University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points Friday
October 4, 2002 | Football
Oct. 4, 2002
By Lee Pace
The mailbag has been full this week with questions and concerns about every facet of Tar Heel football -- down to the little Tar Heel logos applied to the back of helmets to award individual plays. Most of the issues understandably have dealt with the performance of the Tar Heel defense, which allowed 11-of-17 third-down conversions and did a woeful job tackling Georgia Tech ball-carriers during a 21-13 loss Saturday.
The secondary, thought to be a strength of this year's team, is getting much of the heat. I confess to thinking back during the game and trying to remember when Carolina had been so soft in the defensive backfield -- back when opponents made jokes about "flying the friendly skies of Carolina." A succession of great defensive backs like Thomas Smith, Jimmy Hitchcock, Omar Brown, Dre Bly and Robert Williams over the last decade has gotten Tar Heel fans spoiled.
Before beating up the secondary too much, however, a couple of points need to be made. In fairness, we should never break a defense down by position and say that one component is strong and another is weak. The responsibilities of each one are intertwined with the others. If one position appears to be playing poorly, it might be because another one is not doing its job.
Take the vaunted Tar Heel defense of 1996, which unveiled the tandem of Bly and Williams at cornerback playing in-your-face, bump-and-run coverage. They were certainly gifted players -- extraordinarily so. But the fact is that Carolina was so strong upfront that quarterbacks rarely had time to find the players Bly and Williams were covering. Former Tar Heel assistant coach Darrell Moody was offensive coordinator at Clemson when the Heels toasted the Tigers, 45-0, on opening day. He can show you tape of receivers who had beaten Bly and Williams that day and were poised for big gains. The problem was that quarterback Nealon Greene was getting hammered before he could throw. The Tar Heels rotated eight players in and out all day along the front four -- there was somebody fresh and experienced in the game on every snap.
This year's team isn't generating that pass rush. Chase Page, Jocques Dumas, Kendall High, Jonas Seawright, Tommy Davis and others are getting their first exposure to big-time college football this season. They need time to develop their skills and put on weight and strength. When these guys improve, the secondary will improve as well.
Cornerback Michael Waddell has admittedly had two bad games running and was benched for the second half of the Georgia Tech game. It might be that Waddell, despite all the recruiting hype prior to his signing in 1999, will in the end never match the abilities of the Blys and Williamses. The jury's still out. Waddell's problem now is mental. He lacks confidence and is playing timidly. One bad play leads to another. You start pressing and trying too hard. You think too much instead of letting your natural instincts flow. All athletes go through these slumps. Rest assured the coaching staff is doing everything it can this week to help pop him out of it.
A number of questions have come in about specific players on defense -- why isn't this player on the field more, how is that player doing? Here in one fell swoop is an overview of some defensive personnel issues.
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What was the thinking at the end of the first half, when we punted instead of going for it on fourth down? We had the ball in their territory with 45 seconds left -- enough time perhaps to get into field goal range but not enough (barring a disaster) to give up a score. Rather than go for it on fourth-and-short, we call a time out, try to run a trick punt formation and get called for an illegal shift (for that we needed a time out?). What gives?
Peter Howard, Danville VA
Your key words there are "barring a disaster." Unfortunately, the Tar Heel defense was not playing well. Bunting wanted to score, obviously, but he also didn't want to risk being down any more than 14-13. He hoped that getting to halftime, going over some Xs-and-Os in the locker room and settling things down would bode well for the second half. "I thought at the time we'd win the second half, and win it big," Bunting says. If the Heels had gambled on fourth down and lost, Tech might well have driven into scoring range, and a last-second field goal or TD would have been a devastating end to the half. So Bunting first called for the punt team to try to draw Tech off-sides; the Yellow Jackets had shown a tendency to jump in that situation. It didn't work, unfortunately, so John Lafferty then punted the ball away. That situation boils down completely to the amount of confidence you have in your defense at the moment.
What are your thoughts with Carolina's offensive play-calling this year so far? I understand the defense's problems, being so young and inexperienced this year, but the offense is a predictable offense so far this year. Where are the play actions, the bootlegs, the reverses, that keep a defense guessing what the offense will do next? Is Carolina's offense unable to execute such plays because of its youth?
Nelson Butts, Creedmoor
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Brown handled the play-calling during the second-most prolific period of offense in Tar Heel history -- that 1992-94 stretch, when the Tar Heels used the three prongs of power, option and downfield passing to average 414 total yards and 30 points a game (the 1981-83 offense notched 430 yards and 30 points a game). Brown used to say all the time, "Play-calling is the most over-rated thing in football." Moody was the offensive coordinator at the time and ran the offensive staff meetings and practices and directed organization of the game plan each week. Brown watched enough tape of the opponent to know its tendencies and stepped in on Saturdays to call the plays. Brown's point was that if you have good players playing well, the plays work.
Criticism of the play-calling is in the eye of the beholder. Every opinion is legitimate. If you tape the game and watch it again, you'll find that the plays you didn't think were called were indeed called -- but they didn't work for one reason or another and looked like a stupid play call. The misdirection package of bootlegs and naked roll-outs have actually been a big part of the Tar Heel offense this year; they were integral in the offense's terrific second-half performance in the win at Syracuse. The Heels have called one reverse, and Chesley Borders sprung it for 17 yards against Texas. Gadget plays generally work better as the season develops. For a misdirection play or one with a fake element to work, the original play has got to have proven effective. The opponent has to have studied a sweep, for example, and seen that it works in order to pursue ferociously in the direction of the sweep and thus be out of position for the reverse that swings back around. Gadget plays are tendency breakers. An offense has to have established those tendencies before the opposite works.
Why are we not seeing Madison Hedgecock running the ball as Bunting himself
promised? He had one carry for 11 yards and then never gets the ball again the rest of the game. What's up with that? First-and-10 at the 25 yard-line and we throw three straight times. Give the ball to No. 44!
Jeff Braddy, High Point, N.C.
Hedgecock, the Tar Heels' junior fullback, was indeed the subject of frequent comments from Bunting in the off-season, and he's been a part of their offensive plans from the opening of pre-season camp. Tranquill, however, has taken a conservative approach to working Hedgecock into ball-handling situations because Hedgecock has made more mistakes in practice than Tranquill would like to see. Bunting addressed this issue at his weekly news conference Tuesday, saying, "Madison ran the ball for 10 yards Saturday and then got a procedure penalty the next play. He's had three touches this year -- a fumble, a procedure penalty, a 10-yard gain. He's batting .333. I'm not giving up on him. I'm a big Madison Hedgecock fan. But he's got to cut out the mistakes."
Why did Bunting do away with the little Tar Heel emblems on the helmets? FSU has their tomahawks, State their Wolfheads, OSU their Buckeyes, etc. Does John not believe in individual recognition of big plays?
Bill Littlejohn, Clemmons, N.C.
Bulls-eye with your surmising on the disappearance of the little stickers known as "Atta-a-Boys." They were given for outstanding individual plays, and Bunting believes they take too much attention away from the team concept.
We still can't seem to generate much with our return game. Any changes likely with the kick returners?
Greg Romine, Statesville N.C.
Kick returns have definitely been poor this season. The Tar Heels rank seventh in the ACC in kick-off returns with 17.8 yards per return and are ninth in punt returns at 4.5. I think we're close to seeing Sam Aiken get a shot returning punts, which he's done before. Waddell will probably get another opportunity, as the Tar Heels have had a couple of returns blocked well and the coaches have worked with him the last two weeks on making the proper decisions once he fields the ball. Bunting said this week that freshman Wallace Wright might be the next guy to get a chance at kick-off return after freshman Derrele Mitchell has returned the most kicks this year (seven for an average of 20 yards).
"I'm not happy with kick-off returns," Bunting says. "Who is the guy? Who will hit it up in there? We'd hoped Derrele would be the guy. So far, he's not. We need a kamikaze player, someone absolutely fearless in there. We've had it opened, but the return man's not seen it. There's the crack, and he's looking somewhere else. You might see Wallace Wright in there. I think he'll blow it up in there."
TarHeelBlue.com football expert Lee Pace will again answer your questions about the Carolina program this season in an exclusive column published each Friday. Pace, editor of the Extra Points newsletter that appears each Monday morning, will answer your questions on personnel, strategy, opponents and anything on your mind about the Tar Heels. Please send your questions to Lee at lpace@nc.rr.com, and include your first and last names and your hometown.
