University of North Carolina Athletics
Pace: Chez Whiz Turns In Remarkable Play.
October 7, 2002 | Football
Oct. 7, 2002
The following is an excerpt from Lee Pace's latest edition of Extra Points. To read more about the Arizona State game, click here.
By Lee Pace
Over two decades of covering college sports in general and Tar Heel football in particular, I'm frequently amused and a little amazed at the creativity of coaches in devising drills to help teach players and simulate game conditions. Running backs have carried footballs covered with silk to help them pay attention to handling the ball. Carolina's defensive tackles spend time each week practicing batting down balls thrown by a quarterback. Linebackers practice fielding interceptions off of tipped balls. There is nothing too microscopic to attend to on the practice field.
I didn't find it surprising, then, to see Chesley Borders' remarkable catch for the game-winning touchdown Saturday come straight from a one-handed catching drill from receivers coach Gunter Brewer.
Frequently during August pre-season camp and then each Thursday during the season, the Tar Heel receivers work one-on-one against defensive backs catching a pass one-handed while fending off the DB with the other hand. The receiver runs a "go" or "streak" route, where they're essentially racing straight downfield to field a home-run ball. The odds are in that situation that the defensive back will be using his hands, perhaps trying to subtly tug on the receivers' jersey out of eyesight of the officials, or maybe applying a jab move to knock the receiver off stride.
The receivers' only recourse is to knock the defenders' hand-action away. It's essentially a sprinters' version of the game of patty-cake being played in the trenches -- the O-lineman jabs with his hands into the defenders' chest, the defender knocks the hand thrusts away.
So here's the to-do list for the receiver, all in the span of about three seconds: Run the route. Look for the quarterback. Beat off the DB with one hand. Catch the ball with the other. That's exactly what Borders did Saturday with Carolina at its 26 yard-line, less than three minutes to play, trailing by four points. Only Borders had to do a little improvising as well.
Tar Heel QB Darian Durant dropped back and first looked to his left for Sam Aiken, who was covered. Then Durant got flushed by pressure and looked to the right for Borders, who had run a streak route but stopped to see what Durant was going to do.
"I was yelling for Durant to run the ball and keep the chains moving," Brewer said.
"I thought he was going to run it," John Bunting said.
Borders had two options: Come back toward Durant, which is what he's taught to do when a pass play breaks down. He can catch a shorter pass or help throw a block if the QB keeps. But Borders' instincts told him to take off long. ASU cornerback Mike Davis did an excellent job reacting to Borders and covered him step-for-step, some 30 yards downfield.
Durant made a split-second decision, seeing Borders streaking long and decided to throw it. Sure enough, Davis was all over Borders' backside with both arms. Borders fended him off with his left arm and reached with his right to catch the ball, perfectly thrown just to Borders' inside. Davis's aggression was so overt that he fell down as he reached to keep up with Borders and was flagged for pass interference.
"What should I do -- come back to Durant or go deep?" Borders said, reviewing the thought process. "My instincts said to go deep, try to get separation. Durant made a great throw. It was up to me to make a play."
I had left the press box to move to the sideline for the last five minutes of play and luckily was standing right in front of Borders as he caught the ball at the 20 yard-line. At the time, so perfect was Borders' action with his left hand that I feared he might have been the one flagged for interference. Later, watching it on tape, it was clear Davis was the aggressor and Borders was just trying to get a little air to make a catch. Had he missed the catch, Carolina would have benefitted from a 15-yard penalty, but who knows what might have happened back on the 41 yard-line.
Instead, Borders caught the ball, Davis was in the grass and no one was near Borders. He could have walked in from there. An amazing play -- and to think, every aspect of it was planned for and practiced back in August.
Saturday's game was a breakthrough of sorts for Borders, the fifth-year senior known as "Chez" to his teammates and coaches. He'd had only eight receptions this fall, less than half the number of Aiken, and had yet to score a TD. As the flanker, Borders usually plays to the side of the tight end and thus gets the opponents' teeth of its pass defense. Arizona State, however, used its one proven cornerback, R.J. Oliver, to shadow Aiken. Carolina got some mismatches with Borders on the trio of Brett Hudson, Josh Golden and Davis.
"Chez hasn't gotten as many opportunities this year, but when he got them tonight, he took advantage of them," Brewer said. "When he catches it, he makes things happen."
