University of North Carolina Athletics
FB Notebook: Tar Heels Preparing For Revenge Factor
November 13, 2002 | Football
Nov. 13, 2002
Carolina head coach John Bunting has been around football long enough to know the type of motivating factor revenge can be, and he's preparing the Tar Heels for just that this weekend when Carolina faces Florida State at 3:30 p.m. at Doak Campbell stadium in Tallahassee. Last year, a winless Carolina team stunned sixth-ranked FSU, 41-9, marking its first win against the Seminoles in 13 meetings.
Darian Durant passed for two scores, Ronald Curry threw for a touchdown and ran for another and Julius Peppers led a Carolina defense that allowed just 34 second-half yards.
"Whether they have extra motivation or not, our players have to get ready to play our best ball game in order to have a chance," Bunting said. "My motivation for our football team is to try to get better this week.
"We're going to anticipate that they are motivated because they play for Coach Bowden. Coach Bowden's done a great job in college football -- one of the greatest of all time. So whether they have extra motivation or not for us, so be it. We've got to go down there and play."
Last year's contest was UNC's first home game of the season and came a week after its game against SMU was postponed due to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
The win was John Bunting's first as UNC's head coach and the loss was just Florida State's third in ACC competition. It was the Seminoles' worst regular-season defeat in 16 years.
Durant and Curry combined to throw for 232 yards and three touchdowns. Carolina amassed 301 total yards and held the Seminoles to just 224 yards, 190 of which came in the first two quarters.
It was just the fifth time in Florida State's last 235 games the Seminoles were held to less than 10 points.
The Tar Heels forced five turnovers, registered five quarterback sacks and held the Seminoles to just four of 16 on third down conversions. Peppers dominated the line of scrimmage as he made 10 tackles, including four for losses, one of which was his 25th career sack, and had an interception, his second of the season.
"We haven't forgotten what happened last year," FSU tailback Nick Maddox, a native of Kannapolis, N.C., told FSU's official athletic website. "But, I think the focus is going out and playing the best we can play. We are playing for goals that we want to meet this year, not trying to make up for last year."
Second Half Struggles
Since taking a 21-0 lead into halftime of the Oct. 19 game at Virginia,
Carolina has scored just 25 points in the last 14 quarters, including just
nine second half points.
Meanwhile, the FSU defense did not allow a point in the second half of the last two games and hasn't allowed a second half score since Notre Dame got on the board at the 11:05 mark of the fourth quarter on October 26, a streak of 71:05 minutes.
"Our young, young players are wearing out some and it can happen just about any time at this point," Bunting said. "It can happen sometimes in the middle of the first quarter, sometimes it's late in the second quarter and obviously three weeks ago it happened in two second halves."
McPherson and Pollock Together Again
FSU starting quarterback Adrian McPherson and Carolina wide receiver
Jarwarski Pollock will be back on the same field this weekend when the Tar
Heels battle the Seminoles. The two were teammates together at Southeast
High School in Bradenton, Fla.. Pollock was a two-year starter at wide
receiver at Southeast, where he was often on the receiving end of passes
from McPherson. Pollock caught 76 passes for 1,344 yards and 21 TDs as a
senior, while McPherson was named Florida's Mr. Football in
2000.
McPherson assumed the starting role two weeks ago and has helped lead FSU to back-to-back road wins over Wake forest and Georgia Tech.
"McPherson has given them a dimension," Bunting said. "He's come in and won a couple of ballgames. The players feel good about that. Everybody loves to play for a winner."
Waddell Is The Latest Tar Heel To Go Down
Cornerback Michael Waddell, who has 34 career pass break ups, was lost for
the final two games of the 2002 season when he went down in the first half
against Clemson with a broken left fibula.
"It's a fracture that I think he'll completely recover from," Bunting said. "We're really, really anxious to get him back, get him graduated and get him into our program again in the spring. He is real disappointed I think that he can't help out and play this week."
Waddell has started every game this season and has the longest active starting streak of any Tar Heel with 33 starts in a row. He leads the Tar Heels with two interceptions for 33 yards and eight pass break ups this season. He has 38 tackles, including 30 solo stops and eight assists.
Quick Hitters
Injuries to nine of Carolina's projected starters this season will cost the Tar Heels a total of 49 games (Robert Harris - 12; Eric Davis - 11; TB Andre' Williams - 8; DE Will Chapman - 5; QB Darian Durant - 5; DE Issac Mooring - 4; CB Michael Waddell - 2; LB Clarence Gaddy - 1; OT Willie McNeill - 1) ... Carolina's schedule is ranked the fourth most difficult in the country in the latest Sagarin rankings ... Sam Aiken needs 86 yards to break the single-season school record for receiving yards set by Octavus Barnes (970) in 1995 ... Aiken needs 115 yards to become the first 1,000-yard receiver in school history ... Aiken is attempting to become the first first-team All-ACC wide receiver at North Carolina since Earl Winfield in 1985 ... Dexter Reid had a career-high 22 tackles last week against Clemson after the coaches graded film ... Reid needs seven tackles to become the first Tar Heel to collect 150 stops in one season since linebacker Dwight Hollier in 1990 ... Carolina has never scored more than 18 points in a game in Tallahassee.
Ties To Florida
