Lucas: A Soggy Opener At Kenan

August 31, 2002 | Football

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Aug. 31, 2002

By Adam Lucas

At some point in what will be a lengthy career in Chapel Hill, John Bunting will advance the North Carolina football program to the point that the expected actually happens.

That time has not yet arrived.

Going into this season, there were a few things that you knew about the 2002 Tar Heels: the offense would be ahead of the defense, Darian Durant was solidly entrenched as the starting quarterback, and Carolina would tear up the Kenan Stadium turf with their running game.

But if Saturday's season-opener was any indication, this season promises to be as topsy-turvy as the 2001 edition, in which Carolina went 0-3 and then roared back to win the Peach Bowl.

"I've been around a lot of football in my life," Bunting said after Miami's 27-21 win. "I have never seen anything quite like that."

"That" included an ACC record-tying nine turnovers. "That" included only 94 yards of rushing on a day that seemed Hollywood scripted for a grind-it-out, smashmouth game. "That" included the Tar Heel defense having perhaps the best 27-point effort in school history. "That" included Darian Durant throwing for 279 yards and still being the subject of much postgame discussion.

Most of the defense, which rotated several high-motor players who consistently made plays -- including Chase Page and Kendall High -- looked encouraged after the game. The preseason whipping boys, the defense played with the intensity of a unit trying to prove a host of gloomy prognosticators wrong.

The offense, meanwhile, looked like they played three quarters of football on a Slip-and-Slide. One snap from center Jason Brown hit Darian Durant squarely in the facemask. Fullback Madison Hedgecock never touched the ball. Players fell down, balls were dropped, bad decisions were made. Tackles Skip Seagraves and Willie McNeill flopped sides of the line, but that was the least of the Tar Heel drama.

Down 27-14 with less than two minutes left, there wasn't much left to do but throw the second-string quarterback out there and let him sling the ball. C.J. Stephens proceeded to do just that, drawing Carolina to within a breath of a heart-stopping victory.

"I didn't have time to be nervous," he said. "In practice, we run the two-minute drill all the time. We were very well-prepared for that situation."

It showed. Stephens and Sam Aiken (who quietly had a monster game with eight receptions for 174 yards) hooked up on a 37-yard touchdown pass with 39 seconds remaining to draw the Heels within 27-21, leaving them no choice but to try a desperation onside kick.

Of all the Tar Heels who could have possibly recovered the ball, Michael Waddell was perhaps the least likely candidate. Maligned for his hands ever since his arrival in Chapel Hill, he trotted out as a member of the "hands" team and promptly fell on the loose ball.

"It was a play where we had to sell out to get another chance," Waddell said. "That's what I did, and luckily I came out with it. Everything goes on under that pile, you name it."

Stephens then fell mere yards away from an unprecedented come-from-behind win, before his last-second pass to the corner of the end zone fell wide of the intended receiver.

But the particular outcome of that pass didn't really matter, because Stephens had shown enough spark to make the media immediately ask Bunting about the quarterback situation after the game.

"We'll take a long look at Darian's performance," Bunting said. "And he's certainly a guy we have high expectations of, just as we do with C.J. I'm sure he's very disappointed with some of the decisions he made, and that's his strength."

That means another week of answering tiresome quarterback questions going into a road game at Syracuse next Saturday. It means a week of explaining how the defense turned out better than anyone thought

It means, in short, the unexpected. Which is exactly what's come to be expected.