University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Pain Gets Worse
November 24, 2003 | Lucas
Nov. 22, 2003
By Adam Lucas
After a 2-10 season, after a last place finish in the ACC, after a fourth defeat of the 2003 season by a score or less, you probably thought you were numb to the pain.
But then the final seconds ticked off the Kenan Stadium scoreboard after Saturday's 30-22 loss to Duke, and you realized it could get much worse. Several Blue Devil players sprinted across the field toward the Victory Bell, ready to claim what was rightfully theirs. No matter how bad this season was, no matter what an overlooked trophy the bell might be, it stung more than a little to watch Duke wheel the light-blue-painted trinket off the field, pausing right in the middle of the turf on the 50-yard line to celebrate their first win over Carolina since 1989.
The guess here is that the bell will be wearing a new coat of dark blue paint before the sun comes up tomorrow. And when the sun comes up in Chapel Hill--and it will, no matter how it felt Saturday afternoon about 4 p.m.--it will be time to answer some important questions about Tar Heel football.
Some will call for the job of the head coach, as they always do whenever their team doesn't win the national title, but here it is in plain simple language: John Bunting is going to coach North Carolina next season. Athletic director Dick Baddour made a point of standing next to Bunting as the alma mater was played after the game, a symbolic gesture to go with all the verbal votes of support he has given his head coach this year.
But this is not a program that wants to make a habit out of losing to Duke, no matter what kind of inspired football they are playing under head coach Ted Roof. For the first time in several years, the Blue Devils went through pregame warm-ups looking like a team that actually believed they could win the game. Over the past couple of seasons, Carolina has won this game largely by showing up.
That wasn't the case Saturday afternoon in Kenan Stadium, as the Blue Devils blitzed out to a 23-0 halftime advantage in what was, for Carolina fans, an abysmal first half. The defense will get most of the blame--and some is deserved--but it didn't help that the offense couldn't keep the defense off the field by stringing together any first downs.
The Tar Heels' running game had made significant progress over the past few weeks, but the ground troops regressed against Duke to the point that the leading rusher for Carolina in the game was punter David Wooldridge, who dashed 24 yards on a shrewd fake punt call in the fourth quarter. Ronnie McGill picked up just 18 yards on eight carries and was largely missing in action in the second half, when the Heels had fallen so far behind that there was nothing to do but fling the ball all over the field in the hopes of a desperation comeback.
Unfortunately, Darian Durant didn't have his best day flinging the pigskin. He missed high, he missed low, he held the ball too long, and in snuffing the last-gasp drive of the game, he missed directly into the arms of a Blue Devil. Durant has kept the Heels in several games this year, but in this one, he looked rattled almost from the first snap.
Give some credit to the much-criticized Carolina crowd, who showed up nearly 50,000 strong and even had a witty moment when referee Tom Zimorski announced, "There is a whistle in the stands. We need to stop blowing the whistle in the stands," a request that was met with...thousands of whistles.
Sadly, that was the high point of the day. To sum it up: shaky defense, shaky ground game, shaky quarterback play. It doesn't get much worse than that.
Until you have to watch a joyous group of Duke Blue Devils celebrate around midfield at Kenan Stadium with the Victory Bell.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.
