Extra Points Mailbag

October 29, 2004 | Football

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Oct. 29, 2004

by Lee Pace, Extra Points

I was curious as to why Mike Mason is not more involved in the offense, especially with the recent suspension of Adarius Bowman. He seems to possess the speed and electricity to provide a spark for the offense. He is also a legitimate deep-ball threat. Also, what can you tell me about Barrington Edwards (who does he compare to as far his running style) and Calvin Darity (did he redshirt)?
J.P.Furr, Albemarle

Thanks for your question. Next to play-calling, the most popular query I receive from Tar Heel fans is, "Why isn't __________ more involved in the offense?" This year those questions have centered on Jacque Lewis, Chad Scott, Madison Hedgecock, Derrele Mitchell, Jarwarski Pollock, Matt Baker and the tight ends.

The simplest answer is that there is only one football and absolutely no way to get it in the hands of as many people as the players themselves, their parents, girlfriends and fans would like.

That said, Mason is clearly a talented player. He has great speed, good hands and a lot of confidence. Rest assured that he will be a target on deep throws the rest of the season. Whether Darian Durant finds him and connects remains to be seen.

The sophomore from Rocky Mount will make more plays as well as he matures and improves his abilities. He is clearly into a juke-mode far too frequently on kick-off returns. Once after missing a catchable ball at Utah two weeks ago, his immediate reaction was to pop up off the ground, pulling an imaginary flag from his pocket in the all-too-popular gesture used by players saying they wanted a penalty. That's a maturity issue.

Another reader heard coach John Bunting say that Mason had moved to "X-receiver" and wanted to know what that meant.

In the parlance of the Tar Heel offense, the "X" receiver is the split end, the "Z" is the flanker and the "Y" is the slot receiver if a third one is used. Mason had been playing "Z" and now is at "X."

It's a little too early to peg Barrington Edwards, the LSU transfer, and his running style, but suffice it to say that the Tar Heel defense gets a workout each day against him from the scout team. At 6-0, 215 pounds, he's the biggest tailback the Tar Heels have had since the Ronnie Robinson/Dominique Williams/Rufus Brown days of the late-1990s. But he's faster than those guys. Most significant is his spirit and infectious personality. Edwards, from Bowie, Md., will have three seasons of eligibility starting in 2005.

Calvin Darity, a true freshman from Tallahassee, is being redshirted at offensive line but is pegged by coach Hal Hunter as a player who will contend for significant playing time beginning next spring. Instead of being dispatched to the defensive field to run with the offensive scout team this fall, Darity has stayed with the first two offensive units on the offensive field.

"I see him developing much like Charlston Gray," Hunter says of the redshirt freshman guard who has played extensively this year. "I wanted to be able to coach Calvin for a year, keep him in the meetings, let him learn the game. Then next spring he should be a key player for us."

I saw my first game in Kenan Stadium in 1959. I have been a season ticket holder now for over 20 years. In all of those good and bad years, I have truly felt that as the season has played out, the Heels improved from game to game. As I think back over the 2002, 2003 and now the 2004 season, it just seems to me that our guys keep making the same mistakes and bad plays every game. I just do not see any improvement at all. I remember John Bunting as a player and how hard he played. I love his passion for the game and his love of UNC, but it has gotten to the point that it is not much fun to come to the games.

How do you feel about the team's progress? Please tell me that I'm wrong and just not seeing the improvement.

Ron Brookbank, Snow Camp

Bunting at his news conference on Tuesday addressed this very issue. His No. 1 goal over the final four games and final month of the season is to get better -- every snap, every practice, every game.

"We need to play better each of these four weeks," Bunting said. "I think we can and I think we will."

An old adage in the coaching business is an improved team over the course of the season is the mark of good coaching. Let's look at Bunting's four seasons at Carolina.

2001 - There is no question that team improved as the year evolved, rebounding from an 0-3 start to stage one of most remarkable stretches in Carolina history -- five straight wins, including a first-ever win over Florida State and total throttling of a decent Clemson team on the road. Admittedly the Heels stumbled with two losses late in the year to Georgia Tech and Wake Forest -- the latter implosion I still cannot believe given Carolina's 24-0 halftime lead. But the Tar Heels won their last two over Duke and SMU and beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl. Bottom line: Wholesale improvement as the year evolved.

2002 - Neither the offense nor defense improved during a 3-9 season. The offense was severely limited when Darian Durant was injured midway through the season and missed four games. Defensive end Will Chapman was lost midway through the season as well. For the Wake Forest game in late October, true freshman Mahlon Carey started at tailback, fullback Madison Hedgecock moved to defensive end because the Heels were out of bodies, and freshman offensive guard Kyle Ralph was pulled out of his redshirt year because of injuries along the offensive line. The "injuries and lack-of-depth" excuse was valid in 2002. Bottom line: No improvement, but good reasons for it.

2003 - The offense absolutely improved as the year progressed, even though the Heels lodged a very disappointing 2-10 record. Durant had proven early in his career that he could move the ball through the air. Last season, the Tar Heels developed into a reasonably competent running team. Freshman Ronnie McGill emerged as a quality tailback with sufficient speed, power and ability to protect the football and was running behind a talented and mature offensive line. That improvement on offense was even more significant given that the Heels were breaking three true freshman receivers into the lineup. The defense, of course, was another story. It was hard to see any improvement on that side of the ball, which is one reason Bunting reorganized his defensive coaching staff in the off-season. Bottom line: 50/50 split on the issue depending on whether you're talking offense or defense.

2004 - Though the Tar Heel defense played abysmally at Utah two weeks ago, it is easy to look across the lineup and see players who are getting better. Jacoby Watkins at cornerback is absolutely better than he was six weeks ago. Ditto for Melik Brown at end, Khalif Mitchell at end, Terry Hunter at tackle, Tommy Davis at end, Larry Edwards at linebacker, Kyndraus Guy at tackle. You cannot have watched Lionell Green in 2003 and then see him make a few plays this year and say he's not improved. Now the challenge for the defense is continue to improve individually as to mesh better as a unit.

The offense took a step backward at Utah, but when you lose three starters in the first 14 plays, you're in quite a hole. Three of the best defenses the Tar Heels have faced this year have been Virginia, Florida State and N.C. State. The offense was horrible at Virginia in the second game of the year. It played pretty well at FSU, gaining more yards than any Carolina team ever against the Seminoles, though problems in the red zone certainly blemished the outcome. And the offense had an outstanding game against the Wolfpack, notching 6.7 yards a snap against the defense ranked No. 1 in the nation at the time.

I think if you peel beneath the surface, in general the Tar Heels are improving as the seasons develop under Bunting. That will be easier to do in time as Carolina recruits itself back into having a quality roster full of five solid classes. That way the Heels can overcome the inevitable midseason injury/attrition problems that make that improvement hard to see.

It seems as one constant of the Carolina football team over the past two seasons has been the "constant change" of players from position to position, and then back to the original position, and then to another position. This has occurred throughout the entire defense, and the offensive line. I know through my experience that people develop more quickly playing and practicing at one position. I understand lack of depth, injuries, and poor play may necessitate adjustments. But at some point in time, the guys who have practiced and trained at these positions must be allowed to play; OR the coaching staff should be held accountable for having the wrong people in the wrong positions.
Ron Eure, Crofton, Md.

That's a fair question and a good one.

First, position changes along the offensive line are totally by the design of Hal Hunter. There is just one player on the offensive line today who plays one position only -- and that's center Jason Brown. He is so good and so suited for center that there is no reason for him to play another spot. Hunter purposely has everyone else learn two positions so that he has options when someone gets hurt -- and he's needed that versatility this year with various problems to Skip Seagraves, Steven Bell, Kyle Ralph and Willie McNeill.

The issue of Madison Hedgecock has certainly been an interesting one. When Hedgecock was moved from fullback to defensive end the week of the Wake Forest game in late October, 2002, he was struggling on offense -- both with assignments and handling the football. Carolina had major personnel problems at defensive end, so the idea was to get him on the field somewhere -- turn him loose and let him try to put his love of football, his aggressiveness and toughness to use. But Bunting promised Hedgecock then that he would have a chance to move back to offense. Bunting kept that promise and Hedgecock is having a dominating year as a blocking fullback, continues to be a bedrock of special teams and has had success as a ball-carrier given Carolina's injury problems at tailback. Hedgecock will play in the Hula Bowl in January and absolutely will get a shot at the NFL.

The movements of Mahlon Carey have been well-documented. Carey played as a true freshman at tailback in 2002 -- that a result of his desire to try that position first and Bunting's promise to him during recruiting that he could play there. All along, however, Bunting believed Carey had more potential on defense -- thus the move to safety last year.

Many other position changes on defense have been efforts to "rotate down," to get faster players into new positions.

If you think about the defensive food chain, in general the cornerbacks are the smallest players and the fastest. The free safety is a little bigger and a step slower than the cornerbacks. The strong safety is bigger still and yet another blink slower.

Next come the linebackers.

Then the ends.

And then the tackles.

Anytime you can take a cornerback and move him to safety and not lose from a size and strength perspective, you've theoretically improved your defense because it's faster overall. It's the same thing moving a safety to linebacker, a linebacker to end, an end to tackle. Carolina did exactly this during the spring of 1995 -- moving Marcus Jones from end to tackle and Omar Brown from cornerback to safety.

The same thing has been going on recently as well. Melik Brown has moved from linebacker to end. Guy has gone from end to tackle. Carey and Tommy Richardson have moved from safety to linebacker. D.J. Walker has jumped from cornerback to safety.

So there is indeed a method to the madness in every situation. Khalif Mitchell's swap from end to tackle when Chase Page went down with a preseason injury has been second-guessed and in fact did not work when Mitchell struggled to learn to play inside. But there again -- he's a true freshman. A junior might have made that stop-gap emergency move more effectively.

Why is no one mentioning that three of UNC's four losses have come against an outstanding UVa. team; a Louisville team that put over 30 points up against Miami and should have won the game; and Florida State. Those are three top 10 teams. And then we've got wins over William and Mary, a pretty good Georgia Tech team, and a very good N.C. State team. Looking back, haven't we done pretty darn good for such a young team?
Bob Orr, Raleigh

Actually, many people are aware of how viciously difficult the Tar Heels' schedule has been this year. But it does seem that many are not.

According to the Sagarin rankings, Carolina's schedule has been the most difficult in the nation, followed by Oregon State, Arizona State, Southern Cal, BYU, Florida State, Texas A&M, Clemson, Arizona and Washington. The combined record of Carolina's opponents is 52-22, including two unbeaten teams and three teams with just one loss. The records of Carolina's three non-ACC foes: W&M 5-2, No. 14 Louisville 5-1 and No. 9 Utah 7-0.

It's amazing how scheduling perception changes:

Tar Heel fans and the news media were screaming bloody murder in the early 1990s over Carolina's "unattractive" non-conference schedules that included Army, Navy, Ohio, Miami (Ohio), UTEP, Houston, TCU, VMI and Connecticut, among others.

John Swofford and Mack Brown, then the AD and head football coach, respectively, responded by beefing up the cache of the non-league slate, a philosophy continued by Dick Baddour and head coaches Carl Torbush and Bunting. Who would have known in the mid- and late-1990s when the Louisville and Utah series were scheduled that those schools would be so strong when they came onto the Tar Heels' schedule? Now you add new ACC members Virginia Tech and Miami, and there is little breathing room in the Tar Heels' schedule.

And it does not get any easier in 2005 -- at Louisville and home to Wisconsin and Utah.

I have frequently compared this season in the Bunting Era to the 1990 season in the Mack Brown era. Two wash-out seasons (2-20 by Brown in 1988-89 and 5-19 for Bunting in 2002-03) were followed by a need to show that recruiting is kicking in and the program is being stocked with quality players for the future. Brown's pivot season was indeed that 1990 squad that went 6-4-1. It did so against a schedule that did not include FSU, Miami or Virginia Tech in the ACC. And it did so against a non-conference schedule that included Miami (Ohio), Connecticut and Kentucky.

Suppose you took Louisville and Utah off the Tar Heels' schedule this year and replaced them with two of the following three that the 1990 Heels played: UConn (4-2 with a two-point win over Duke), Miami (5-3) or Kentucky (1-6).

The Tar Heels might well be 5-2 at this point and headed to a bowl game.

I am a Carolina boy born and bred and I am also a member of the US Army. My service has brought me to Texas where I currently reside. Unfortunately, not many Tar Heel football games get broadcast out here. I have noticed that ESPN GamePlan and Yahoo Sports have packages that allow members to watch games via the Internet. I am reluctant to sign up for these packages because they only ensure that I get to watch one or two Carolina games. If UNC had a package that broadcast all or most games over the Internet, I would be first in line to sign up every season. I doubt that I am the only one too. Is there any chance that my dream of getting to see the Heels play live every week will be realized any time soon?
Sgt. J.T. Forney, Austin, Texas

Unfortunately there is nothing of that nature in the offing as television contracts the ACC has with various networks protects certain time slots. "Carolina All-Access" broadcasts of the Tar Heel radio productions is the best way to follow the Tar Heels from a distance.

Send your questions about Tar Heel football to Lee Pace at lpace@nc.rr.com . Please include your first and last names and hometown. His Q&A column will appear each Friday during the season.