University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: A Big Man
October 29, 2005 | Football
Oct. 29, 2005
By Adam Lucas
MIAMI--For just a moment, as the Orange Bowl appeared to be crumbling around him, Jarwarski Pollock looked like the tallest man in the building.
It was an optical illusion, of course. Pollock stands 5-foot-8 at best, so even some sportswriters dwarf him. He'd already removed his shoes and was standing in his stocking feet in a makeshift interview room beneath the Orange Bowl stands. Every time the wind swirled, an ominous creaking could be heard, followed by swirling peanut shells and other assorted trash raining from the sky. Just outside, roughly 30 feet away, were Miami's Oakland Raider-esque end zone fans (they'd almost certainly take that comparison as a compliment), who had serenaded the Tar Heels with a shower of crude comments as the team left the field.
Miami had just finished a 34-16 beating of the Tar Heels, a game that featured two diametrically opposed halves of football. But Pollock hadn't been brought out of the locker room to talk about the second half, when the Hurricanes put up 21 quick points and had to go only 30 yards to do it. He hadn't been brought out to talk about the impact Miami's Devin Hester had on the game--Hester, a special teams ace, didn't return a single kick and had just 19 punt return yards, but his mere presence on the field shaped Carolina's entire special teams gameplan and created fantastic second half field position for the Hurricanes.
No, Pollock--who as soon as next week may become Carolina's all-time pass receptions leader--was brought out to talk about a pass he didn't catch.
With 4:16 to play in the first half, there was very little energy inside the Orange Bowl. The entire area was still feeling the impact of Hurricane Wilma. Lines were long at gas stations, the upper deck of the stadium had to be evacuated "as a precautionary measure," and the crowd looked more like what you'd expect at an important high school game in the state of Florida. People in Miami understandably had more on their mind than University of Miami football.
There was just a whiff of the smell of blood in the air. Carolina led 16-7, was powering the ball over the Hurricanes on the ground, and had the football driving for another possible score. On third and 14 from the Miami 40, offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill decided to go for the big play. Matt Baker faded back, Pollock unleashed a shoulder-swiveling inside move, and he was in the clear. Baker released the ball at exactly the right moment, Pollock sailed past the secondary, and it was one of those perfect football moments when everything clicks.
Except Pollock dropped the ball, a miss reminiscent of Randy Marriott's drop in Kenan Stadium against Clemson in 1987. No sun in his eyes. No worry about an oncoming defender. Just a drop.
"I just dropped the ball," he said, looking everyone in the eye. "In my opinion it was the play that changed the whole game. We would have been up 23-7. I flat out dropped it. There was no excuse."
And there was no excuse from Pollock. Reporters tried to suggest some possible reasons for the drop--maybe the ball was out in front of him, maybe he took his eye off the ball, maybe he was looking ahead to see how much green grass was in front of him. He wasn't interested in any of those explanations.
In less than three minutes, he uttered the phrase, "I dropped it," at least five times. He never volunteered the fact that he was a player who cared so much about his senior season that he rushed back from knee surgery in order to play against Virginia. Never pointed out he'd played this game with a knee brace, the last remnant of that surgery--he'll remove it before next week's game against Boston College.
In his eyes, it was simple: he just dropped it. He was right that it changed the momentum of the game. Carolina was awfully close to placing their foot squarely on the throat of the Hurricanes, and that catch might have done it. It would have been the perfect story: Florida native is ignored by the three big in-state schools, called undersized, goes to North Carolina and comes up big by catching the game-changing pass against the mighty Hurricanes.
Know how many people Jarwarski Pollock had in the stands cheering for him Saturday? At least 30. That's 30 people who would have been slapping him on the back, 30 people dancing in the stands as their hero crossed the goal line.
And he dropped it.
"I asked him what happened and he said, `It was right on the money,'" Baker said. "I told him he owed me one. We were able to joke about it even though it wasn't anything to joke about. I've got all the confidence in the world in him."
Two weeks ago, Pollock was asked if he'd ever read a story about himself that didn't mention his height.
"Nah," he said, "but I'm used to it. I'm the little guy."
Maybe so. But on Saturday afternoon he did what a lot of football players, both college and pro, have refused to do. He did something he easily could have avoided: he took responsibility for a game-altering mistake without looking for anyone else to blame.
He was still 5-foot-8. But as he walked back into the locker room to face his teammates, he looked a lot bigger.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
