University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: A Few Plays Short
November 14, 2005 | Football
Nov. 14, 2005
By Lee Pace
It was a fascinating perspective, this opinion emanating from a senior on the 1980 ACC championship squad of the Tar Heels. The stories, memories and good times had been rolling for several hours Friday night as several dozen players convened for a 25-year anniversary celebration, and one them looked back on the vault of talent assembled in Kenan Stadium in the mid-1970s by Bill Dooley and the early-1980s by Dick Crum.
You know the names: Famous Amos and Kelvin Bryant, LT and Steve Streater and William Fuller, and surely one of the finest collections of offensive linemen ever in baby blue in the persons of Rick Donnalley, Ron Wooten and Dave Drechsler.
"What the last era of the Dooley boys have had to live with for 25 years is that, at one time, we were right there with Florida State," Walter Sturdivant says. "We were as good as they were."
You can look it up:
From 1976 through 1982, Florida State's record was 59-22. Those were coach Bobby Bowden's first seven seasons in Tallahassee, and his records were 5-6, 10-2, 8-3, 11-1, 10-2, 6-5 and 9-3.
And the Tar Heels in that same span?
Fifty-nine wins.
Twenty-two losses.
And two ties.
Dooley posted marks of 9-3 and 8-3-1 in his last two years at Carolina, and Crum's tenure opened with seasons of 5-6, 8-3-1, 11-1, 10-2 and 8-4.
"We had it going," Sturdivant continues. "What talent. If we could just have kept it going ...."
The thought trails off into the land of "what-ifs."
Bowden, of course, was laying the foundation for one of the finest programs in college football over the coming two decades.
And the Tar Heels were enjoying one of their many peaks but already in the process of ebbing into one of their equally frequent valleys. Crum couldn't sustain the momentum, the program backed and filled and has since enjoyed the Mack Brown peak and suffered through the valleys of Carl Torbush and John Bunting.
Saturday against Maryland, the Heels continued the laborious process of scrapping and clawing their way back to the big-time. They came into the game with a modicum of swagger and confidence, having beaten N.C. State, Utah, Virginia and Boston College and avenging losses from 2004 against the latter three.
But they're still not there, not quite.
The Terrapins struck gold with two late touchdowns to erase a 10-point deficit and then kicked a field goal in overtime to escape Kenan Stadium with a 33-30 victory.
"It's a pretty numb feeling, and it should be," quarterback Matt Baker said. "It was a tough one to take. But come Sunday, this one is over and it's on to Duke."
"That's about as painful a loss as we've had around here in terms of being so close but so far," Bunting said. "There's a lot of players in our locker room who played their hearts out and gave everything they had to win the football game. One team had to go home a loser, and it was us."
The stage was set perfectly, with the Tar Heels at 4-4 overall and taking a measurable step forward as a program against a severe schedule. One Boston College assistant coach last week told a member of the Carolina staff: "Your team's exactly like us, only we've played Army and Ball State." Bunting drew encouragement from looking at composite won-loss records of the 11 schools competing for the ACC title over the 2004 and '05 seasons and seeing the Tar Heels at fourth with an 8-5 record against league competition behind Virginia Tech 12-2, Florida State 11-4 and Miami 9-4 and ahead of Georgia Tech 8-6, Virginia 7-6, Clemson 7-8, Maryland 5-8, State 5-9, Wake Forest 4-11 and Duke 1-14. A win over the Terrapins and a date with the lowly Blue Devils the following week would assure the Tar Heels of six wins, a winning record and a likely bowl date, no matter what happens Nov. 26 at Virginia Tech.
Bunting played every motivational card in his arsenal, having the 1980 alumni gather on the field pre-game to help form the tunnel for the Tar Heels to run through prior to the kick-off. Bunting altered his usual Friday night routine of joining his players at the movies to instead gather with three dozen pieces to that 11-1 puzzle from 1980.
"We're all Tar Heels," Bunting said in a brief but heartfelt address to the team. "No matter what your era, no matter who your coach, we all sweated and bled on that field in Kenan Stadium. That bond is important and it's something that will last forever."
That 1980 team and those mid-1990s Top Ten teams are the promised land viewed from the middle of the pack today.
But the Tar Heels are still not there, not quite. Everywhere you look on the team in the aftermath of Saturday's loss, there's one play here, one play there, that converted could have meant victory for Carolina.
A missed sack by a defensive end leads to a Terrapin touchdown. A cornerback bites on pump-fake and then is a step slow and gets beat for a touchdown. Another cornerback can't catch an interception in overtime - a ball available in the air as if it had been thrown to him, not to the Maryland receiver. A senior receiver fumbles the ball after a big catch thrusts Carolina onto Maryland's half of the field. Another senior drops a fourth-quarter pass that could have led to a touchdown instead of Carolina settling for a field goal. The team's star receiver looks over the wrong shoulder at first on a crucial fourth-quarter pass, disrupting Baker's aim. A center-snap is too high on an overtime field goal, throwing Connor Barth's timing off and precipitating the game-ending miss. The quarterback tries a risky pass into the end zone on third-and-six when another receiver is in space 10 yards over the middle with plenty of room for the first down and more.
Excellent teams make these plays.
Average teams have weeks where they make enough to win, others when the fine line between victory and defeat is navigated to the downside with one mistake too many.
"We must have had too much Vaseline on our hands," defensive tackle Kyndraus Guy said. "We just let it slip away."
"We were just one or two plays short," Bunting said.
Then, moments later, "We didn't finish a couple of plays on defense. That's a shame, because we played so well."
Carolina did many good things, just not enough. His confidence renewed after an outstanding game against Boston College, Barth connected on three field goals. Baker completed 25 of 40 passes, had no sacks and no interceptions. Catches were spread among the receivers, with Mike Mason having his best game in some time with three catches for 72 yards and a touchdown. Guy and Kareen Taylor had big plays on defense, intercepting passes to set up one touchdown and score another. Senior Chase Page played well at defensive end for 15 snaps in a stop-gap personnel move after a concussion forced Brian Rackley to the sideline against BC and a sprained ankle sidelined Hilee Taylor in the second quarter.
Nine games into the season, injuries and depth are becoming an issue for the Tar Heels on defense. Jacoby Watkins and Doug Justice have been lost for the year. Reserves Melik Brown and Jeff Longhany have missed two games. Shelton Bynum left the game in the third quarter with an ankle sprain but is expected back this week. Taylor never returned and is questionable for Duke. Fortunately, the Tar Heels are deep enough that they haven't imploded over a few personnel problems. But they're not deep enough to be able to stand much more stretching of the rubber band.
"We've been a resilient team all year," Bunting said. "The quarterback played well. He was more aware, he's gotten some of his confidence back. Other receivers beyond Jesse Holley got involved. That's good. The defense played well except for two plays. I'm really disappointed in those two plays. They cost us the game. We've got to get good enough that we don't make silly mistakes like that."
The Tar Heels conclude their home season with a 1 p.m. kick-off against Duke, then travel to Blacksburg the following week to face Virginia Tech.
"We're going to come out of the corner punching," Holley says. "The next opponent's Duke, so put the boxing gloves on, we're going to go out and throw jabs at Duke."
And so the quest continues to get good and stay good - just like Florida State did, and Carolina did not, a quarter of a century ago.
Send your questions about Tar Heel football to Lee Pace at leepace@nc.rr.com . Questions may be used either in Friday's TarHeelBlue.com mailbag or in a special pregame segment on the Tar Heel Sports Network on Saturday. Please include your first and last names and hometown. Individual replies are not possible because of volume of mail received, and names of recruiting prospects and commitments cannot be published on a school-sponsored site until the national signing day in February. The Q&A column will appear each Friday during the season.
