Extra Points Mailbag

November 25, 2005 | Football

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Nov. 25, 2005

By Lee Pace

Lots of Tar Heel fans want to know what it's going to take to beat Virginia Tech on the road Saturday night in Blacksburg. There are a multitude of factors in play Saturday at 7:45 when the Tar Heels and Hokies square off on ESPN. A few of them are these:

Any time you're playing a big game on the road, getting a break or two early helps to pop some of the emotion out of the crowd. If Tech does in fact build some momentum, the Tar Heels will have to maintain their composure exactly like they did in the third quarter at N.C. State.

Offensive communication will be important in a loud environment. The Tar Heels will be limited in the checks Matt Baker can make at the line of scrimmage and will rely on hand- and body-signals for plays and snap counts.

The defense must play Saturday night much as it did (and even better) a month ago against Virginia and its mobile QB, Marques Hagans. Virginia Tech features Marcus Vick, another athletic quarterback with the ability to motor on called running plays and to pick up acres of real estate when passing plays break down.

Quinton Person must play well at left cornerback. Since veteran starter Jacoby Watkins broke his foot and was lost for the year in the Virginia game, the Tar Heels have juggled Person and Brian Bethea in his place. Both have done some good things but neither has produced consistently enough to shore up the side of the field opposite senior Cedrick Holt, who's had an outstanding senior season.

Keep your fingers crossed that Tommy Davis, Melik Brown and Kentwan Balmer can handle the demands at defensive end with Brian Rackley and Hilee Taylor out for the game.

I have a question and then a request. I was all set for the Duke game moving rapidly along without TV timeouts Saturday, when the guy in a red shirt comes on the field and holds up play after changes in possession. Why was he there and what was he doing? Was he practicing for when games are televised? My request is after seeing the new Virginia Tech, Florida and now Miami uniforms, please, please, please tell whoever is in charge of uniforms to not let Nike redesign our football uniforms.
Hank Stallings, Charlotte

Even though the game was not televised, there are still media timeouts for radio. They are just not as frequent and as long as the timeouts for a televised game. The guy in the red shirt is hired and supervised by the ACC and is supplied for all conference games. His presence makes it easier for the coaches and players to know when a media timeout has been called and when there will be no pause between changes of possession.

You don't need to worry about a team coached by John Bunting wearing the squiggles, flares and ribbons that decorate many college uniforms today. Bunting will make certain concessions to the tastes of the age genre he's trying to attract to Carolina, but the issue of uniforms is not one of them. He likes the Carolina uniforms worn during his days as a Tar Heel 35 years ago - white pants at all times, blue helmets with the interlocking "NC" logo and a decided lack of clutter.

Let's give some well-deserved recognition to Matt Baker for the excellent job he's done this year. He passed for 335 yards against Maryland and, had his receivers not dropped balls several times, I believe he could have easily exceeded 400 yards. Matt has passed for 2,185 yards for the year, including the so-called "slump." Only three quarterbacks in the ACC have better passing yardage numbers - Drew Weatherford at FSU, Sam Hollenbach at Maryland and Charlie Whitehurst at Clemson. Considering Carolina's tough schedule against some of the best defenses in the country, Baker should be receiving our praises!
Darrell Key, Triad

Excellent points. For all of the knocks the Tar Heel offense has fielded this season, I'm sure more than one Carolina fan was surprised to learn Saturday that Baker had passed the 2,000-yard throwing mark for the season and in fact stands at 2,185 yards for the year. That's the sixth best career total in Carolina history - behind Darian Durant (2,551 in 2003), Mike Thomas (2,436 in 1995), Chris Keldorf (2,347 in 1996), Ronald Curry (2,325 in 2000) and Durant (2,238 in 2004).

Baker is smart, tough, has a good arm, decent running ability and is an outstanding leader. Still, there is nothing more difficult in sports than standing amid a furious pass rush and trying to find receivers and launch a decent throw. To do so well takes time to develop the feel and touch and instinct that cannot be replicated in practice. It is a shame that Baker arrived in Chapel Hill one year behind Darian Durant and had to spend so much time watching. He would be something to watch next year when he had a year of seasoning.

I really can't understand why, for two games running now, what the coaching staff is thinking with their play-calling and clock-management at the end of the first half. Against Maryland and Duke, we came out with enough time to go down the field and have an attempt at a touchdown. On both occasions, however, a running play was called initially, time was allowed to run down - with timeouts still available - and then on the very next play, a pass was called that went for a big gain. But not enough time was left to do anything other than call a timeout and kick the field goal. I'll take three over nothing, but why not come out with the mindset of getting seven and then settling for three if we have to?
Tim Wood, Benson

Carolina got the ball back at the 18 yard-line against Maryland with 1:11 left in the half and at the 23 with 1:06 against Duke. You are correct that Gary Tranquill did not come out with guns blazing and the two-minute offense running at full force. As deep as the offense was starting on its end of the field, an interception would give Maryland or Duke a short field and a good opportunity for points of its own going into halftime. So Tranquill opted for conservative running plays to begin each series. If they broke for a good gain, then it would be worth opening things up. And the runs would serve to lull the defense into thinking the Heels weren't going to try for anything before the half.

Maryland was set up perfectly for a play-action pass on the Heels' third snap, and Baker connected with a wide-open Mike Mason for a 44-yard gain to set up Connor Barth's 41-yard field on the final play of the half. Against Duke, a 15-yard completion to Justin Phillips after one running play got the Tar Heels some working room. Then a pair of connections to Jarwarski Pollock (one 32 yards, the second 18 yards) came close to the end zone, and the Tar Heels settled for another field goal on the final snap of the half.

"I think the strategy was great both games," says guard Kyle Ralph. "Both times the defense thought we were going to run the clock and we burned them."

I was wondering, and I didn't see it in any of the pictures posted from the halftime recognition, if Coach Dick Crum was in attendance for the 1980 team's remembrance on Nov. 12. I've heard of his supposed bitterness towards UNC, and who would enjoy the "being fired experience", but this being about his team, our team, wouldn't he want to have been there with them? Do we even know where he is these days? While I admit I was ready for a coaching change 1987, hopefully he is enjoying life and what he accomplished in coaching. I would hope he would let good outweigh the negative and consider himself, as he should, a member of the Carolina family forever.
Scott Hinson, Trinity, NC

Another reader inquired last week about the absence of Lawrence Taylor as well from the recognition ceremony at halftime of the Maryland game for the 1980 ACC championship team. The Carolina Lettermen's Association, the umbrella group for football alumni, conducted the event and invited both Crum, the Tar Heel coach from 1978-87, and Taylor, the All-America outside linebacker from 1979-80.

The invitation to Crum was extended by Athletic Director Dick Baddour, who knew Crum well from the late-1970s and early-1980s, when Baddour was assistant dean of undergraduate admissions at Carolina. Crum, who is retired and living in Ohio, called Baddour to say he appreciated the invitation. But he believed his first return to Chapel Hill since being fired/bought-out (take your pick, both have some validity) following the 1987 season might draw attention away from the players. He sent a letter to Dominic Morelli, a student manager on the 1980 team and today the head equipment manager, to read to the team at a Friday night social gathering.

Taylor has been estranged from the university and the football program for some time. The address and phone numbers on file in the Lettermen's Association directory were out-of-date, so Taylor did not know of the reunion until a handful of former teammates began calling him a couple of weeks before the event. Bunting tried to call LT and tell him that he was welcome to attend and, as a key member of that team, should certainly be there. The closest Bunting got was a 30-minute conversation with Paul Davis, a defensive lineman on that team who runs one of Taylor's businesses today.

There is no question that Taylor has a checkered personal history, but indications are in recent years that he has addressed some of those issues. The bottom line in Bunting's view is that as great a player as Taylor was in Kenan Stadium 25 years ago, he deserves to remain a part of the program.

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.