University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Half the Job
November 28, 2005 | Football
Nov. 28, 2005
By Lee Pace
Scroll back to last Wednesday's edition of "Extra Points" and you'll find the following two paragraphs at the end of the story:
The Tar Heels played an excellent game against Virginia Tech a year ago, falling 27-24 in the comforting environment of Kenan Stadium. Now comes the return trip. This game will be a good litmus test for John Bunting and the Tar Heels.
"Going up there and playing with these guys for four quarters, for 60 minutes, is going to be important for our football program," Bunting says.
How prophetic that view turned out. The Tar Heels did half the job Saturday night. They won almost half their games in 2005. And in the big picture of trying to restore Carolina football to the level of excellence it enjoyed a decade ago, Bunting is only halfway home.
The Tar Heels stood eye to eye with the nation's fifth-ranked program Saturday night in Lane Stadium for two quarters. They were aggressive on both sides of the ball. The offense used some motions, shifts and unbalanced fronts it had not shown before, and quarterback Matt Baker came off the goal line on the first snaps of the game throwing downfield. The defense blitzed frequently and effectively in the first half, prompting the Hokies to abandon the passing game in the second half. Carolina had a nifty fake punt ready to call, but the proper combination of field position and Tech alignment never presented themselves to prompt Bunting to give the green light.
The Hokies led at intermission, 6-3, but the Tar Heels had squandered 10 points by allowing a blocked field goal and dropping a touchdown pass in the end zone. Time of possession, yards gained and third-down conversions were roughly equal. Carolina was poised amid the viper pit that is Lane Stadium, where more than 65,000 fans generated more decibels than I've heard at any other ACC venue, including Clemson's Death Valley. It was an effort similar to the Tar Heels' first half at Miami one month ago, when they went to intermission nursing a 16-7 lead; that performance was also nicked by a second-quarter drop of a sure TD pass by the Heels.
"We had the opportunity to do something special," Bunting said. "That's been our theme since we left Chapel Hill on Thursday afternoon. Obviously, our kids responded in the first half. They played with a lot of emotion in an incredible environment."
But Bunting's program in his fifth year is not near where Tech coach Frank Beamer's operation is in his year No. 19. Bunting, with a 24-36 record through five seasons, is closer to where Mack Brown was at Carolina after four years (15-28-1 from 1988-91) and Beamer was after six years in Blacksburg (24-40-2 from 1987-92). The Tar Heels have some good players. But they don't have nearly enough.
With the inaugural championship of the ACC Coastal Division and a potential Orange Bowl bid hanging in the balance, the Hokies got serious early in the third period and surgically pounded the Tar Heels to a pulp, turning a tight game into a 30-3 rout.
"Teams like that, you let them linger around, they can end your season," Tech defensive end Darryl Tapp said of the Hokies' second-half mission statement.
Tapp was a constant impediment to the Tar Heel offense and QB Matt Baker throughout the chilly night, notching two sacks, two breakups and innumerable hits just as Baker was releasing the ball.
"We knew they would stick it to us at some point," Baker said. "We wanted to go out at the beginning of the third quarter and make something on our first drive."
Instead, Carolina punted after six snaps, the only successful play a 12-yard scramble by Baker. Then the Hokies unleashed every positive atom of energy they had developed over the years, climbed every building block that represents a perennial Top 10 program. They are talented, tough, mature and they know their identity (run the ball, use their stellar defensive front to generate heat on the quarterback, and get their hands on opposing kicks). And they feed off an electric atmosphere that featured the entire mass of Hokie fans standing for most of the game and saving one of their most vociferous yelling binges for a late-game, meaningless offensive threat by the Tar Heels.
Virginia Tech did just as Miami did in October in the Orange Bowl. It sent the Heels home with their tails between their legs.
Carolina had 18 yards of offense the third quarter. Tech had 126. Carolina scored no points. Tech posted 21. The Hokies alternated tailbacks Cedric Humes and Branden Ore and threw the ball only twice in the third quarter. A Tar Heel defense that had made significant progress in 2005 was helpless to stop the onslaught.
"I wish I had an explanation for our problems in the third quarter," Bunting said. "I just don't know. We have to work hard to try and figure out an answer to it. It's happened over and over and over again. Things start rolling the other way, they start snow-balling a little bit. They get short fields. We get backed up. We get a penalty or two, a missed pass or two. It's all very frustrating to me, the staff and the players."
The Tar Heels finish 5-6 and say goodbye to a class of 24 seniors, including scholarship players and walk-ons. Three of those warriors, Baker and defensive linemen Tommy Davis and Chase Page, sat answering reporters' questions late Saturday night. Each had assorted sprains and strains; their arms, hands, legs and faces were decorated with splotches of blood and blotches of bruises. They were representative of a leadership mindset for the 2005 team that encompassed passion for the game, unity among their teammates, hard work in the off-season and a single-minded focus to be as good as possible.
"These seniors set a superior work ethic around here," Bunting said. "That's something that's never happened before. They took work to another level in terms of preparation in the winter, in the spring. They helped changed the culture a little bit, a culture that five years ago did not expect to work as hard as we do today. They set a precedent for the way things should be."
Receiver Jesse Holley, certain to be one of the leaders on next year's team, looked at Davis, Page and Baker and pledged to help finish what that senior class started.
"Those guys are tough," Holley said. "You have to pull them off the grass to get them out of the game. Their motors are constantly going on and off the field. They are never in trouble. They're never on `the list' [for early morning running sessions]. They're never late for things, they do things the right way all of the time. Those are the things it takes to be a leader. They are consistent, on and off the field, and not just in front of the camera. When the camera's off - in the weight room, in meetings, on the practice field - they perform and they demand those around them do the same.
"That's what it's going to take to keep building this program to where it should be."
Where the program is right now is dead in the middle of the ACC. Carolina finished 4-4 in the league but was 1-2 out-of-conference against a thorny schedule that included Wisconsin (15th in the Sagarin football ratings), Louisville (19) and Utah (69). Within one game above or below the Heels are seven more ACC teams. Virginia and N.C. State are bowl eligible at 6-5, and the Heels can only look with frustration at the Cavaliers' non-league foes of Western Michigan, Syracuse and Temple and State's of Eastern Kentucky, Southern Miss and Middle Tennessee and wonder what's fair about that.
"No matter who we played, we gave everything we had," Baker said. "We left it all out there, all season long."
By the time you read this, Bunting will be working on staff issues (including the anticipated retirement of offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill), and seven assistant coaches will be on the road, tying up loose ends on what will be Bunting's best recruiting class at Carolina and evaluating juniors for the 2007 class. The Tar Heels need more tailbacks (they have one productive tailback, the Hokies have four, for comparison purposes). They need receivers who can consistently catch the ball. They need more blockers who can hold their own against the best defenders in the business. They have a good first-team defense; but as injuries took their toll as the 2005 season evolved, opposing offenses found and exploited weaknesses.
That's what it all comes down to in the end - talent. It always has and always will - particularly in the second half of close games.
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.
