University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Complete Performance Grounds Eagles
November 7, 2005 | Football
Nov. 7, 2005
By Lee Pace
Matt Baker cradled the football in the fetal position at midfield, the clock on the Kenan Stadium scoreboard winding down, thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven. On the Tar Heel sideline, John Bunting watched the numbers tick to victory, the Tar Heels' fourth against four losses, this one on Saturday over a Boston College team that was essentially the same squad that dusted the Tar Heels in a bowl game last December.
When the clock hit twenty-five, Bunting punched the air with his left fist, knowing the Tar Heels need not snap the football again. He ripped his headset off with his left hand, transferred his laminated game card from his right to left hand, turned to the home crowd and then ripped with air with a series of three vigorous fist pumps.
This is the interesting part: At no time during this outburst or in the ensuing minutes of afterglow did anything resembling a smile cross his face. What you noticed were the eyes burning, the mouth set like he was ready to hammer Tony Dorsett in the flat, the look that former Tar Heel teammate Flip Ray remembers seeing play after play 35 years ago.
"Just seeing John stare out from behind that facemask was all anyone needed for motivation," Ray says.
Inch by inch, week by week, game by game, this Tar Heel football team is taking on Bunting's personality. It's getting tougher, smarter and more resourceful. It's fighting back from extreme odds. It's winning some games few have given the Tar Heels a chance to win.
No wonder the coach occasionally lets loose with a burst of emotion.
"I almost threw my shoulder out," he said Sunday, allowing himself a smile. "It was sore all night."
Reflecting further on his thoughts at the time, Bunting noted the wins over N.C. State, Utah, and Virginia, each significant in their own right this year. But this one Saturday was yet another step in the overall building process.
"Beating Virginia was one thing," he said. "Beating this team, with all you hear about their program, that they're the big boys, that they're so consistent, that they win bowl game after bowl game, it was just great. And it wasn't easy."
It was made possible by the Tar Heels delivering what Bunting had been preaching all year, cajoling, scheming, battering and begging for: A reasonably complete game, with all three phases contributing to success and none of them sticking out like a blistered thumb.
"That was as near a complete game as we've played, and it came in a timely fashion," Bunting said.
Saturday's offensive performance failed to produce a touchdown. But QB Matt Baker & Co. did make significant accomplishments, however. The moved the ball enough, controlled it enough, to get into range for three field goals. They protected the ball, took good care of it and committed only one turnover, that one coming deep in Boston College territory and causing no field position damage. The Tar Heels had the ball 34 minutes and four seconds to BC's 25 minutes and 56 seconds. They had drives of 13, 16, 11 and 12 plays that gobbled up from five to nearly eight minutes. They cut down on the procedure penalties and were flagged only once for holding.
"We moved the ball today," Bunting said. "Time of possession was really significant."
Baker played his best game in more than a month, connected on two-thirds of his passing attempts and distributed the ball to nine players, including five wide receivers. He missed finding open receivers several times but nonetheless had a solid game. Offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill emphasized Baker improving his patience in the pocket last week, going through his progressions and being more disciplined in looking for his safety-valve receiver instead of ducking and running when the primary targets were covered.
"Coach Tranquill stressed staying in the pocket a lot this week," Baker said. "He wants me to shuffle, slide, move, find some help, rather than take it down and look for a running lane like I had been doing the last couple of weeks. I had a couple of good dump-offs today. I need to do more of that."
Jesse Holley was the star receiver, catching eight balls for 125 yards. He took one pass away from the arms of an Eagle defensive back. On another route in front of the Carolina sideline, Holley had the dexterity to home in on the pass coming his way, look down at his feet to insure he remained in-bounds, then look back up, find the ball and catch it.
"As long as Matt has confidence in me to come down with balls, it's my job as a wide receiver to make every single catch," Holley said. "I don't want to sound cocky or arrogant, but that's my job. I want to keep people from saying us receivers can't catch. So if I have to take the ball from the defense's hands, that's my job. It's what I have to do."
The Tar Heel defense allowed two scoring drives, a 63-yard march on the Eagles' first possession and an 80-yard assault at the end of the game. The first drive was a result of the Tar Heel defense needing to get adjusted to playing against Boston College's redwood forest of offensive linemen. The last one could have been snuffed easily if linebacker Tommy Richardson had been able to snare an interception that came his way near midfield.
"It took a little adjustment time against their mammoth offensive line," Bunting said. "There was no way we could script their size in practice. There was no way our scout team could give an accurate look of just how big and strong they were. We got knocked back that first drive because we were too high. We got our pad level down and played much better after that."
The Carolina defense snuffed the Eagles with four three-and-out series and three more possessions with only first down each. Seniors Tommy Davis and Richardson shared defensive MVP honors, with Davis notching two sacks. The Eagles gained just 100 yards rushing and posted 337 yards total offense, both significant improvements over the Continental Tire Bowl when they ran for 228 yards and generated a total of 477 in a 37-24 victory. One notable personnel change this week was the elevation of sophomore cornerback Bryan Bethea to a starting role ahead of Quinton Person, who started at Miami in place of Jacoby Watkins, who is out for the year with a broken foot. Defensive coordinator and secondary coach Marvin Sanders said last week he was giving Bethea an opportunity against BC because Bethea is sharp defending the run and the short passing game, two of the Eagles' specialties.
Bunting cited the Tar Heel linebackers as having their best game of the year, for one reason because Durell Mapp is maturing as the starting middle linebacker and the linebackers are consistently getting lined up correctly under the tutelage of coach Tommy Thigpen.
"You can't play that position unless you're lined up right," Bunting said. "You've got all these little subtle alignment changes you have to do based on what the offense gives you. We're getting better at that."
And then there's the kicking game, with Connor Barth and Wallace Wright supplying the star power against BC.
Bunting last week hung a photo of Barth's game-winning kick against Miami from 2004 in the meeting room used by the specialists. The image shows Barth's head down and his right leg fully extended through the ball, reminders of two of the bedrock fundamentals to accurate place-kicking.
"I think he was like golfers when we try to steer the ball, baseball pitchers steering the ball over home plate," Bunting said. "I told him, `Just swing at it. You know what you're doing. Don't over-analyze it.'"
Barth connected on two short field goals in the first half, one of 20 yards and the other from 22 yards.
"I just wanted to get that first one through there," Barth said. "That took some pressure off me."
He followed late in the third quarter with a 44-yard attempt that proved to be the winning margin. Needless to say, it was a relieved and loose Barth who visited with the media after the game.
"It's been difficult, it's been hard to stay up," Barth said of his 3-for-11 slump in 2005. "I've been talking to my dad a lot, to a bunch of my coaches. Everyone has been so supportive, especially my teammates. They've kept telling me how much confidence they have in me. It's awesome to have the support I've had from them. I'm just glad to break out today."
The Tar Heels planned a reverse on a kick-off return last week at Miami but scrapped the idea when D.J. Walker, who was to get the ball on the reverse, was injured early in the game. They put Cooter Arnold in Walker's spot and scheduled the reverse for the first kick-off return against BC. But the opening kick was a squib that Wright bobbled momentarily, throwing off the timing and nixing the plan for the reverse. He stepped through a couple of tackles, cut to the right side of the field, where the blocking was set for Arnold's return, and outran the Eagle defenders for a 90-yard score to open the game. Brandon Tate, who returned the opening kick-off against Utah for a score, threw a key block at the beginning of the return and then again downfield. Arnold adapted well when the reverse broke down; he simply bolted to the right side of the field and found someone to block as well.
"We'll probably see squib kicks the rest of the season," Wright said. "With Brandon and me, we've got the best return men in the ACC."
Barth even contributed elsewhere to the kicking game effort by making a crucial tackle at the 37 on the ensuing kick-off after Wright's score.
"I didn't know if he was going to juke me or not," Barth said. "He just ran me over, but I made the tackle. That was pretty cool."
Pretty cool indeed, this victory over Boston College.
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.
