University of North Carolina Athletics
Countdown to Kickoff: Calling for Backup
August 20, 2005 | Football
Aug. 20, 2005
By Adam Lucas
John Bunting goes to Maine every summer to relax. The trip produces a rested Tar Heel head coach who is excited and recharged for the upcoming season.
Occasionally, it also produces a quarterback.
Bunting's cabin in Maine is approximately 20 minutes from Bridgton Academy, a prep school in North Bridgton where Joey Bozich was planning to enroll in August of 2004. He'd started just one year at Hinsdale Central High in Hinsdale, Ill., after sitting behind a talented 3-year starter, and didn't attend any camps before his senior year because Hinsdale had a new head coach who wanted Bozich to stay home and get more comfortable with the new offense. He was fully qualified academically but with only one year of experience, found it tough to break onto most recruiting radars. The year at Bridgton was supposed to give him a chance to catch the eye of college recruiters.
As it turned out, he never had to enroll to find a suitor. The Bridgton coaching staff sent Bozich's highlight tape to a handful of schools, including North Carolina, where Bridgton coaches were familiar with John Bunting from his summer ties to the area. Bozich visited Chapel Hill on an unofficial visit in early August and was offered a scholarship.
"I was blown away," Bozich says. "I went home and told my dad I didn't want to visit anywhere else. My plan was to enroll in January (2005)."
With just two weeks of freedom remaining before departing for his chosen prep school, Bozich headed to the pool with some friends two days later. When he arrived home, his father had a surprise for him.
"Coach Bunting called," Joe Bozich told his son. "He wants to know if you want to come right now."
Quarterback signee Michael Rozier had opted for professional baseball, inking a lucrative deal with the Boston Red Sox. That left the Tar Heels with immediate space at the quarterback position. Presto, Joey Bozich was flying out of Chicago, landing in Raleigh, being fitted for a jersey, and going through his first college practice, all in about the span of 48 hours.
"My head was spinning," Bozich says. "Just like that, I was out here and didn't know anyone."
He knows everyone now. But his head is still spinning. One year ago, he was just days away from enrolling at 180-student Bridgton Academy. Today, he's one play away from being the starting quarterback at the University of North Carolina.
A combination of unexpected events has helped hasten Bozich's rise up the depth chart. Nick Cangelosi transferred to be closer to home. Rozier chose baseball over football. Cameron Sexton, who chose Carolina after a hotly contested recruiting battle, enrolled in January in order to be able to participate in spring practice...and then promptly broke his ankle during a spring practice scrimmage. The Laurinburg native is still going through injury rehab. Roger Heinz, the assumed backup going into 2005, is facing an uncertain status because of a back injury--the same injury that ended his brother's career at Florida State.
Which leaves Bozich vying with true freshman Bobby Rome and walk-ons Jay Spence and Ben Johnson for the backup position. With Gary Tranquill preferring an extremely complex offense, Bozich's one year in the system is a significant asset.
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Countdown to Kickoff: 21 Days
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"Each day it's getting more comfortable for me," he said. "I'm trying to get all I can out of every rep and every drill. We've got three position meetings a day during camp, so that's a lot of film study, and I'm going back to my room and looking at the playbook. But it's a big learning curve for me right now. I wasn't expecting everything that has happened."
Ideally, whoever wins the backup job will be needed only in mop-up duty while Matt Baker cruises through his senior season. But it's an important insurance policy, especially given the recent injury history to Tar Heel quarterbacks like Chris Keldorf, Oscar Davenport, Ronald Curry, and Darian Durant.
If Heinz is sidelined for any length of time, that also sidelines the backup with the best knowledge of Tranquill's system--Heinz, like Baker, taught voluntary classroom sessions on the nuances of the offense this summer. So Bozich's biggest task has not been learning to throw the deep out pattern, but learning to make the right reads at the line of scrimmage. He got his first taste of the complexity of big-time college football on his official visit while sitting in Tranquill's office.
"Do you know what we spend the most time on here?" the coordinator asked him.
"Coverages?" Bozich replied.
"Nope," came the answer.
"Pass routes?"
"Nope."
Eventually, Tranquill revealed the answer--pass protection.
"I was like, `Huh?'" Bozich says. "In high school you don't do that. So this has been my first time really getting that experience, pointing out that the back has that guy, the tight end has the other guy, checking off on the safety. That's what I really need to work on: picking up on the hots and the sight adjustments."
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.
