University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: The Road to Respect a Difficult Grind for Tar Heels
September 12, 2005 | Football
Sept. 12, 2005
by Lee Pace, Extra Points
The 2005 football season for the Tar Heels is all about respect. These 11 games (and hopefully a 12th) are predicated on some combination of building, maintaining, earning and reclaiming some of that precious commodity defined by Webster as "a feeling of high regard, honor or esteem." The Heels had it in the 1940s with Justice and Weiner, in the 1960s with Lacey and Hanburger, in the 1970s with Voight and Betterson, in the 1980s with Bryant and Fuller, in the 1990s with Keldorf and Bly, and in 2001 with Peppers and Sims.
Now they're trying to get some back in the fifth year of John Bunting's head-coaching tenure in Chapel Hill. It's a difficult grind, for sure.
The Tar Heels had some excellent wins in 2004 (Georgia Tech, N.C. State and Miami come to mind), but they nonetheless are considered the fifth of six teams in preseason polls in the Coastal Division of the newly expanded ACC. Twice over the weekend, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution took shots at the Tar Heels. On Saturday a story looking at the Carolina defense noted that the good news for Carolina was that the Heels had nine starters back on defense. The bad news was that they had those nine starters back--the inference being that these guys couldn't play a lick. Then on Sunday, columnist Terence Moore wondered, "How can the Jackets follow their opening thriller at Auburn by giving North Carolina even the hint of shocking Tech for the second consecutive season?"
The Tar Heels simply have to play their way out of this den of negative perceptions.
"Teams are starting to give us some respect," receiver Jesse Holley said during August training camp. "But we're not there yet. We've just got to keep improving. We know what losing feels like, that it's a bad thing. We know what winning's like, that it's a good thing. The next step is to go from a good bowl game to a BCS bowl. If we win our division, we're going to Jacksonville in December to play for a BCS bowl."
Saturday at Grant Field in Atlanta, Carolina showed sparks that it can build on its successes of 2004. There is good speed, strength, intelligence, resolve and character on this team.
The Tar Heels also suffered lapses of huge yields on defense and self-inflicted wounds on offense that dredged up memories of the dark days of 2002 and '03.
Georgia Tech won the game, 27-21, and the Tar Heels emerged with a to-do list that will occupy Bunting and staff for every millisecond of their allotted meeting and practice time this week. Immediately after the game, he called it an "M.O. - for `missed opportunity.'"
Sunday after studying the game tape with his staff, he lauded the effort by his players but lamented the lapses - some defensive busts, some dropped passes, some over-anxious runs by the tailbacks. At least the Tar Heels have now played someone other than themselves and have a baseline from which to proceed.
"There are things we can build on and have a really good football team," Bunting said. "The kids coming back on the plane last night - there were no heads down. I think they were proud of their effort. They knew they were in the ballgame until the very end, that they had a chance to win. I think they'll be an easy group to rally to get ready to play an unbelievably good Wisconsin team."
Several noteworthy takeaways from the game were these:
The problem Saturday was that the 6-4 Johnson was book-ended by another power-forward-in-pads, the 6-3 Damarius Bilbo. When Bilbo last encountered the Tar Heels, he was in the clutches of linebackers Malcolm Stewart and Clarence Gaddy on fourth-and-two back in September of 2002. The freshman quarterback had the presence of mind to disengage his arm from the scrum and unleash a pass that converted the first down and led to a score in Tech's 21-13 victory in Kenan Stadium. Bilbo was later moved to wide receiver, and Saturday he used the attention the Tar Heels paid Johnson to collect eight passes for 131 yards, including a highlight film cut on a leaping snag for 28 yards and a touchdown.
"How about that?" Tech coach Chan Gailey enthused afterward. "Wasn't Bilbo great? He finally showed what he was all about."
"Bilbo's a former quarterback and I've seen what he can do over the years," linebacker Doug Justice said. "He's a special player. They've got great athletes. You can get hit with Daniels and Johnson and then they come with Bilbo. They've got a multi-headed attack."
Darian Durant's replacement at quarterback has plenty of maturity and an intricate knowledge of coordinator Gary Tranquill's playbook. What he's new at is implementing it in real time against an aggressive defense. Baker was loose and confident all week but clearly needed a little time to acclimate to the speed of the game. But as the second quarter evolved, he got good protection, stood in the pocket and went through his progressions, zipped some pinpoint passes and moved the football. He completed 50 percent of his throws and had a couple nice scrambles. "I'm pleased with a lot of what the quarterback did," Bunting said, then repeated "a lot" for emphasis. "He made some really fine passes, but he needs to manage the game better. We as coaches have got to help him do that. He had three or four drops and a couple of bad passes. He never panicked, and I knew he wouldn't. We saw he could run a little, which some people questioned. Given some help from a better running game, I think he can be one of the best quarterbacks in the ACC. I really believe that."
Baker was asked to evaluate his performance, noting the plusses and minuses.
"I've got to make better throws all the time," Baker said. "I made a lot of good throws but some bad ones, too. I need to see what I need to see quicker. Tech does so much, they move so much, it's tough to see everything I need to see. That will come with experience. I feel I got better today, but that doesn't mean much of anything now. It would be nice to have come out with a victory."
The Tar Heel coaches played five ends (Tommy Davis, Brian Rackley, Hilee Taylor, Kentwan Balmer and Garrett White) and four tackles (Chase Page, Kyndraus Guy, Shelton Bynum and Khalif Mitchell). Four of those are sophomores and one's a true freshman, and all have significant upside, and on a sultry day with temperatures in the mid-80s under a bright sun, distributing snaps among the nine kept fresh legs on the field throughout the game.
Page returned to the field after missing last year with an injury and will share the "3-technique" tackle position with the up-and-coming Mitchell.
"This is the freshest I've ever felt after a game," Page said. "Having some depth is so much better for us. When we're in there, we can give 100 percent, have more enthusiasm and energy and fresh legs. There's definitely more competition on the team - it forces the starters to stay on their toes and practice hard. But it's good for the defense."
Tech averaged a mere 3.7 yards per rushing attempt, and its 122-yard total would have been much less if not for a 42-yard gain by Daniels assisted by an assignment bust from a linebacker.
"That's the lowest rushing total we've allowed in a long, long time," Bunting said. "We had more tackles-for-loss on first and second down than we've had in a long, long time. We did a good job disrupting the run and blowing up some plays."
The Heels were not productive in pressuring Ball, however, as they logged zero sacks.
"We need to do a better job bringing pressure from the edge," Bunting said. "That's a problem we've had for a while. We still lack a `war daddy' at end. We've just got to keep working on it."
David Wooldridge punted eight times for 43.2 yards, and the Tar Heels had a net punting total of 41.0 yards. That's an outstanding figure. They averaged 12 yards on four punt returns, and freshman Brandon Tate started as the No. 1 punt return specialist. On the first return of his collegiate career, coming early in the second quarter, Tate collected eight yards but could have gone to the house had he not slipped.
"He had one man to beat," Bunting said. "That young man is going to create a lot of excitement around here."
New deep snappers Warren Green and Michael Murphy and new holder Andrew Wasserman performed without error, and though place-kicker Conner Barth got no field-goal tries, we know what he can do.
"Cooter has never carried the ball in a Division 1 game, and it's been two years since Barrington has played," Bunting said. "It's going to take some live action to get in the flow of things. They both need to be more patient. There were four or five runs they'd like to have over again. It's glaring on tape what they could have picked up with a little more patience, a little more ability to see the flow of the play and understand the concept of every play."
All things considered, the visit to Atlanta was what it was - an opening game. Tech had its debut a week ago versus Auburn while the Heels waited in the wings. Looking back at openers against Oklahoma in 2001 (Sooners up 31-7 after one quarter); Miami of Ohio in 2002 (nine water-logged turnovers for the Heels); Florida State in 2003 (total annihilation by the Seminoles); and William & Mary in 2004 (Heels have to rally in the fourth quarter to win), Bunting thinks this opener offers more building blocks than the others.
"You hate to let one like this slip away," he said. "It was painful to watch the tape. But we had a total team effort all day long, we never stopped playing hard. But effort alone won't win games."
SQUIB KICKS - Sophomore center Ben Lemming suffered a dislocated right shoulder and played only six snaps. He will be re-evaluated Tuesday. Senior Steven Bell started the game and played the first two offensive series. Then Lemming entered, played one three-and-out series and left the game with the shoulder problem on Carolina's fourth series. Bell played 64 snaps and, Bunting said, "did a really good job." ... The Tar Heels played six true freshmen - Cooter Arnold, Brandon Tate, Garrett White, fullback Nick Starcevic, tight end Richard Quinn and linebacker Mark Paschal on the kick-off cover team.
Send your questions about Tar Heel football to Lee Pace at leepace@nc.rr.com. 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.
