Extra Points Mailbag

October 13, 2006 | Football

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Oct. 13, 2006

by Lee Pace, Extra Points

The Tar Heel offense and its performance in Carolina's 27-7 loss at Miami moved to the fore of readers' interest this week. Questions about plays, personnel and productivity poured into Mailbag Central.

Following is a broad-brush attempt to deal with the most prevalent:

* What about the lack of a running game?

Offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti uses a variety of measures to critique the different facets of the offense. For the running game, yards-gained is important, but he also looks at "run efficiency," defined as the percentage of running plays that gain four or more yards. Carolina's run efficiency against Miami was 55 percent.

"That's not bad," Cignetti says. "That's not bad against a defense as good as they are, a defense as fast as they are and as powerful as they are upfront. It wasn't the running game that hurt us. It was the passing game. We had a lot of second-and-fives, and those set up perfectly for an aggressive play call. But we didn't connect downfield."

* What about Cam Sexton's interception late in the first half, and is it time to go back to Joe Dailey or even move Bobby Rome back to quarterback from fullback?

Three snaps before the interception late in the first half, Sexton had Brandon Tate open on a post route and unfurled a 40-yard pass on a rope to Tate. Sexton's footwork was perfect; his throw was a tight spiral, leading Tate just right; the decision to throw it was good as Tate had gained inside leverage on Hurricane safety Brandon Meriweather. Problem was, Tate didn't make the catch.

Cignetti came back after the Tar Heels got the first down with Tate running a "go" route, but this time it was the quarterback's turn to make an error. Sexton inexplicably went to Jesse Holley over the middle into double coverage, and Miami intercepted and took over at the Carolina 48 yard-line. That was a freshman mistake, no more, no less. Had Sexton gone deep to Tate, three things could happen, none of them very bad: 1) pass is complete; 2) pass is incomplete and the Tar Heels punt; 3) the ball is intercepted deep in Miami territory and it serves the same purpose as a punt.

Sexton is the No. 1 quarterback. He has the best arm on the team in terms of strength and control. The more he plays, the better his decisions will be. As for Rome, he's smart and athletic and can do a good job catching passes as a fullback. Fresno State under Cignetti's direction from 2002-05 threw frequently and productively to the running backs.

* What about the use of tight end Jon Hamlett (who has caught three passes in five games)?

In the Tar Heels' last scrimmage in August, the offense ran 54 plays, and 38 of them were with two tight ends, Hamlett and sophomore Richard Quinn. A two tight end attack was going to be a key element of the Tar Heels' offense. But Quinn was lost for the season with a shoulder injury the week of the season-opener.

"A lot of what we were going to be on offense was scrapped right then," Cignetti says.

Once again, checking Cignetti's record at Fresno State is instructive. Tight ends Duncan Reid, Alec Greco and Stephen Spach combined for 40 catches in 2002, and the same trio had 30 catches the following year.

At this stage in the offense's development, the Tar Heels are looking more to their tight end to block. They have to develop a better running game in order to set up the play-action passing game, a key component of the attack. Hamlett has been hobbled with a knee injury the last two weeks and the staff has made contingency plans in case he should go down. That said, Hamlett is a talented receiver and Cignetti knows it.

* What about the disappearance of Ronnie McGill?

Because Barrington Edwards is a step quicker and does an excellent job in pass protection, the offensive staff made a decision to favor him against the speed of the Hurricanes. Edwards had 10 carries for 37 yards and McGill had seven for three yards.

"Ronnie will be a part of our offense the rest of this year," Cignetti says. "I told him Monday we need him 20 carries a game."

The bottom line for the offense: Carolina has played three stout defenses ranked 1-2-3 in the ACC total defense column and has done so with a handful of first-year starters and front-line players (Sexton, Hakeem Nicks, Brooks Foster, Brandon Tate, Scott Lenahan, Calvin Darrity and Garrett Reynolds).

"The perception inside our building is we know who we are," Cignetti says. "We are a young offense with a freshman quarterback and seven first-year players. We are trying to get smarter, trying to play harder, tougher, finish things. We are building a foundation here. I see guys becoming better players and a better unit every week and every game. It doesn't always show because of who we are playing."

What are our coaches doing to make our football players learn their assignments and carry them through every play of the football game? Are we studying enough film for preparation and/or having enough training from our playbooks?
Andy Rossi, Charlotte
Players have meetings with their position coaches every day beginning at 2 p.m. that last until practice starts at about 4. Those two hours are spent looking at tape and studying the playbook and game plan for the coming week.

In addition, players are encouraged and to some degree required to do extra study on their own. Sometimes it might be with a coach. Last year, for example, freshmen defensive tackle Cam Thomas was interested in learning more about the game, but he didn't have enough of a knowledge base to understand what to look for in watching game tape. So he would frequently stop by Kenny Browning's office during lunch so Browning could spend a half hour pointing out the fine points of defensive line play. Sometimes they study on their own. Linebacker Durell Mapp is notorious for finding his way into the Kenan Football Center at all hours to watch tape.

Most position coaches give their players written exams to take on Friday nights dealing with questions from the following day's game plan. All of the players have laptop computers and can be seen at any time of the day or night plugging in a CD with clips of recent Tar Heel games or the coming opponent.

It was interesting watching linebackers coach Tommy Thigpen on the team flight to Miami last Friday meet with his players. The coaching staff flies in first class, while players and support staff sit in coach. Thigpen moved back to coach and found a seat with an empty seat beside him. First he called Larry Edwards up, then Mark Paschal and then Mapp and spent 20 to 30 minutes with each of them diagramming plays and going over things they might see the next day. So absorbed was Thigpen that he told the flight attendant serving lunch to "check back in a few minutes." Before he knew it, the flight was landing and Thigpen had missed lunch.

Now, in my effort to answer Andy's question, no doubt some of you are going to read this and shoot off another email saying that if they have to study so much, the schemes must be too complicated. They are not. Defensive coordinator Marvin Sanders says the Tar Heel package is no more complicated than any he has coached or played in over 20 years.

Can you find out what specifically the staff looks for from players in practice, in order to give them playing time in games? My question stems from the lack of on-field time for Garrett White and Wesley Flagg, both of whom I would assume would help add speed to the defense.
Jeff Warren
There are the obvious on-the-field issues that are important: How few mental busts does a player have? Is he physically strong enough at this point in his career to handle his particular position? How well has learned technique and fundamentals?

Sanders enters those elements into the equation but looks to other things as well.

How hard and strong is a young player going during the two-minute drill held at the end of every practice?

"If he can't dig deep for something extra during that period, he's not ready for a game," says Sanders. "If he can't pass that test in practice, he can't pass it in a game."

Sanders also looks at how a player is doing off-the-field.

"Already this year I heard one guy was out on the town on Thursday night," Sanders said. "No way was he mentally ready to play in his first football game for us. And I told him that in front of his teammates. It had nothing to do with ability. But he was not mentally ready to play. It was important to send that message."

White, a sophomore, is a strongside linebacker and is playing behind Larry Edwards, so there's been no opportunity to play beyond special teams. Flagg, a true freshman, has been a help on special teams but Sanders says flat-out he's not ready to be productive on defense. Flagg is fast enough and strong enough; but there are too many decisions to make for a rookie.

Considering all the players UNC has lost from the outstanding recruiting class of 2003 and that the class of 2004 was not considered outstanding, is the bottom line with the football program that we will most likely suffer through two or three more mediocre years while the members of the classes of 2005, 2006, and 2007 gain experience and mature physically?
Chris Welch, Concord
It means the Tar Heels will not challenge for the national title the next couple of years, but it does not mean they are doomed to mediocrity.

There are so many teams in college football in the middle of the bell curve that have decent talent but are not deep across the board. A dozen elements or more combine to determine their fate in a given season:

Injuries. Off-the-field issues. How good are their opponents? Do they get any lucky bounces of the ball? Do they get more than their fair share of officiating snafus? Does a normally reliable kid make a horrendous mistake a key juncture, i.e., a snap over the punter's head? Does a so-so team get beat up, lose its confidence and go downhill from October on? Does a so-so team get a break or two, build some momentum and finish with a flair in November? How well does the staff manage the team, the game plan and the nuances of the game after kick-off?

Get a few of these variables going your way and you can have a decent year. And there are 10 coaches and more than a hundred players in Kenan Football Center who think those things can go the Tar Heels' way before long.

"We have seven games left," Cignetti says. "We have a chance to win a lot of football games IF we play smarter. If you're not the most talented team, you've got to find a way to over-achieve. You have to play smarter, minimize all your mistakes. You have to play harder, you've got to play tougher. That has to be the mindset and personality of your team. And you have to respond to adversity. Bad things are going to happen. The question is, how do you respond to them?"

The mailbag closes this week with a message that arrived on my Treo PDA by the time the Tar Heel team plane had touched down at RDU Saturday evening:

This may be one of the strangest e-mails you have received from an ex-wife! However, I attended the Miami game and was saddened by some of my fellow Carolina Blue-clad Tar Heel fans who expressed less than dignified comments about my ex-husband and the job he is doing at Carolina. In defense of most Heels, only a few were unkind--but I have a message for one in particular. I'll call her "Lady Blue."

Sitting in front of me was a lady maybe her late 40s, so youthful zeal is not to blame but perhaps only lack of knowledge about the game and about the coach she was berating can explain her ignorance. Dressed in her Carolina blue shorts and white top--(her husband was a Hurricane fan, so how loyal is she?)--she derisively said, "Well we all know how dumb Bunting can be," after what she had perceived was a bad call from the sidelines.

Well, lady, you just don't know John Bunting--because I can tell you no one has spent more time studying the game he loves--no one. Maybe Dick Vermeil came close. As a college football player, he'd come home to our married student housing (now demolished) and watch the films over and over again. This scene was repeated when he was an Eagle player and no doubt countless times since--to the exclusion of his own pleasure, sleep and even his family at times. Lady, John Bunting is not dumb. You can accuse him of other foibles, such as intensity or extreme competitiveness--(who else would have invited Oklahoma to the table?)--but don't accuse him of being dumb. No one brings more intensity or hard work in coaching your team. The much-discussed tough schedule is something I assure you he doesn't spend a lot of time lamenting, but rather he is teaching and preparing the young men for those games and for life in general. He invites competition and is the most competitive person I have ever met.

So I have advice for you, Lady Blue. Carolina has made a good investment--and if your son was a player you would want no one else to coach him. And next time if you can't be gracious, a quality for which Carolina Belles (I thought) are known, stay home with your Hurricane and spare my niece or anyone else for that matter your unkind remarks.

Rene Z. Bunting, Haddonfield, N.J.

Tune in next Thursday (the Tar Heels are at Virginia Thursday night for an ESPN game) for another adventure into the land of the Extra Points Mailbag. Footnote to players' parents: Three of you have written in asking/complaining about your son's lack of playing time and have signed a bogus name and address at the bottom. Problem is, your name is in the return email address. May as well sign your name. It's natural to think your kid ought to be a starter and All-America. And who knows: He might just be some day.

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.