University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: No Time To Rest
October 16, 2006 | Football
Oct. 16, 2006
by Lee Pace, Extra Points
At 8 p.m. Wednesday a Delta Airlines jet will depart Raleigh-Durham International for Charlottesville, Va., carrying 78 football players and a coaching, training, managerial and support staff of about 50 more passengers. The hotel is booked, the tickets sold, TV time reserved for the Tar Heels' encounter at 7:45 p.m. Thursday against Virginia. It's the next game on the schedule, and the Tar Heels will show up - no matter what kind of buzz is emanating outside the doors of Kenan Football Center.
"Inside these doors, we're positive," quarterback Cam Sexton said Saturday after the Tar Heels' 37-20 loss to South Florida. "We will remain positive. We will take coaching and we'll continue to work hard. If you start worrying about what's going on out there, you may as well quit. I'm not worried about it. We understand people being upset. We have high expectations ourselves. We don't want to be in this position."
The Tar Heels' "position" - a 1-5 record and an alarming propensity to throw interceptions, commit silly penalties and allow big hits by opposition gadget plays - became more untenable Sunday with word that senior linebacker Larry Edwards is likely out for the rest of the season with a fractured collarbone.
Edwards bruised the upper-left area of his chest in the Tar Heels' loss to Miami a week ago and came to a post-game interview session with the shoulder iced and bandaged. He was held out of full-contact work last week and then was hit with a "grazing blow" in the words of coach John Bunting by a teammate in pre-game warm-ups Saturday. He played most of the game and then was diagnosed with a fracture of the collarbone afterward.
Edwards leads the team in tackles with 42, including a team-high 4.5 for loss. He has two sacks, one pass breakup and two fumble recoveries. He played his best game of the year against Miami and has played most every snap.
"Larry is obviously very, very upset," Bunting said. "I feel terrible for that young man. He's a favorite of mine, always has been. I love kids who make plays and try hard, and that's been Larry."
This is the second significant collarbone injury Carolina has suffered this season. Sophomore tight end Richard Quinn broke his in practice the week of the season opener on a hit Bunting said would have never led one to believe an injury occurred.
"We've had two freakish collarbone injuries," Bunting said.
Junior linebacker Martel Thatch and sophomore Garrett White are the backups at Edwards' position as the strong-side linebacker. Thatch replaced Edwards in the latter stages of the fourth quarter Saturday, and Bunting said Sunday that Thatch had moved ahead of White on the depth chart the last two weeks but both would be closely evaluated in practice this week. Red-shirt freshman Kennedy Tinsley will take Edwards' slot on the nickel personnel group. The product of Dudley High in Greensboro and was praised by Bunting for his production on Monday night practices when the young players scrimmage.
"He shines every single week," Bunting said. "He has a great burst, great quickness, great change of direction. He's a very intense football player. He was a running back in high school and is just now learning to play defense. He has a chance to help us out."
Bunting said Sunday there is a chance that freshman receiver Hakeem Nicks could return to action after missing the South Florida game with a high ankle sprain. Nicks has been running over the weekend and will be tested by the training staff on his ability to cut and move sideways on Monday.
The Tar Heels will face a Virginia team facing similar miseries in a Thursday night made-for-ESPN game. The Cavaliers, 2-5, blew a 20-0 halftime lead Saturday to lose at home to Maryland, 28-26. The good news for the Cavaliers (and bad for the Tar Heels and their Edward-less defense) is that a previously moribund offense erupted for 424 yards offense.
Of course, the Tar Heels themselves are their biggest concern, not their opponent. Their season-long propensity to make huge errors haunted them throughout the afternoon. Sexton threw two interceptions and gave South Florida and its spread offense a short field on each miscue - the 35 yard-line on one pick and the 21 on the second. The Bulls turned both into touchdowns. Bunting said the red-shirt freshman from Laurinburg will remain the Tar Heels' starter.
"The first one was a slant, I didn't see the guy," Sexton said. "I should have seen him. That's a bad, bad throw on my part. I've got to see him. The second one was a post, I'm not sure what happened. I'll have to see it on film. But we were coming out [from the goal line] and I can't give them that field position. It was on me, absolutely."
Bunting agreed that Sexton made some mistakes but noted on Sunday that receivers have to do a better job running routes, fielding catchable passes and that the offensive line has to clean up some protection issues.
The offense would certainly have been more productive if not for several key penalties. Carolina sped downfield efficiently on its second possession of the game for a score and a 7-0 lead, then opened its third possession with a 26-yard completion into South Florida territory to Jesse Holley. Ronnie McGill gained one yard but tackle Ben Lemming was flagged for clipping. From first-and-24, the drive stalled. Then on the next offensive possession, Barrington Edwards ripped off gains of four, 11, five and four yards and the Tar Heels had moved close to mid-field. But tackle Brian Chacos was flagged for a late hit and then Sexton threw his first pick.
Chacos said he didn't hear the whistle on his flag and Bunting said of Lemming's infraction that "blocks like that occur all the time."
The penalty that hurt the most came from deep-snapper Michael Murphy late in the second quarter after kicker Connor Barth ran a fake field goal attempt from midfield down to the Bulls' 15 yard-line. Barth was running out of bounds on the right side when Murphy was back in the middle of the field, behind the runner, making a block.
"It was dumb," Bunting said. "The young man really regrets it. He's a good kid. He said he was `just trying to hit somebody.' But it was not a very smart thing to do."
That put the ball back on the 30. A false-start flag on Carolina and a nine-yard loss on a sack killed the drive, and the Heels settled for a field goal.
"Those kinds of mistakes have been our downfall," Bunting said. "You hope to minimize them and take advantage of your opportunities. That's what we're struggling with. You can look at any week and that's where we've suffered."
The goal now is to take the offensive production efforts against Rutgers and Furman and against South Florida sans the penalties and match with the defensive effort against Virginia Tech. That would give Carolina a reasonable chance Thursday in Charlottesville.
"I play with a bunch of winners," Sexton said. "We have a bunch of competitors on this team. We hate losing. We hate losing. That includes me, coach Bunting and our coaching staff. We're you're 1-5, that's not easy. It's not easy walking around campus. Fans are upset, we're upset, but that's just the way it is. We're 1-5 and have lot of football left. We will take the competitiveness and I know we all have and turn it into a positive and get going."
"It leaves a bad taste in your mouth," cornerback Jacoby Watkins said. "Eventually you have to bow up. No more `my bad.' No more excuses. No more breakdowns mentally. After the fifth game, you've got to know what you're doing out there."
The Tar Heels met late Sunday afternoon as a team to review every play of the South Florida game. Then they broke for dinner and then met as individual positions to begin studying Virginia tape. They will practice in full pads Monday night and have their usual Thursday practice on Tuesday. They will have a light workout on Wednesday before traveling to Charlottesville.
"This will be a quick week and we won't have time feel sorry for ourselves," Bunting said.
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.
