University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points Mailbag
October 26, 2007 | Football
Oct. 26, 2007
by Lee Pace, Extra Points
The Tar Heels' open date fell eight weeks into the season, exactly the same juncture it came during the 2004 season. It was perfect timing three years ago and hopefully will be again in 2007.
Carolina had just been flattened at Utah in the seventh game of the 2004 schedule and used the bye week for physical and mental restoration after a 3-4 start. The Heels had an extra week to begin preparations for their next opponent--the Miami Hurricanes in Kenan Stadium--and they responded with a memorable 31-28 upset over the fourth-ranked Hurricanes. They played Virginia Tech tough the following week and closed the year with wins on the road at Wake Forest and Duke.
Now the Tar Heels are 2-5 and fresh off an idle Saturday as they journey west to Winston-Salem for a noon kick-off against Wake Forest. They have gotten a number of players back to full speed or close to it, they have tweaked their playbooks in all three phases and are girded up for the homestretch against a somewhat less imposing schedule.
During the first seven games of the year, the Tar Heels faced four teams in the Top 25 of the BCS Standings and the Associated Press rankings, and their seven opponents collectively are ranked fifth-most difficult in the USA Today Sagarin rankings. There's not one team among that list in Carolina's final five opponents of Wake Forest, Maryland, N.C. State, Georgia Tech and Duke.
Butch Davis, of course, will have nothing to do with parsing strength of schedule.
"We've got some outstanding teams left to play this year, and it begins with Wake Forest," he says. "They're in the midst of a five-game winning streak and they are the defending conference champions."
One of the priorities over the last two weeks has been to get players like Hakeem Nicks, Brandon Tate, Brooks Foster, Scott Lenahan and Kentwan Balmer back to full strength.
"Physically, we got dramatically better over the last week," Davis says. "If we had played last Saturday, two or three guys would not have played in the game and four or five would probably have been less than 100 percent."
Cam Thomas's ankle continues to mend after his injury in the James Madison game; he was finally healthy enough against South Carolina two weeks ago to get considerable playing time at the nose guard position. He had one solo tackle and two assists.
"Coming out of training camp, Cam was playing as good as anyone," says defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano. "He had developed into quite a force. He's such a big guy, he takes up two blockers. He's on the mend and we've been able to get him back in the fold."
"He gives us depth at the point of attack," adds Davis. "He's a huge anchor on the defensive line. He's a force inside, and with the attention they have to give him, it allows our linebackers to make more tackles. With Cam healthy again, that gives us Kentwan Balmer, Marvin Austin and Aleric Mullins at the tackles. We can give those four guys 25 to 40 reps a game instead of one guy going 65. There was one game early in the year when Kentwan went 72 snaps of 80 total. That's insanity."
The Tar Heels are hoping for a continued maturation on both sides of the ball over the second half of the season. The offense and defense have assisted each other in their mutual development during close losses to Virginia Tech and South Carolina and a win over Miami in the last month. The offense has developed a semblance of a running game, and the defense, despite a knack for giving up too many big plays, has played much better since the low point of the year at South Florida.
"Starting with the Virginia Tech game, we've gained confidence, we understand the scheme better, we know how to prepare better, our kids understand what they're seeing from the offense better," Pagano says. "They have really started to buy into our message of, `Here is what you have to do week after week to get better.'"
The Tar Heels have averaged 34 minutes of possession time the last three games versus 23.6 the previous three games. The defense has had to play an average of 20 snaps a game fewer the last three games than the East Carolina through South Florida stretch. The defense allowed 417 yards a game in the former trio of games, 307 the last three. The Tar Heels have picked up seven turnovers over that stretch compared to two earlier in the year. Carolina's third-down defense has seen a significant improvement at 22 percent against Virginia Tech, Miami and South Carolina versus 50 percent the first half.
Carolina had a slow start defensively against the Gamecocks in a 21-15 loss a week ago, allowing two touchdowns on two of South Carolina's first three possessions. The major problem was the Gamecocks ran several plays the Tar Heels expected, but they ran them from different personnel groups and new formations.
"Initially there was a lot of shifting, motions, a lot of window dressing," Pagano says. "Once you get a young group calmed down and get them to understand what's going on, they're fine. Once they got it figured out against South Carolina, they got better and better and better in the second half. You could see the confidence growing.
"Our kids are starting to get into a comfort zone of knowing what will be called in a certain situation. They've been there before and know what's coming. Now they can go out and play. They're not stymied by confusion."
Those elements certainly bode well for the final five games of the year. And if the Heels continue to improve as they have of late and if they can convert a few more big plays, there's no reason they can't run the table the last five weeks.
Over the last two decades, I have noticed a correlation between cutting back on hitting in fall training camp and tackling problems during the first part of the season. Every time I have heard one of our head coaches say that we were scaling back our hitting in training camp to avoid injuries or for any other reason, we have had tackling problems. This did not surface in the James Madison game, but has in the last two. I remember Butch saying that he was cutting back on hitting in fall camp. Do you see a correlation?
Philip Y. Spears
There's certainly a connection between how much live hitting a team does in practice and how well it tackles during games. But the fact is that the Tar Heels have not had good depth on defense since 2001 and they have always been trying to reload. They never have the luxury of risking injury in practice with frequent live tackling.
Tackling is more an issue of maturity, physical ability and good health than anything else. Exhibit A would be first-year starter Deunta Williams at free safety. Williams, very simply, "gets it." He is a very good player on his way to greatness. He doesn't have the maturity as a red-shirt freshman, but he has everything else, including tremendous physical skills and toughness. He is significantly better at free safety than anyone the Tar Heels have had there in years. Good tackling is more a result of good recruiting than anything else.
I was unable to attend the South Carolina game, but while watching the TV coverage, I noticed two gentlemen on the UNC sideline wearing South Carolina hats. They looked to be part of the USC football staff. Each time they were shown was when the camera was on Butch Davis. Could you explain why they would be on UNC's sideline. I don't believe I have ever seen this before.
Kevin Martin
Those guys were managers on the South Carolina staff whose job it was to rotate footballs into the officials when the Gamecocks were on offense. Most teams, the Tar Heels included, use four managers a game as "ball boys," with two positioned on each side of the field. They have the freedom to go anywhere along the sidelines, and they usually follow the location of the line of scrimmage.
It seems like we get more than our share of teams coming off bye weeks or extended weeks when they play Carolina. South Florida was coming off a bye week, and South Carolina was coming off a Thursday night game the week before they played us. It seems like a huge advantage to have 10 days to prepare and have your whole team watching the next opponent play its game.
Will Macklin
That's not an easy question to quantify unless you pore through the media guides of all the Tar Heels' opponents over the years, but there is no question some teams in the past have done their best to arrange open dates before the Carolina game. In the 1990s it seemed to be a consistent issue with Wake Forest and N.C. State. Over the last two decades, the Deacons have had open dates before the Carolina game in 1988, 1993, 1994, 2004 and 2006. The Wolfpack has had an open date before the Carolina game in 1993, 1994, 1996 and 2002.
But it's really just the luck of the draw. South Carolina's TV game against Kentucky, played the Thursday nine days before the Gamecocks came to Chapel Hill, was a Southeastern Conference and ESPN decision as much as one by the two schools.
After seven games this year, four of which were decided by a combined 18 points, the Heels could easily be 6-1 rather than 2-5. That being said, I am very excited and encouraged by how this season is going .... Is there any way like-minded fans can show their support? For example, could you start a program that would allow fans to send in how excited they are about the way this season is going? Maybe I'm crazy and no other fans are excited, but I'll take what the team has done over what I thought they would do.
Jason Wimmer, Zebulon
The record notwithstanding, this has been a pleasant team to cover in 2007 because of all the positive signs seen around the program. Davis and his staff obviously know how to recruit. The coaches are a cohesive and intelligent bunch. The players are hard-working kids and are getting better as the season evolves. There is, indeed, much to look forward to.
The coaches and staff enjoy hearing from their fans, so feel free to zip off an email to the address below and I'll forward it directly to Coach Davis's office.
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace is in his 18th season writing "Extra Points," a colorful and in-depth look at Tar Heel football. He'll answer your questions about the Tar Heels regularly during the season in his "Extra Points Mailbag" column and on the Tar Heel Sports Network's pregame show. Email him your questions (please, no recruiting questions) about the Tar Heels at leepace@nc.rr.com and he'll answer the most interesting ones.
