University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Deacons Bounce "Accommodating" Tar Heels
October 29, 2007 | Football
Oct. 29, 2007
by Lee Pace, Extra Points
It was, said the Tar Heel football coach, the "most complete collapse I have ever seen." Players chose words and phrases like inconceivable, devastating, tragedy and shock to describe their feelings in the aftermath of the loss to Wake Forest. Since that afternoon in November 2001, the Carolina-Wake Forest football rivalry has never been the same.
The Deacons of first-year coach Jim Grobe rallied from a 24-0 halftime deficit to collect a stunning 32-31 triumph in Kenan Stadium in the Tar Heels' 10th game of John Bunting's first season as Carolina's coach. The Heels were flummoxed by the intricacies and precision of Grobe's service-academy based offense (developed during his tenure as an assistant under Fisher DeBerry at Air Force) that is predicated on option and misdirection principles. And they were tormented by their own mistakes, witness one center snap over the head of the punter that gave Wake Forest two points on a safety late in the game.
"We challenged our kids to play with heart," Grobe said of his halftime oratory. "We got slapped around pretty good in the first half. If we found out one thing about these kids, it's that they don't quit."
Over the ensuing half decade, Grobe and his staff have won an ACC championship and turned a 6,500-enrollment private school into one of the league's most consistent forces. They still run an offense that's difficult to defend, they are shrewd in generating points on defense and in the kicking game, and they're doing it all with excellent athletes who can run. Meanwhile, the Tar Heels have struggled to regain the recruiting traction they enjoyed a decade ago under Mack Brown and have changed head coaches a third time since Brown's exit for Texas in an effort to restore the balance of power that saw Carolina thump the Deacons 10 of 11 years from 1990 through 2000.
The 103rd meeting Saturday between these two venerable rivals underlined just how fragile a program like Carolina's is today and just how husky the Deacons are. Wake Forest won in leisurely fashion, riding two interceptions, a freak "fumble" and two lengthy kick-off returns to 27 of its points in a 37-10 victory.
"It's frustrating and embarrassing," senior defensive end Hilee Taylor said.
"I am an enormous believer that more games are lost than won," Davis said. "We can't continue to have the turnovers and the mistakes we had Saturday. Give Wake Forest credit. They are a very good football team. But we were extraordinarily accommodating to them."
Carolina had sharpened its act over the last three weeks with salty efforts against Virginia Tech, Miami and South Carolina, but in Winston-Salem before a capacity crowd of 33,023 the Tar Heels were taken out of the game quickly, and any effort to claw their way back was squelched with another major snafu. The final score, ironically, was exactly the same tally as the South Florida loss a month ago.
"They are a well-coached, opportunistic team, and that definitely showed today with their interceptions and special teams play," Tar Heel center Scott Lenahan said. "They are a sound team, and they capitalized on our mistakes."
Quarterback T.J. Yates made two ill-fated passes when he didn't see Deacon linebacker Aaron Curry in time, and those mistakes morphed into 10 Wake Forest points. A kick-off cover unit that ranks 117th nationally among 119 teams allowed a 98-yard return for a score and another 83 yards to set up seven more points. And the Deacons got excellent field position when a Wake Forest punt took a quirky bounce and hit Richie Rich in the leg while he was blocking for a potential return.
Carolina also stymied itself with numerous procedure penalties on offense. The Deacons create frequent distractions for the opposition with their hyperactivity before the snap on both sides of the ball, and Saturday, while the Tar Heel defense was focused and disciplined, the offense was called for five procedure penalties when players reacted to Deacon movement and noise rather than their own snap of the football.
"Wake Forest does a lot of stunting and moving on defense," Lenahan said. "A lot of the movement and talking comes right before and during the snap count, and sometimes guys don't hear the snap count or they're going off the defensive movement. That's how we got so many penalties today."
"We watched six games from last year and every one from this year, and in every game, their opponents are getting four or five or six illegal procedure calls," Davis added. "With them stemming around and making their calls, sometimes your players react to them instead of focusing on the snap count. The same is true with the defense. A lot of defensive linemen jump into the neutral zone against them. Fortunately, our defense did a much better job."
The match-up Saturday provided a Petri dish into the underpinnings of a successful program.
The 44 players on the Deacons' two-deep roster includes 11 fifth-year players, 11 fourth-year players, 16 third-year players, five second-year players and one true freshman. Wake Forest has 13 players who have had 20 or more career starts.
The 46 players on the Tar Heels' two-deep (including an H-back on offense) are comprised of one fifth-year player (Lenahan), nine fourth-year players, 12 third-year players, 17 second-year players and seven true freshmen. The Tar Heels have two players with 20 career starts, and one of them, Kyndraus Guy, has played sparingly this year.
Boston College, to throw in yet another program for comparison's sake, has 17 seniors, 10 juniors, 11 sophomores, three red-shirt freshmen and three true freshmen on its two-deep. The Eagles are 8-0 and ranked second in the country.
The lack of depth on the Tar Heel roster continues to manifest itself in one area or another almost every week. This week's soft spot was the kick-off cover unit. Players like linebackers Bruce Carter and Quan Sturdivant and defensive back Charles Brown--each a true freshman--are the bread and butter of core special teams on most rosters, if indeed they are going to play at all. But since they are first team on defense and Carter and Sturdivant are already on the punt-cover team, it's asking too much for them to cover kick-offs as well. Obviously whatever personnel mix being used at the moment to cover kicks is not getting the job done.
Asked after the game about the ineptness of stopping a kick return specialist like Deacon Kenny Marion, Davis responded, "It's like a lot of things, we've got too many freshmen."
Sunday, he elaborated on the point.
"We are probably three to four linebackers short on this team, two safeties, two corners short of being able to have enough depth and talent to augment and help our special teams," he said. "Our coverage units are really getting taxed. We're having to use guys like Brooks Foster and other receivers to do double-duty. The only way to resolve the issue is through recruiting. We've got to build the depth of this team during the off-season through recruiting to where we have enough guys."
Davis noted that most programs running a 4-3 defense have from 10 to 13 linebackers, and the Tar Heels have nine. Three are true freshmen and senior Durell Mapp is the only one with the speed and age to be considered a prototype ACC linebacker. Sturdivant and Carter will certainly be there one day, but they're not yet.
Another area void of depth is left cornerback, where the coaching staff made an interesting move over the off-week in sending Richie Rich from tailback to defense to help shore up a position decimated by the injury to Kendric Williams and the suspension of Jermaine Strong.
"I think Richie is going to be one heckuva defensive back," offensive coordinator John Shoop says. "Mark my words. He's got lateral quickness, he's got a feel for the game, he's physical, he knows his assignments. He was just a little too much of a `tackle-able guy.' He just didn't get many yards after contact. I'm a big fan of his and I think he can play for us over there."
Brown started at left corner and played there all game in the Tar Heels' base defense. When they went to their nickel package with five defensive backs, Brown moved inside and Rich or Tavorris Jolly entered at left corner.
"They all did okay," Davis said. "Wake Forest didn't really challenge us. The nature of their passing attack is not such that they're wide open and going to throw it 35 or 40 times. But it was good they got a chance to play, and it was good for Richie to get his feet wet. Charlie had played all the previous games, so he felt more comfortable and more prepared. They all did okay, no one gave up the huge pass play, and they did a decent job in run support. It was a start, but they all have to get better."
The Tar Heels' defensive personnel use on Saturday was the simplest it has been all season. Mapp at weakside linebacker, Sturdivant in the middle and Carter on the strongside played almost the entire game in the base package, with Carter exiting and Rich or Jolly entering in passing situations. Taylor and E.J. Wilson played most of the way at defensive end--Davis singled out Wilson as having his best game of the year--and a core of tackles rotated between Kentwan Balmer, Cam Thomas, Marvin Austin and Aleric Mullins.
"At times our defense played well, given the nature of field position we had after the turnovers and kick-offs," Davis said. "We did a good job holding them to field goals on a couple of those situations."
Grobe learned six years ago that his Deacons had plenty of heart, and Davis and Tar Heel fans have seen that same quality this year in their team, which is why the fans gave the players a hearty ovation as they left the field at Kenan Stadium two weeks ago following their rally against South Carolina that fell six points short. Problem is, there will always be one leak and then another to plug in a dike made of so many pubescent pieces.
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.
