University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Blueprint
October 6, 2007 | Football
Oct. 6, 2007
By Adam Lucas
This was Miami football.
With 10:18 left in the first half, officials took a timeout to review a T.J. Yates-to-Hakeem Nicks pass that was initially ruled an incompletion. During the lull, the Kenan Stadium sound system cranked a bass line. All eleven Miami defenders, who had originally been huddled on the sideline, broke their huddle and went back to the line of scrimmage. And then, every Hurricane was in motion. They were jumping, they were jiving, and they were bouncing.
This looked familiar. It looked like Michael Irvin and it looked like Ray Lewis and it looked like getting off the plane wearing camouflage. With Randy Shannon, a full-blooded Hurricane, at the helm, it looked like vintage Miami. This is what they do. They intimidate, they swagger, and most of all, they win.
Enter John Shoop. Carolina's offensive coordinator does not intimidate. He does not swagger.
He does, however, appear to have a proclivity for winning.
Shoop saw all the bouncing and the aggressiveness and made the perfect play call. He dangled the bait by instructing T.J. Yates to fake a handoff to Ryan Houston. The Hurricanes were ready to swallow Houston. They were going to punish this insolent freshman. They flowed to the ball.
But then, here came Brandon Tate around the end. And here was Yates flipping the ball to Tate. And 54 yards later, thanks to timely blocking by Hakeem Nicks, there was Tate in the end zone with a touchdown to make it 27-0.
"They had been starting to key on certain plays," said center Lowell Dyer. "It was the perfect time for a reverse because we knew they were going to be hyped coming out and they wanted to get after it. They're an aggressive defense and they want to fly to the ball."
"When I heard the call come in, I only thought one thing: when I get around that corner, I have to run," Tate said. "Because I knew the Miami defense is just as fast as I am."
Well, not quite that fast, Brandon.
Tate's explosive play was a rarity in a 27-point first half for the Tar Heels--it was a big play made by an upperclassman. Watching Carolina pile on the points and make big plays on defense, it was startling how many were made by players who can't even grow a full beard yet.
The first touchdown was a 39-yard run by Anthony Elzy (freshman) on key blocks by Kyle Jolly (sophomore) and Aaron Stahl (sophomore). On the ensuing kickoff, Jonathan Smith (true freshman) stuffed Miami return man Lee Chambers at the Hurricane 7-yard-line. On the very next play, Deunta Williams (freshman) dragged down Javarris James for a loss of two yards.
Subsequent big plays were made by Kendric Burney (freshman), Marvin Austin (true freshman), Quan Sturdivant (true freshman), Yates (freshman), E.J. Wilson (sophomore), Aleric Mullins (sophomore), and Nicks (sophomore).
That's a dozen underclassmen playing essential roles against one of the highest profile teams in college football. This win will undoubtedly be compared to the 2004 victory over the Hurricanes. But the heroes of that game for Carolina--Darian Durant, Chad Scott, Tommy Richardson, and Gerald Sensabaugh among them--were juniors and seniors. 2004 was a team at its peak.
2007 is a team that hasn't even figured out where the top of the mountain could be. You feel like you should offer them orange slices and Capri-Sun in a celebratory postgame team meeting.
"We're on the rise," Elzy said. "We have an up-and-coming program. Today was just a little taste of what we can become once we get older and become more knowledgeable about the game."
Becoming more knowledgeable has been a point of emphasis from Butch Davis since the loss to South Florida. Through six games, he's steered them perfectly. Like a wise parent, he's understood that his players are bound to make mistakes. He's absorbed them. But he hasn't necessarily accepted them.
Charles Brown is a true freshman who has had some rocky moments in his first season of college football. He's occasionally been out of position and also picked up a key rally-snuffing penalty against Virginia. And yet there he was, stepping in front of a Kyle Wright pass at perhaps Saturday's most crucial moment, grabbing an interception and preserving a 33-20 lead.
It was hard to know which was more impressive--that he made the catch or that he was even on the field. There are places, there are coaches, and there are teams where Brown would have been buried after his early miscues.
Not at Carolina. At Carolina Davis takes big-play high school receivers and nurtures them until they turn into defensive backs who, yes, make big plays.
"The early going was rough for me because I've never played defense," Brown said. "I'm a freshman who played receiver in high school. But I'm starting to get it because I'm working with a great defensive coordinator in Coach Pagano and a great defensive backs coach in Coach Lovett. I've watched a lot of film and worked with them so that I'll understand our coverages."
The ringleader, as always, is Austin. Seven or eight years from now he'll be the poster child for Carolina football in the NFL. He's that good. But right now, he's the poster child for what the program could be. And maybe even what it already is.
"We're a young team," he said. "We have to keep building. But we're building something great at Carolina. And this is the start. This is the turnaround."
And this is Carolina football. Not flashy, maybe. Not a lot of organized dancing.
But a lot of fun.
Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven will be released on October 1. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
