University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Burn
November 17, 2007 | Football
Nov. 17, 2007
By Adam Lucas
ATLANTA--This was going to be about road woes. Or maybe last-second losses.
There will be plenty written on both those topics in the next few hours. The Carolina football program hasn't gotten off an airplane happy since the 2002 trip to Arizona State. The long-gone names in that boxscore include Chesley Borders, Sam Aiken, and Kevin Knight. There's not a single player on this year's team that has ever experienced a happy airplane trip back to Chapel Hill.
"That doesn't even make any sense," said center Scott Lenahan, one of the Tar Heels who will end his career 0-for-the-air. "I have no idea how to explain that."
Of late, those losses have been of the painful, last-second variety. This Carolina team now has six losses by a combined 24 points. This time, they actually nudged ahead, taking a 25-24 lead with under six minutes left. And then, when Georgia Tech missed a chip field goal with under three minutes remaining, it seemed like this could finally be the payoff for a season of heartbreakers.
Even when Connor Barth lined up for an unthinkable 63-yard field goal--going the same direction in which he'd been crushing his kickoffs all day--there was a glimmer of hope...until it was tipped at the line of scrimmage.
"That ball had a chance," Barth said. "It was one of the best balls I've hit. I had to take a little height off of it because of the distance but I definitely hit it solid."
That's the thing about Carolina football. It makes the impossible seem normal. If you've been a Tar Heel fan over the last decade, you've seen some of the most improbable football anyone could ever experience.
It's gotten to the point that when Tech punter Durant Brooks unleashed a 77-yard punt--the longest against Carolina in the history of the program--the reaction was one of amazement. But not that someone would punt a ball that far against the Tar Heels. It was simply surprising it hadn't happened before now.
That was the here-we-go-again kind of mindset that seemed to hover over this game.
That's the environment that Butch Davis was standing in when he walked to a flimsy podium in the Tech locker room to address the media after the defeat. There were 22 people in the room. His words, of course, will go to a much larger audience over the next few hours and days.
There have been times this season when Carolina lost a game and the head coach already seemed removed from it--when he was already seeing the big picture--by his postgame media session. He is remarkable for his preparation, which sometimes makes him come across as detached. Davis is a top-echelon football coach because he is polished and in control.
Saturday afternoon, he allowed a rare glimpse into his feelings for the Tar Heel football program. Saturday afternoon, it was obvious he was feeling some of the same pain you're feeling. And the way it colored his words led to his most eloquent state of the program speech this season.
"It was a heartbreaker," Davis said. "There are a lot of ways that define champions. One of the best analogies is teams that refuse to surrender...I truly believe the character of the program is defined by commitment and passion and perseverance and how hard the kids play. Our kids spilled their guts out there to win that ballgame.
"There wasn't one kid in the locker room who had anything left in the tank. I am very proud of the way these kids played today. We were a first down away from winning a game that it looked like we had no chance to win."
That's been true several times this season, of course. What the Tar Heel football fan base needs right now is a reason to believe that all this pain will eventually lead to something. Over the past decade, there have been other times when success has seemed so close. There needs to be some kind of evidence that sometime soon the guys wearing the blue jerseys will find out what it feels like to regularly walk off the field happy. It's getting old watching sad scenes like Lenahan throwing his arm around T.J. Yates as they walk, blank-faced, past stands packed with happy opposing students.
"Win next time," someone called from the stands. OK, sure. But when?
And then Davis said this:
"I read a book a long time ago that someone recommended to me. It was called Cradles of Eminence and it documented 100 of the world's most famous people, from Helen Keller to Abe Lincoln. For every single one of those people who became great there was a source of discontent. A burning passion that somehow, someway inspired those people to become great.
"Maybe that's what this season is about, to put that burning passion just close enough that next year we'll win close games. It provides the motivation for the next seven or eight months before the season starts next year. Maybe losing six games by 24 points is the source of our discontent. A lot of people won't sleep tonight. Maybe that's what this program needs. Maybe that's what the coaching staff needs. Something that burns so deep in your heart that you're willing to do all those extra things to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Maybe so. The way he said it, with just the right tone of conviction and looking everyone in the room in the eye, it seemed completely plausible.
For just a moment, Davis made it seem like the beginning of something hopeful rather than the end of something dismal. It didn't make the burn feel any less painful.
It just made it feel more promising.
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.
