University of North Carolina Athletics
Brownlow: A Deserving Ending
November 25, 2007 | Football
Nov. 25, 2007
By Lauren Brownlow
Six games by 24 points.
It has been the mantra all week long, and late-game problems have plagued the Tar Heels all season long. Carolina has let games get away - East Carolina on a botched field goal attempt. Virginia on a failed two-point conversion. A pass in South Carolina's end zone that fell just out of reach of Greg Little. The painful four-and-out that ended the comeback attempt at NC State. Taking the lead at Georgia Tech only to give it back when the Tar Heels could manage only a three-and-out and had to punt.
And as the clock wound down in the fourth quarter and Duke was driving for what was seemingly the game-winning field goal, Carolina fans had to be thinking, "Not again."
But Kentwan Balmer, the senior defensive tackle who played his last game in Kenan Stadium but certainly not his last football game, was not worried. Last season, he blocked a Duke extra point to give Carolina a win. So as he was running onto the field, he grabbed fellow defensive lineman freshmen Marvin Austin and pulled him close and said, "Let's do this, little bro." He and defensive ends E.J. Wilson and senior Hilee Taylor looked at each other in the eyes and promised not to let each other down.
Balmer and his teammates knew that even if they couldn't block the attempt, they had to do something to bother Maggio. Coach Davis has instilled in this team a desire to take care of the little things, things that it can actually control. It can't control how many talented guys the other team has or how many people get injured during a game or what a referee sees or doesn't see.
But what the Tar Heels could control all year - and what they controlled against Duke - was their constant effort and willingness to do the little things, even if they seem insignificant.
The attempt to bother Maggio's field goal try was something that this team has practiced over and over again, and it certainly paid off. "Coach always talks about how (field goal and) PAT block is going to define our team. He says, `1.2 seconds of effort,' and we gave that. If you watched the play, we created a new line of scrimmage. Maybe he got nervous. Like Coach Davis says, `You never know when he's going to bobble the snap and get nervous and shank it.' It paid off for us tonight," Balmer said.
When Nick Maggio kicked the 40-yard attempt and the ball hooked to the left, it was close enough to make the Duke bench believe that it had gone in, causing a Duke player to douse Coach Ted Roof with ice water.
As the last second ticked off the clock, the game went to overtime and after holding the Blue Devils to yet another missed field goal, Carolina scored on the first play of its first overtime possession to win the game. Some might say that it's not impressive to beat Duke in overtime. Those people probably don't remember the last time that Carolina has had an overtime win - 1998, a 30-24 win over NC State in Charlotte.
"Sometimes you never know during the course of a season - why do all the games have to be so close? Sometimes the answer doesn't always get revealed to you immediately. Sometimes it gets revealed like today," Coach Davis said. "As tough as some of these Sundays and Mondays were to come back off of tough disappointing losses when you played as hard as you humanly possibly could and you just came up short, it would have been very easy - a great deal of that credit has to go to this senior class. There's not very many of them, but those guys this year, the glue they held this team together and inspired them every single week to hang in there and remain a family, to keep working, to keep competing, you can't say enough about those seniors."
Hilee Taylor rallied the troops after the Wake Forest game, questioning his teammates' heart. It's hard to compare anyone's heart with that of Taylor's, who finishes his career fourth on Carolina's career sack list. Kentwan Balmer's positive, upbeat attitude and good work ethic has provided a tremendous example for young defensive linemen like Marvin Austin. Durell Mapp always did exactly what he was supposed to do and made nearly every tackle on the field - 12 in his Carolina finale. Joe Dailey had strong words for freshman Greg Little after his unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, showing even more signs of his future career in coaching.
This is a group that has lost quite a few more games (29) than it has won (18). It has been through a coaching change. It has been through lopsided, humiliating defeats and excruciatingly close losses.
So when Balmer was asked if he had any sympathy for the plight of the Blue Devils, who out-gained the Tar Heels 360-249 and still lost, he rolled his eyes. "No. It's a rivalry. Better them than us," he said. "We came up short a lot of times this year and it's been kind of disappointing. But this team believes in each other. I felt like no other team in America deserved it more than we do."
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
