University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Brrruuuuuucce
October 5, 2008 | Football, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Oct. 5, 2008
By Adam Lucas
I am a wave-hater.
I am that crotchety guy who sits behind you and starts mumbling about how stupid the wave is when it starts making its way around the stadium--any stadium.
I feel it is important that you know about my wave-hating so you will have the proper context for the earth-shattering information I am about to provide you:
On Saturday night, at 9:20 p.m., I did the wave at Kenan Stadium. Several times. And I enjoyed it.
That's the kind of night it was in Chapel Hill.
Yes, the lights went out. Twice. But that's not the story. The story is that no one seemed to mind. The game was delayed 22 minutes, but no one in the crowd of 59,500 seemed to mind. There have been sunny Saturdays in the very recent past where a 22-minute delay would have been too much to ask anyone to endure, and fans would have started heading for Franklin Street or somewhere more fun.
Saturday night, with the Tar Heels holding a 17-6 lead and two banks of lights suddenly extinguished, there was nowhere else more fun in Chapel Hill than Kenan Stadium.
First, the students started the wave. Not a small wave, but a giant monsoon wave that circled the stadium at least ten times. Then, the stadium PA blasted Carl Douglas's highbrow hit, "Kung Fu Fighting," which sparked a full-on dance party in the student section.
If you've spent much time in Kenan, you know this to be true: there was more fun had in that 22-minute power outage than in some entire games from recent seasons.
"I looked around when the lights were out, and the fans were starting the wave," senior E.J. Wilson said. "I looked over and told a couple guys, `In my four years, I never thought I would see that here.' These fans have been waiting a long time for this."
He's right. And they're showing their excitement in unexpected ways.
Late in the first quarter, sophomore linebacker Bruce Carter broke up a pass. Then the fans started booing...or were they?
"I knew they weren't booing," the soft-spoken Carter said with an uncharacteristic wide grin, the kind you'd get if 60,000 people were screaming your name. "I knew what they were doing."
They weren't booing. They were chanting, "Brrruuuuuuuccce."
Now, Carter is a very good player. He will one day be a professional football player. But he is not exactly the kind of marquee player who gets his name chanted in the fifth game of his sophomore season. Usually, that's a guy like Brandon Tate or Hakeem Nicks, a superstar who gets in the end zone and gets plenty of TV time.
Carter doesn't get in the end zone (unless he's running back an interception at Rutgers). He just clogs running lanes and makes big tackles. Chanting his name is the equivalent of cheering a key sacrifice bunt or applauding a player taking a charge. It spilled from the stands again--"Brrruuuuuuucce!" after his blocked punts, but it was more impressive after his early pass breakup.
Since the arrival of John Blake as a Tar Heel assistant coach, there's been no higher compliment in the UNC football world than to be deemed a "freak." Make enough plays, and you might even graduate to "stone cold freak" status. On one of his first days in the office, Blake announced, "We've got to get some stone cold freaks in here."
So, what exactly is Carter?
"He's a freakish athlete, man," said Marvin Austin.
"Bruce is a freak," said tailback Shaun Draughn, whose 109 yards put him close to the freak category.
Of course, the word "freak" comes with the implication that it's somehow genetic, that you either have it or don't.
Carter knows the truth. Some of his performance is based on raw athletic ability, the kind that enabled him to play quarterback in high school. But over the past two seasons, he's learned a little secret: freaks watch film.
Carter is part of a defensive group that meets every morning at 6:30 with defensive coordinator Everett Withers. They watch film and they prepare, all while some of their fellow students are still straggling home from another late night.
"It's all preparation," Carter said. "It's knowing where to line up, knowing what to do when the ball is snapped. We do all that at 6:30. When you get up that early, you know some of it has to pay off in a game."
His blocked punts were huge, and those plays--which involved some freelancing by Carter--are freak quality because of the athleticism involved.
But Butch Davis's postgame comment was telling: "(Bruce) was terrific as a linebacker."
Being a linebacker for Davis means more than just being a freak. It means athleticism and speed, yes, but it also means preparation.
Now, perhaps, Davis's Chapel Hill vision is coming together. People are noticing.
Quan Sturdivant and Mark Paschal were standing along the sidelines before Saturday night's kickoff.
"Look in the corners, Quan," Paschal told his teammate while gesturing at the upper reaches of Kenan Stadium.
"Huh?" Sturdivant replied.
"The corners are full, Quan," Paschal said. "Do you know what that means?"
"No," Sturdivant said.
Then Paschal, who has seen virtually every home game over the last 15 years, provided the perfect assessment of the night, of Carter's play, of the bizarre light delay, and of Carolina football:
"It means it's a sellout," he said. "It means people are excited."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
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