University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points Mailbag
November 7, 2008 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Nov. 7, 2008
By Lee Pace
Extra Points
Game times and TV scheduling have been front-and-center in the Mailbag priority queue this week. Tar Heel fans were generally disappointed that Carolina's game tomorrow against Georgia Tech did not receive one of the premier 3:30 p.m. or nighttime slots in the ACC's lineup.
And they were further perplexed at why the football and basketball teams will be playing concurrently next Saturday (the football team plays at Maryland at 3:30, and the basketball team opens its season at home against Penn at 4 p.m.).
The background on how football game times and TV berths are selected was covered in a September mailbag ACC markets and is available on ESPN Game Plan. Ancillary cable and on-line telecasts for ESPNU and ESPN360 follow after the first three games are allocated.
For the games of Nov. 8, ABC/ESPN picked the Notre Dame at Boston College game for its 8 p.m. slot on ESPN and Clemson at Florida State for the 3:30 game on a split ABC/ESPN basis. Raycom then took its pick and tabbed Georgia Tech at Carolina.
While the Yellow Jackets-Tar Heels game has the most bearing on the evolving divisional title races of those three games, ABC/ESPN had what it felt were good reasons for picking the other two games ahead of the Carolina game.
Notre Dame is locked into a national TV package with NBC for its home games in South Bend, so when the Irish are on the road, it's an opportunity for another network like ABC, ESPN or CBS to pick up a team with a large national draw. Plus, Notre Dame and Boston College are intense rivals given their Irish-Catholic fan bases. ABC/ESPN wanted that game for the very same reason it claimed the Notre Dame at Carolina game a month ago.
And though there is no longer the "Bowden Bowl" storyline to the Tigers-Seminoles game given the recent firing of Clemson coach Tommy Bowden, that is still a marquee game between two schools with maniacal football followings. The dense population of the state of Florida and its football fervor always are lynchpins in getting FSU and the University of Florida on television. The TV networks held off making a decision on the Nov. 8 games until six days out; the fact that Clemson won last Saturday at Boston College provided more luster to their matchup the following week.
I am not saying you have to agree with that logic. I am just saying an argument can be made for those two games getting the nod in the pecking order.
One week later, the Carolina football and basketball teams will overlap for the first time in more than 20 years. The football team lost to Duke in Kenan Stadium on Nov. 21, 1987, while at the same time the basketball team was beating Syracuse 96-93 in the Tipoff Classic in Springfield, Mass. Five years earlier, a similar conflict occurred when the football team lost to Duke 23-17 while the basketball team was losing to St. John's 78-74, also in the Tipoff Classic.
Fox Sports South carries a variety of college football games during the fall, including the SEC, Big 12 and Southern Conference. Leading into the basketball season, it wanted a high-profile team in its early season lineup, so it worked out a football-basketball triple-header for Saturday, Nov. 15. The regional carrier has football games at 12:30 and 6:30, so late afternoon was the only slot available for basketball. It approached Carolina last summer about filling the slot, and Roy Williams was fine with the idea of opening on TV against Penn at 4 p.m.
Carolina's athletic administration knew it had a potential conflict if the football game was slotted at 3:30, but it was hoping for the best and appealed to the TV networks to not schedule the Carolina-Maryland game at 3:30. The TV networks, however, have only one thing in mind--getting the best game for their viewership according to whatever criteria they deem appropriate.
Looking at the football schedule for that weekend, one of the best games in the ACC is set for Thursday night--Virginia Tech at Miami. Neither Duke at Clemson nor Wake Forest at N.C. State are very appealing for the ABC/ESPN package. So the ABC/ESPN producers picked the two most attractive league games for that day and slotted Boston College at Florida State for 8 p.m. and Carolina at Maryland for 3:30.
That decision obviously leaves Carolina officials with major logistical challenges and puts the Tar Heel Sports Network in a quandary on how to handle the radio broadcast of the two sports.
Gary Sobba, general manager of Tar Heel Sports Properties, said this week that the network will be split into two crews--with Woody Durham and Rick Steinbacher in the booth at the football game in College Park and Jones Angell and Eric Montross providing the basketball call in Chapel Hill. The football broadcast will be heard over the network's usual array of stations, and listeners will receive frequent updates on the basketball game from correspondent Brad Heller in the Smith Center. Meanwhile, the production in its entirety from the basketball game will be available at no cost on the All Access on-line channel on TarHeelBlue.com. Then a complete tape-delay broadcast of the basketball game will be heard across the entire radio network beginning at 8 p.m.
As a former offensive lineman in high school, I enjoy watching the battle in the trenches and following the development of our "big nasties." It seems that Lowell Dyer has moved into the starting role the last month at center. I never heard of him during recruiting and heard that he is a walk-on. What is his story?
Christopher Evans, Asheville.
Dyer came to Chapel Hill as a walk-on in the fall of 2005 and has in fact earned a scholarship, Butch Davis awarding him a full ride after spring practice in April. He started six games in the first half of 2007 when senior Scott Lenahan was injured and came into the 2008 season competing with Aaron Stahl for the starting role at center. Stahl moved from left guard to center this year, but over the course of the season some injuries and personnel shifting have affected the lineup.
Dyer has started the last four games, with Stahl and Alan Pelc sharing time at left guard. Pelc has also swung over to right guard to give Calvin Darity a rest and played nearly all of the Boston College game there as Darity was injured (he will be back for Tech on Saturday).
Dyer is a double major in English and philosophy with a minor in business. Just this week he was nominated for the 2008 Wuerffel Trophy, which is presented annually to the Football Bowl Subdivision player that best combines exemplary community service, with academic and athletic achievement.
I love the festivities of college football. I love the atmosphere that has returned to Kenan Stadium with the smoke and fireworks upon the entrance of the team. I love the fireworks that fly with each score. My question is this: Why can't we find some blue fireworks to shoot instead of the red and green ones that go off now?
Brad Hutchens, Chapel Hill
Rick Steinbacher, who as associate athletic director for marketing oversees those elements of the game day show, answers the question: "Our vendor is working on that. Because we shoot the fireworks off the roof of the old Kenan Field House, so near to where fans are sitting, we have to use a `cool' technology of fireworks that does not have any hot or dangerous falling debris. There are numerous choices of colors for the normal type of fireworks, but these `cool' kind are very limited in the colors made."
When was the last time the Tar Heels were the highest ranked team in the ACC in the final AP poll?
Kurt Green, Seven Lakes, N.C.
Surprisingly it wasn't during the 1990s, the Tar Heels' last consistent run of nationally ranked teams. Florida State was always ahead of Carolina during that decade. In 1996, the Heels were 10th in both the AP and UPI polls and the Seminoles were third. In 1997, the Heels were sixth in the AP poll and the Seminoles third again.
You have to go to the 1979 and 1980s seasons for the answer.
The 1979 Carolina team was 8-3-1 and ranked 15th and was the only ACC team in the final poll. The 1980 team was 11-1 and ranked 10th and again was the only ACC team ranked.
Trimane Goddard is a semifinalist for the Thorpe Award. He is an outstanding defensive back and definitely one of the best to play at Carolina. I know that another great defensive back for Carolina was Dre Bly, but has there been any Carolina player to ever win the Thorpe Award?
Will Smith, Raleigh
No, the Tar Heels have never had a winner of the Thorpe Award. Bly was a finalist during the 1996 and '97 seasons, but the 1996 award went to Lawrence Wright of Florida and the next year to Charles Woodson of Michigan.
The video board did one of those puzzles of Julius Peppers during the Boston College game posing one of the clues as "one of only two players to have played in the Final Four & the Super Bowl." Who was the other player?
John Elliot, Lake Wylie, NC
Donovan McNabb was on the Syracuse basketball team that lost to Kentucky in the 1996 Final Four (he actually did not play in the Final Four, so the wording on the question was a little off). McNabb then quarterbacked the Philadelphia Eagles in their 24-21 loss to New England in Super Bowl XXXIX in February 2005.
Send your questions about Tar Heel football to Lee Pace at leepace@nc.rr.com and include your name and hometown. No recruiting questions, please. Pace will answer your questions regularly throughout the season on Tarheelblue.com and on the Tar Heel Sports Network's pre-game show.
