University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Dealing With Reality
September 1, 2008 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Sept. 1, 2008
By Lee Pace
Extra Points
It was not the best of opening games, not the appetizer you would have whipped up to the 2008 season to quell the hunger pangs of a long summer waiting for some football. The third quarter was winding down, a team from the western extreme of Louisiana that hardly anyone in these parts had heard of was leading the Tar Heels by a touchdown, and a soaked and sodden crowd in Kenan Stadium was wondering what all these great expectations were about.
Already the Tar Heels' ACC brethren had gotten their teeth dislodged and noses rearranged as the autumn game came back around on the calendar. N.C. State lost a quarterback and withered on national television Thursday night at South Carolina, 34-0. Virginia Tech tasted its own trademarked brand of special-teams medicine when East Carolina returned a punt for a touchdown and snared a 27-22 victory. USC outgained Virginia 558-187 in total yards while cruising to a 52-7 laugher in Charlottesville. And Alabama, picked a middle-of-the-road team in the SEC West, had already scored on five of its first six possessions en route to hammering Clemson 34-10.
Carolina itself was doing little to elevate the ACC's football prestige. The Tar Heels could generate nothing of a sustained ground attack against McNeese State, despite that being off-season priority No. 1. Their defensive hole card--an athletic and deep front line--had been able to generate little penetration and heat on the Cowboys' spread offense. Backside discipline on kick coverage--a soft spot in 2007--had proven problematic again as the Cowboys reversed field on a punt return for a 70-yard touchdown. And the Cowboys appeared far more frisky and combative coming out of a weather delay that lasted nearly two hours.
The Tar Heel sideline was quiet in the wake of McNeese State's 20-14 lead. There was no sense of panic but there was no spark, either. Carolina fans, the ones who lasted through the weather delay, were nervous and impatient. Surely, they thought, dispatching worst-case-scenarios from their minds ....
Tar Heel coach Butch Davis had addressed such a situation just a couple of weeks ago. He and his staff knew McNeese State, coming of an 11-1 season with 12 starters returning, was a quality outfit. He knew that the respect his program was beginning to get across the ACC was pixie dust until the Heels validated it come game time.
"I told the team that it's the media's job and the alumni's job and the fans' job to deal in predictions and expectations," Davis said. "It's the coaches' job and the players' job to deal in reality.
"And the reality is, you'd better look yourself in the face tonight and find out what it's going to take to play much better every single week."
One Tar Heel whose reflection comes anointed with a halo is Brandon Tate, the senior receiver and kick-return maestro whose heroics jolted some energy back into Kenan Stadium and catapulted the Tar Heels to a 35-27 win over the spunky Cowboys.
With just five minutes left in the third quarter, Tate streaked down the sideline and reeled in a perfectly thrown pass from T.J. Yates for a 57-yard score that would give Carolina a lead it never relinquished. That followed punt returns of 38 yards and 82 yards (the latter for a touchdown) and a run from scrimmage of 54 yards to set up a Tar Heel score. His 397 yards all-purpose yards set a Carolina single-game record and left his coaches and teammates awestruck.
"Phenomenal game," Davis said.
"We were down and out and he made big play after big play after big play," defensive end E.J. Wilson said. "Every time he touched the ball tonight, he did something special. My hat's off to Tate."
"Oh, man, amazing," said Shaun Draughn. "I love watching Tate."
"When you play like that, the sky's the limit," Greg Little said.
Now there are 84 more scholarship players to get their games in gear as the Tar Heel prepare for a Thursday night ESPN game week after next at Rutgers.
"We clearly have got to play better," Davis said after giving McNeese State proper credit for its speed, athleticism, maturity and well-honed spread offense attack. "We didn't accomplish much offensively or defensively."
"The good thing is we got a win," linebacker Quan Sturdivant added. "The bad thing is we've got a lot to learn, a lot of mistakes to correct. We've got a lot to do to get ready for Rutgers. The defense has a long way to go to be where we want to be."
Most disappointing for the Tar Heels was their inability to mount a charge running the ball. Carolina mustered but 67 yards among three tailbacks, and its inability to sustain drives allowed McNeese State to run 23 more snaps from scrimmage and control the ball 10 more minutes. Davis admitted Saturday night the staff might "have been slightly hard-headed" in trying to establish a ground game against an eight-man front. But after studying tape on Sunday, he noted the basic lack of execution on the Tar Heels' part, no matter what the defense was showing.
"We knew they would have fast, athletic linebackers and you'd have to take great angles to make sure you get to the junction points to be able to execute the blocks," Davis said. "We have got to have better point-of-attack blocking to minimize some of the penetration. We knew they would do stunts and slants and things for faster, quicker, undersized guys to get penetration. That's on us. It's a matter of execution--by the offensive line, tight end, fullbacks and wide receivers. In an eight-man front, we have someone responsible for that eighth guy. We don't by design leave unblocked guys standing in the hole, but we did some of that."
Proving once again that the best way to be able to run the ball is to be able to throw it--and vice versa--the ground game found its bearings in the second half after loosening up the Cowboy defense with some downfield aerial strikes. Tailbacks Little and Draughn also developed some feel for letting the play develop in front of them, and each scored touchdowns in the fourth quarter (Draughn from 13 yards out and Little from five).
"They did a better job allowing their blocks to set up and used good vision to make some good cut-backs," Davis said. "Both the touchdowns came when McNeese was over-pursuing at the point of attack."
The most interesting development in the running game was the debut of the sophomore Draughn, a transplant from the secondary this fall. Fellow Tarboro native Kelvin Bryant brought Draughn to the attention of then-Tar Heel coach John Bunting during the 2005-06 recruiting season, and the staff was impressed by Draughn's athleticism and versatility (he rushed for nearly 1,500 yards as a senior at Tarboro High and started at defensive back as well). He red-shirted in '06, played special teams in '07 and asked for a shot on offense after spring practice. Draughn impressed his teammates this August with his explosiveness and nimble running ability at tailback, and Saturday night he gained 30 yards on seven carries.
"The switch has been awesome," Draughn says. "Over the off-season, I worked hard on the things I need to be able to run the ball and play offense--developing my body and speed and knowledge of the game. When I got in training camp, it felt natural and I felt at home."
Meanwhile, the Tar Heels' defensive challenge had all the earmarks of the early season encounter with Furman two years ago--a Division I-AA opponent (now known as Football Championship Subdivision) with an established and experienced offense and one difficult to defend because it's not the norm in the ACC. With Furman, it was the "flexbone," and the result was 521 yards of Tar Heel pain. With McNeese State, it was the read-option with an arsenal of lightning-quick runners and receivers. This result was 391 total yards and an average of five yards a pop.
"One of the biggest things about playing a read-option team is you've got to be disciplined," Davis said. "You can't anticipate where the ball might go. We lost some leverage lanes, we let the ball get out on the perimeter on a variety of ways. Something we've got to work on this next week is making sure everyone really understands their responsibility."
"We tried our best to put out the fire," added tackle Marvin Austin, who limped off the field late in the game but was deemed fine on Sunday. "We've just got to work on getting better as a team, trying to work on us and not worrying about anyone else."
Opening games are hard to read, particularly ones against unfamiliar opponents from far-away lands with no branding panache in college football. Give me Southern Cal in Anaheim any day (circa 1993) or a road trip to Oklahoma (2001). No matter the opponent nor the method, though, opening day 2008 counts as a win for the Heels. Few in the ACC stand 1-0 on Labor Day.
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace is in his 19th year of chronicling Carolina football through "Extra Points." He'll answer questions about the Tar Heels weekly throughout the season through his "Extra Points Mailbag" and on the pre-game show for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Email him at leepace@nc.rr.com.
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