University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Heels At Last Born To Run
September 12, 2008 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Sept. 12, 2008
by Lee Pace, Extra Points
The timeout was winding down midway through the first quarter Thursday night and some 42,000 Rutgers fans, stoked by their pre-game repasts of veal parmesan hoagies, cannolis and Flying Fish extra pale ales, girded up for the crescendo run of the best rock-and-roll song in history, one crafted from the hardscrabble genius of a native son named Bruce Springsteen:
The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody's out on the run tonight but there's no place left to hide.
For the Tar Heels and their long-beleaguered football program, there was certainly no place left to hide, not under the national TV laser of ESPN, not after 20 straight out-of-state losses in succession, not after a hollow opening win over McNeese State, not after the promise of a big-time coaching hire now well enough along in the process to show some tangible results.
The Scarlet Knights held a 3-0 lead over the Tar Heels as the intermission was winding down and the throaty strains of The Boss and Born to Run carried through the cool evening air. This was the fork in the road, the early game juncture where in years past the Tar Heels were out-run, out-hit, out-thought, out-blocked and out-hustled. For the Tar Heels, road trips in the 21st century were a death trap, a suicide rap, witness the first quarters at Virginia and Utah in 2004, at Louisville in 2005, at Clemson in 2006 and South Florida in 2007 (losses, by the way, that totaled 260-71 against the Heels).
"The important thing is going to be for us to hit 'em in the mouth out of the gate," senior linebacker Mark Paschal said early this week. "We need the momentum and we need to take their crowd out of it."
From the ensuing series when cornerback Kendric Burney clobbered a Scarlet Knight receiver and ignited his teammates, the Tar Heels collectively and efficiently took control of the game. They did it with offense--the usual weapons of Brandon Tate and Hakeem Nicks combined for 10 receptions, 201 yards and three touchdowns. They did it with defense--the Heels held Rutgers to 0-for-9 on third down and picked off four passes, with linebacker Bruce Carter returning one for a touchdown. They did it in the kicking game--redshirt freshman Jay Wooten connected on three field goals, and the kick-off cover team nailed Rutgers to the one yard-line to open the second half.
They did it with brain power on offense--the end-around package with Tate getting hand-offs on some snaps and serving as a decoy on others has been lethal through two games. They did it with good scheming on defense--the Heels were purposely milquetoast in the opener and unveiled a variety of stunts, pressures and blitzes against Rutgers. They were disciplined and smart--Butch Davis commented afterward on his defenders' tenacity to "stay at home" and not chase action across the field when the ball might soon retrace its path.
The old guys contributed--Garrett Reynolds and Calvin Darity were among the warriors along the trenches, and Paschal was the axis of defensive intensity from his middle linebacker slot. And some neophytes were introduced--Robert Quinn started at right defensive end and played most of the way, and his size and athleticism harkens images of Greg Ellis and Ebenezer Ekuban and shows you why Auburn, Alabama and South Carolina where so hard on his trail last February.
The result was a 44-12 dismantling of a Rutgers program that had scratched and clawed its way into the nation's top 10 a year ago and that popped Carolina's 2006 preseason bubble of optimism with a 21-16 thunderbolt. The feisty Rutgers crowd was white hot at kick-off, bright orange at the 3-3 juncture, yellow midway through the second quarter, gray by the time some of the fans started booing at halftime and completely cooled and ashen in the third quarter when students started emptying the northwest corner of Rutgers Stadium.
"That's what I was talking about," Paschal said afterward. "We stunned them and their crowd got out of the game."
"Kendric's hit jump-started the defense a little," safety Deunta Williams said. "We were going to play physical anyway, but that was the first punch."
Davis, his staff and the Tar Heel players resolved during an open week following an eight-point win over McNeese State to identify and reform the shortcomings of that game. Some were mental issues, others were technique and physical problems.
"This is a great week to coach," offensive coordinator John Shoop said. "You don't have the sour taste in your mouth from a loss. But you have enough problems you can really get after them."
"We were tough on them last week," Davis added. "We went full speed. Four practices last week probably were harder than any four we had in training camp. It was old-school football. And they responded. That's all you can ever ask your kids to do, to respond to the challenge put in front of them.
The result was on display in a marvelous three-hour commercial on network television for Carolina football. And it came for seniors like Tate in front of 18 NFL scouts, including GMs Jerry Reese of the New York Giants and Bill Polian of the Indianapolis Colts.
"We knew it was a big game on national TV," quarterback T.J. Yates said. "No one else was playing, everyone was watching us. We wanted to put on a good show."
And check this out: The Heels are getting some props. No "disrespecting" this bunch, as they say in today's urban dictionary.
"All I can say right now is that North Carolina had good players and their wide receivers were fast," cornerback Jason McCourty said. "They took us out and there and licked us."
Add QB Mike Teel: "We just got whipped by a better team that played hard, that played smart and played better."
The Tar Heels' newfound swagger was perhaps heralded by their arrival in their dressing quarters two hours before kick-off to find new navy pants waiting in their lockers. Complimented by the white shoes Carolina is wearing again this year and braced with the traditional interlocking "NC" on the Carolina blue helmet, the uniforms reflect Davis's quest to blend tradition with a new era.
"I love the look," Yates said. "It all goes well together. Little stuff like that kind of gives a team a spark."
"I got a shot of adrenaline when I saw the pants," Williams added. "I had heard some rumblings about the blue pants and hoped we'd see them."
Davis is not the first Tar Heel head coach to contemplate a darker and more menacing swatch to the uniforms. Navy blue--and not royal blue, the color of a rival institution in Durham--was a staple of Carolina attire through the mid-1950s, and the Tar Heels wore navy jerseys as late as 1956, Jim Tatum's first year as head coach. Bill Dooley changed the Heels' white helmets to Carolina blue when he arrived in 1967, saying "Good guys wear white hats" and thereby throwing down a symbolic gauntlet to his players. Dick Crum actually ordered navy jerseys in his last year at Carolina in 1987 but was overruled on using them by the administration, and those tops were used as practice jerseys in the early years of Mack Brown's regime. Brown gradually added more navy trim to the helmets, jerseys and pants over the 1990s to give his team a bolder look; there's quite a contrast to the Carolina uniforms in 1988, Brown's first year in Chapel Hill, and 1997, his last.
Davis referenced the possibilities this summer. "Navy has been a part of our history and tradition," he said. "Charlie Justice and his team once wore navy. Maybe that's a way to pay homage and tribute to a great generation and great era."
Their performance on the field Thursday night certainly does that as well.
"We want to take this program to the next level, and this was a good first step," Paschal said. "The first step was to win on the road, in an environment like this, against a good team like Rutgers. We're not there yet, we're not a finished product, but this was exciting and fun to be a part of."
"It's the start of something new in Carolina football," Yates offered. "I knew we had the capability to do something like this."
The Tar Heels and their traveling party were tired but giddy and frothy in Newark as they boarded their flight back home around 1 o'clock Friday morning, and as the plane taxied from the gate those watching ESPN on individual screens at each seat were treated to highlights from their victory in Piscataway.
There's Nicks snaring a nine-yard throw from Yates for the Heels' first touchdown.
"Money in the bank!" someone yelled.
There's Tate running a stutter route and leaving a Rutgers defender with no clue and no chance--rowdy laughter and hoots at this juncture--and then coasting to the goal with a 69-yard score.
"That man's got wheels!" someone shouted.
And there's Carter's interception and a weaving 66-yard return to the end zone.
"BRUCE! BRUCE! BRUCE!" the happy Tar Heels chortled in unison.
Ah, the sweet sound of kids having fun. And as the laughter and guffaws simmered down and the Tar Heels settled in for their hour-long flight back to Chapel Hill, over the Jersey state line and a blackened Atlantic Seaboard, one could only hope a once-proud program had come out of hiding.
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 pregame show for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Email him at leepace@nc.rr.com and include your name and hometown. No recruiting questions, please.
