University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points Mailbag
September 26, 2008 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Sept. 26, 2008
by Lee Pace, Extra Points
There were three common threads running through the emails from Tar Heel fans this week processing Saturday's 20-17 loss to Virginia Tech:
What happens now at quarterback with T.J. Yates out for six weeks?
Why can't the Tar Heels run the ball any better?
And what about those officials' calls that twice gave Virginia Tech new life on a crucial third quarter scoring drive?
I'll address the last issue first. Since this website is institutionally affiliated, I can't criticize the officials any more than Butch Davis can. I long ago figured out it's better for your blood pressure to slough off the vagaries of officiating. I have responded to every fan venting about those calls that the answer is simple: Carolina just has to get better so that when it ventures into opposing territory, as it did on three straight first quarter possessions against Tech, it scores more than three points. That way any bad breaks in the second half aren't so important.
The blow to Yates and the Tar Heels was huge. After a freshman year in which Yates showed a good arm and big play potential countered by too many errors of youth, he had made marked improvement through three games in 2008. He had thrown only one interception, was leading the ACC in passing efficiency and was managing the offense extremely well.
"Those who know football, who sat in our meeting room, could see it coming," offensive coordinator John Shoop says. "T.J. was doing well. It's disappointing because he was about to be really good. He was not even close to throwing an interception the last two games. He was `getting it.'"
The focus now is on redshirt freshman Mike Paulus and redshirt junior Cam Sexton. Both split time running with the No. 1 offense this week, and Davis and Shoop say both are expected to play, though they haven't designated a starter and don't plan to before kick-off Saturday at noon against Miami in Dolphins Stadium in suburban Miami. The coaches have also worked hard this week to deflect as much attention away from the quarterbacks, correctly noting that the 10 other moving parts of the offense remain the same. To limit the demands on their time and keep them focused on preparing for Miami, Paulus and Sexton were both off-limits to the news media all week.
The strength of the Tar Heel offense remains its wide receivers, so whichever quarterback is playing is still going to try to connect with Brandon Tate, Hakeem Nicks and Brooks Foster. Shoop says that "dumbing down" an offense to accommodate a new quarterback is condescending to the rest of the team and sends a bad message.
"We're not slowing the train down," Shoop says. "Cam and Mike have to keep up with it."
There has been extensive gnashing of teeth over the Tar Heels' perceived inability to run the ball through three games, but the issue warrants closer examination. Carolina is averaging 141 yards a game running the ball, a significant increase over their total the last three seasons of 101, 113 and 99 yards a game. So there is indeed progress.
Parse that total, however, and you find that Tate and Foster account for 62 yards a game of that total, most of them coming on end-arounds. Those plays are part of the misdirection package that includes potential handoffs to the tailback, pitches or hand-offs to the receivers coming around as well as various play-action passes that can develop. The success of the receivers, in fact, softened up Virginia Tech's interior and allowed Greg Little to pop a 50-yard touchdown run on a play when Foster was circling back across the backfield.
Davis believes the Tar Heels aren't getting enough credit for Tate's and Foster's yards being part of the overall running game. He cites the structure of the defenses the Tar Heels have played as being stacked to stop the run with eight-man fronts.
"So you can approach it two ways," Davis says. "You can run the ball to the perimeter with your wide receivers or you can throw the football, and against all three of these teams, that's been the approach. And whether Brandon Tate gets it or Brooks Foster gets it or Hakeem Nicks gets it on the perimeter, it's still a part of the running game. But until we can get past the amount of the eight-man fronts, that might be the way we have to go."
The Tar Heels certainly need more production from the tailback position, no argument there from anyone. Little and Shaun Draughn are still relative newcomers to the position--Little five games into his career and Draughn three--so they still have enormous progress to make to become established tailbacks.
"We're so close in the running game," tight end Zack Pianalto says. "I know it might not look that way from the stands. Each time we watch film, it's really frustrating because of all the little mistakes we make, maybe one guy misses an assignment. One little correction here and we take for 20 yards. A correction there and it goes the distance. We're still working on it, and I think we'll get there."
Yards gained aside, Shoop is more interested in ball security. Both Draughn and Little lost fumbles against Tech; Paulus made a poor read and threw an interception near the Tech goal. Both fumbles led to Tech points, and the interception took a potential short field goal away.
"Good teams don't fumble the ball," Shoop says. "It's that simple. It doesn't happen. We did twice. The interception was a tragedy. At worst, we should be kicking a 10-yard field goal. These things can't happen."
I heard a lot about running back Ryan Houston's 30 pounds that he lost in the off-season. He was a great back last year and needed speed, but I am sure he has become much faster after the offseason. I wanted to know if he will be getting any carries going into Miami or if he might have a shot in moving up the depth chart?
Will Smith, Raleigh
Butch Davis was asked that very question Wednesday after practice. Here is his answer:
"I think Ryan is a better football player today than he was a year ago," Davis said. "The running back picture got a little more clouded because of the emergence of Shaun Draughn. How that plays out, we'll see. Whether it's Greg Little or Shaun Draughn or Ryan Houston, he has a future in this program and has a future as a running back. I love the way he cut the weight and increased his speed and quickness. He's going to get a day to go out there and show what he can do."
Davis, by the way, was also asked about freshman Jamal Womble and if he might be pulled from a redshirt season. His answer: No.
I have been impressed by Robert Quinn's play since he first started against Rutgers at defensive end. Are there any other of the highly ranked defensive studs who signed last year who might contribute this year?
Harold Patterson, Southern Pines
Quinn is a 6-5, 260 pound defensive end from Ladson, S.C., who has made four unassisted tackles, three sacks for eight yards and hurried one pass in starting games against Rutgers and Virginia Tech. His sack of Tyrod Taylor when the Hokies were backed up in the first quarter helped stoke the Tar Heels' emotions and those of their fans, who made so much noise on that series that Taylor was forced to call two timeouts.
"Robert's an amazing athlete," says left tackle Kyle Jolly, who faces him daily in practice. "For such a young kid, he's got incredible strength and he knows how to use it. He's got a wrestling background and he knows how to leverage his opponent."
Quinn and fellow freshmen Quinton Coples and Michael McAdoo have also played some the last two games.
"I've never seen three freshmen like those guys," says defensive line coach John Blake. "These are the kinds of kids you need to have to compete at this level. The future is bright. These kids are going to keep getting better, and we're going to keep signing more like them."
I live in Texas and fly up for several games a year. Why can't the game times be announced early? In the case of Notre Dame, aren't all their games on TV? When is the kick-off?
Adrian Shelley
A handful of emails like this come in each year. I received another recently from a childbirth education coordinator at UNC Hospitals wanting starting times for all of the Tar Heels' home games so she could schedule classes. They are a good reminder to provide a primer on the scheduling realities of modern college football.
Each collegiate athletic conference has relationships with various TV networks for televising its games. The networks pay for these rights and, over the years, part of their negotiating stance has been to bargain for more control of starting times. There are essentially three windows to slot games into--Noon, 3:30 and 7 to 8 at night. Having wide flexibility allows the networks to pick and chose the best games as the season evolves.
The ACC has relationships with ABC/ESPN (both owned by the same parent company, the Walt Disney Corporation), and Raycom Sports (formerly Lincoln Financial Sports/Raycom). These networks control all ACC home games and games at neutral sites that were originally set for ACC venues.
The system works like this:
ABC and ESPN are obligated to inform the ACC by June 1 each year of the games it will televise and the starting times for the first three weeks of the season. After that, beginning this year with the games of Sept. 20, the networks select their games and starting times 12 days before each Saturday. That means, for example, that starting times for this Saturday's games would have been set on Monday, Sept. 15.
ABC and ESPN have first dibs and can take as many as three games--one for ABC, one for ESPN and one for ESPN2--provided there are at least two remaining ACC games for the Raycom regional package. After Raycom picks, any remaining games can be selected by ESPN for viewing on ESPNU, ESPN Classic or EPSN360.
The codicil that causes the most confusion and frustration for administrators and fans is that ABC/ESPN have four six-day options they can utilize at any time. If the network programmers are trying to decide on a particular Monday which games they will televise in 12 days and they would rather wait to see what happens the coming Saturday, they can use one of their six-day options. That sets back their decisions until the next Sunday, six days prior to the Saturday in question.
To put the system into the context of the current season, the Tar Heels had two games in the first three weeks of the season, and both were set in early June--McNeese State with no TV and Rutgers on ESPN. That took the season through Sept. 13.
Thus Monday, Sept. 8 was the 12-day deadline to set times for games of Sept. 20. Right out of the block, ABC used one of its six-day options and said it would wait until Sunday, Sept. 14 to select games and set times. That's when the Carolina game vs. Virginia Tech was announced for 3:30 and ABC.
As for Notre Dame, the Irish have a contract with NBC that allows the network to televise all Irish home games. Carolina's game in South Bend in 2006 was shown on NBC. For Notre Dame road games, however, the contracts of the home team conference prevail. It will certainly be picked up for TV, but we don't yet by whom or the game time. The 12-day deadline for that Saturday would be the coming Monday, Sept. 29.
***
Clarifying a mistake from last week: I said it was the Ohio game in 1995 when the Tar Heels last had a turnover-free game. That game was actually the last time the Heels had not allowed a third-down conversation prior to holding Rutgers 0-for-9 on third downs two weeks ago. The last game the Heels played without a turnover was the loss at Notre Dame two years ago.
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.
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