University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Lights, Camera, Cut!
October 23, 2009 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Oct. 23, 2009
by Lee Pace
CHAPEL HILL - Butch Davis and the University of North Carolina got the four-hour infomercial they wanted--the town, the gown, the team, the venerable stadium in the pines bathed in baby blue on national TV in prime time, the Hall of Famer on the sideline. Infinite hours of planning and detailing came together Thursday and for much of the Indian summer evening, the script was just as old Charles Kuralt might have written for an Emmy winning production.
Franklin Street was abuzz in a carnival atmosphere from midday on as many fans played hooky from the real world and partook of this curiosity of Thursday night football, the inaugural rendition in Chapel Hill. No one was quite sure how the exercise of emptying campus of employees and hospital staff and then filling Kenan Stadium with 60,000 fans in a five-hour time window would evolve, so many just came to town six hours early and enjoyed libations, wings and fried calamari for the duration.
"It's been a steady stream of traffic all day long," said Sutton's owner and pharmacist John Woodard. "I think a lot of people were scared of the traffic and decided to come and make a day of it."
Larry Gallo, an associate athletic director leading a task force in charge of the Thursday night logistics, drove around the perimeter of campus around 4:30 p.m. and found that University faculty and staff had vacated seamlessly and that avenues were open for fans to find their parking spots. A command center in Kenan Field House showed traffic cams from various locations around the Triangle and, though there were some requisite rush-hour slow-downs on I-40 between Raleigh and Chapel Hill, there were no serious problems.
"We got very lucky with the things beyond our control--an accident on I-40, bad weather, those kinds of things," Gallo said. "Apparently it went very well. Was it perfect? I'm sure you will find some people who said it wasn't. But it appeared to be a successful operation. A lot of people were tailgating, and there seemed to be no traffic at all at some spots around campus."
It's not unusual for ESPN to draw upwards of four million viewers to its Thursday night telecasts, the unofficial opening to the American football weekend, which is why Davis, the consummate salesman, pusher and prodder, worked to have campus officials be creative in finding a way to host one. ESPN cameras caught the atmosphere in a variety of ways--following sophomore headliner Robert Quinn through a tunnel of Tar Heel denizens on the Old Well Walk, for example; up close in the end zone Tar Pit and in the faces of frenetic students bathed in blue paint and wearing Darth Vader costumes; and at grass level as Johnny White waved an American flag and spirited the Tar Heels through the smoky haze of the tunnel just before kick-off.
"I remember watching the Rutgers game on Thursday night TV last year and thinking how amazing it would be to have that in Chapel Hill," said Pinehurst sophomore Andrew Stilwell, director of the Carolina Fever student fan club. "This is our chance to show the world what Carolina football--and Carolina fans, for that matter--are all about."
ESPN came out of a first-quarter commercial break showing photographs of Carolina luminaries Mia Hamm, Michael Jordan and Lawrence Taylor from their undergrad days and then cut to live shots on the sideline of LT himself, the finest outside linebacker of the 1980s, and then of Julius Peppers, one of the best of the current century. Peppers made a quick road trip from Charlotte with fellow Tar Heel letterman and current Carolina Panther teammate Hilee Taylor. Peppers, Taylor and Richard Quinn, a rookie with the Denver Broncos, watched from the right side of the Tar Heel bench area while Taylor and 1970s era teammates Alan Caldwell, Bobby Cale, Francis Winters and Kenny Rogers hunkered down on the opposite side.
Taylor's return to Chapel Hill was his first in more than two decades. Davis mentioned to former Tar Heel Alan Caldwell, a letterman at defensive back from 1975-77, that he would love to have Taylor return to Chapel Hill for a game or an off-season visit, and Caldwell worked as an intermediary for some time to help make it happen. Davis suggested the Thursday night ESPN game would be perfect for the visit.
"Lawrence couldn't believe that there were people in Chapel Hill who still cared about him," Caldwell says. "I would call him and ask how he was doing. He would say, `Why do you care?' Because we were brothers. Lawrence has battled a lot of things in his life. He's overcome a lot of things. Timing is everything. The timing was right."
Three weeks ago, Taylor accepted the invitation and the wheels were put in motion. He addressed the players, signed autographs and posed for photos on Wednesday night at the team hotel and then spent Thursday carding a nifty 1-over-par score from the tips at Old Chatham Golf Club. By kick-off he appeared as intense and fierce as that old LT of New York Giants days who screamed in a memorable NFL Films clip that the Giants would play "like a bunch of crazed dogs." He sloughed off an interview request for the Tar Heel Sports Network by saying, "No interviews. I'm into this game."
"Lawrence doesn't watch college football," Caldwell says. "It's too real for him. The pro game is a job, a business. You play college football because you love it. You just go play like a kid. Watching a college game brings that back for Lawrence. That's why he's so antsy during a game."
And there was plenty of action to churn the emotions in every direction. The proceedings on the field for two and a half quarters were all Davis and the Tar Heels could have hoped for, the Heels using creative offense and stout defense to build a 24-6 lead. The offensive game plan conceived by John Shoop and the rest of the staff and executed by the players was a work of art. Their mission was to use the Seminoles' trademark speed and aggressiveness against them, to keep them, as Shoop said, from "getting their cleats stuck in the ground pre-snap, to keep them from getting into a track stance."
Carolina used multiple motions and shifts and quick counts to keep FSU off guard. Fullback Bobby Rome connected on a gadget pass to set up one touchdown (the former high school quarterback has had similar completions in 2007 vs. N. C. State and last year at Maryland). Quarterback T.J. Yates provided a stellar acting job on another gimmick, turning to the sideline as if in confusion while the ball was snapped directly to Shaun Draughn for a fourth-down conversion. The end-around was a bread-and-butter generator of good yards, and one touchdown came when the Heels were using an unbalanced line and the Seminoles were fooled into thinking Ed Barham was a tackle when he was actually an end who was easily popped open for a completion. Another apparent touchdown when Yates rolled right, looked into the flat and then heaved the ball downfield to a wide open Jheranie Boyd for 81 yards was called back for holding.
"We had some struggles offensively against Virginia and Georgia Tech, we didn't play very well," Davis said. "Tonight we moved the ball like a good offense, we did a lot of good things. We made plays in the running game, we made plays on the perimeter, we made plays inside. We got big plays down the field."
Carolina held a 182-107 advantage in total offense by the 11:33 mark of the third quarter and, not coincidentally, owned an 18-point lead. Then the script took a dark and foul turn for the Tar Heels. A Yates pass near the goal line was intercepted and soon after cornerback Charles Brown slipped in coverage, allowing the Seminoles to pop a 98-yard scoring pass. Florida State was back in the game, the momentum shifted and the Tar Heels' control leaked away, drop by drop by torturous drop. Seminole quarterback Christian Ponder was superb, hitting 33-of-40 passes for 395 yards and three scores and extending his streak of not throwing an interception to 237 passes.
When the curtain fell, the Seminoles slipped out of Chapel Hill with a 30-27 victory safely tucked away.
"We just lost our composure," cornerback Kendric Burney said. "We stopped doing the things that got us a big lead on defense. There are no excuses for the way we played in the second half."
"We had them down," added defensive end E.J. Wilson. "We should have stepped on the jugular. We should be been full tilt. We should have continued playing like we did in the first half if not even turn it up. I felt like we did let them hang around too long. I hope we watch the film and see what kind of defense and team we are. We can compete with anybody. The key word is finish. We just have to finish."
The finish, of course, will stick in the craw of the Tar Heel family and their supporters for quite some time. Arguments can be made on both sides for Davis's decision to punt the ball with just over four minutes to play--ultimately, he thought the defense was playing well enough to force a three-and-out. Davis was questioned post-game about the lack of bringing more second-half heat. He answered that the nature of FSU's spread offense made it difficult to bring pressure on a consistent basis and that second-half injuries to Bruce Carter and Jordan Hemby limited the defensive tool box.
"You have to go through a lot of things as a football team and a program," Davis said. "You can't script this. You have to go through these kinds of things, games like the Notre Dame game when you win at the end, the Connecticut game where it looks like all is lost and all of a sudden you win the game at the end. As you're building a program, you're building shared experiences."
As the game ended, the storyline for ESPN had moved to the east end of Kenan Stadium and embattled Seminoles coach Bobby Bowden. Across the way, the Tar Heels and their eminent alumni walked slowly off the field. Shared experiences? Lawrence Taylor can identify. His Tar Heels were castigated after a 1978 loss to Miami (Ohio) and two years later won the ACC title. Alan Caldwell can as well. His Tar Heels were scorched by the home fans in a 1975 home loss to East Carolina and two years later won the ACC championship.
"Dig deep, dig deep, dig deep," Caldwell said. "Find a reserve. That's what this team will do next. Adversity can bring out the best in people. We heard boos in 1975 and resolved to never hear them again."
And with that, Thursday night football fades to black.
Lee Pace has written "Extra Points" since 1990 and serves as the sideline reporter for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Email your questions for the pre-game show to asktheheels@gmail.com.
Players Mentioned
