University of North Carolina Athletics
Jacobs: Similar Mystiques Lend Comfort
October 26, 2009 | Football
Oct. 26, 2009
By Barry Jacobs, TarHeelBlue.com
North Carolina fans have long enjoyed the benefits of a mystique similar to Florida State's, albeit in a different sport. And while that knowledge won't salve the sting of last Thursday night's disheartening defeat at Kenan Stadium, it does lend an understandable familiarity to FSU's escape.
Since the mid-1950s, with little pause UNC basketball has boasted a Hall of Fame coach guiding teams to victories and championships, sometimes in the toughest of competitive circumstances. For 36 years, that person was Dean Smith, who had more career wins than all but one coach in major-college history. Most opponents came to regard beating Smith's teams, and the Heels, as a goal in itself.
Some places build statues to celebrate figures like Smith; UNC named its basketball arena in his honor. Rightly or wrongly, athletics at Chapel Hill is defined by that history-making coach, his sport's surpassing success, and by having a nationally prominent presence, most recently Roy Williams, roaming the Smith Center sidelines.
So it is with football at Florida State, where a statue of Bobby Bowden stands outside the stadium. Bowden put the FSU program on the map and has kept it at or near the top of the sport since the late 1970s. Football is what Florida State is known for, despite successful teams in other sports.
Under Bowden's guidance, FSU has spent most of its 18 ACC seasons as the team to beat, the opponent against which others measure themselves. When FSU plays at Wake Forest on Nov. 14, Bowden will surpass Virginia's George Welsh, who retired a decade ago, for the most games ever coached in the conference. The win at Kenan was Florida State's seventh in eight visits to Chapel Hill and gave Bowden his 169th victory as an ACC coach, 35 more than anyone else.
But these are difficult times for Bowden, who turns 80 next month.
A pending NCAA probation due to academic fraud touching several FSU sports is slated to cost Bowden 14 wins gained with ineligible players. That would leave him permanently behind Penn State's Joe Paterno in the race for most career football victories by a major-college coach.
Meanwhile, recent struggles on the field, including an 0-3 start to open the 2009 ACC football season, had the chair of Florida State's Board of Trustees, along with numerous fans and some media members, publicly calling for Bowden's ouster.
An end-point is in fact within sight. A contract was signed in 2007 with Jimbo Fisher -- celebrated in the Florida State media guide as "FSU's Next Head Coach" -- that elevates the offensive coordinator to take Bowden's place when the legend retires, or in January 2011, whichever comes first. If Fisher is not offered the job at that point, he will be paid $5 million.
Next season, North Carolina and Florida State meet at Tallahassee's Doak-Campbell Stadium. Considering the strong likelihood Bowden will never return to Chapel Hill as head coach, that made Thursday night's Kenan clash a stop in an unacknowledged farewell tour.
For the longest time, it appeared the Tar Heels would send Bowden off with a humiliating defeat en route to their first ACC win of the year. "I thought we got off to a great start," said coach Butch Davis. "You couldn't have asked our kids to play any better for the first 30 minutes, basically."
The Heels scored the first time they touched the ball against a squad that ranked last in the ACC in pass defense, rushing defense, pass defense efficiency, and total defense. By midway through the second quarter Carolina led 17-3 and FSU had yielded more yardage in penalties than it gained in total offense.
The visitors were fortunate to trail only 17-6 at halftime. Facing the ACC's top defense, they had minus-14 yards rushing in the opening 30 minutes, and failed to convert a third down in five tries. "I told the coaches and I also told the players at the half that's the worst half of football I can ever remember," Bowden said. "I've been coaching 55 years. I couldn't believe how we could play so bad."
FSU's troubles grew worse on the third quarter's opening possession. The Heels immediately increased their lead to 24-6 on a drive capped by quarterback T.J. Yates' unmolested 10-yard run. The point total surpassed UNC's average per-game output through the first half of the season.
Then, abruptly, the tide turned as the ACC leaders in total offense exploded for a pair of touchdowns within a span of barely a minute and a half.
Florida State's first score came on a short pass from quarterback Christian Ponder to culminate a 14-play drive. Four plays after the ensuing kickoff, Yates threw into double-coverage and suffered his sole interception of the game. FSU got the ball on its own two-yard line, and the Heels appeared in excellent position to shortcircuit any rally. Instead, Ponder, the ACC leader in total offense and passing average, hit wide receiver Rod Owens down the right sideline with a 98-yard scoring toss.
The combination of big mistakes on both sides of the ball staggered the Heels. Ponder completed his final 16 passes as FSU scored twice more, going ahead to stay on yet another touchdown throw, this one for 18 yards with 6:20 left to complete the biggest comeback of the ACC season to date.
"When things change, it happens quick," said UNC cornerback Kendric Burney. "We just didn't do what we were supposed to do. We lost our composure. You can't do that in any football game, whether you're up or down. That wasn't our defense. We didn't play the way we knew how to play in the second half, and it's definitely frustrating."
Loss of composure was the post-game theme among the Heels. Davis, no novice at building programs, saw progress but admitted the pain of defeat was compounded by "heart-breaking," self-inflicted wounds.
Still, he is a realist and offered a dispassionate view. "As you're building a program and you're building common experiences with these kids," Davis said, "a lot of these lessons that you learn are bitter, they're painful, they're not fun to go through. But they're things that sometimes you've got to go through."
Instant success is rare. Foundations are laid, traditions established, and reputations made over time. That requires patience, along with the knowledge it's been done before.
Just ask Dean Smith, or Bobby Bowden.
