University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Purple Provocation
September 21, 2009 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Sept. 21, 2009
by Lee Pace
The Rodney Dangerfield card has been the lynchpin of the East Carolina playbook for each of the Pirates' 12 meetings with the Tar Heels dating back to 1972. "Many of our players were told they weren't good enough to play at North Carolina," Pirate coach Skip Holtz said last week. "This will be a game that they put a chip on their shoulders for." That was the same message, delivered perhaps with a little less homespun syrup, as found in coach Pat Dye's ode to his 1975 "skinny legged boys" who upset the Tar Heels in Kenan Stadium.
Yet motivation cuts two ways. It seems there was plenty of it in the Tar Heel camp last week as the build-up to Saturday's Tar Heels vs. Pirates game evolved and then more as the teams took the field for the day's festivities.
Safety Deunta Williams had plenty of stimulus to play well. He grew up in Jacksonville and, as a native "Downeaster," felt the heat for two years after East Carolina's 34-31 win in Greenville in September 2007.
"It's funny--they can be the nicest people in the world, but once they come to the Carolina game, they transform," Williams said. "They haven't let us forget that loss."
Receiver Erik Highsmith hails from West Craven High in Vanceboro, midway between Greenville and New Bern. One year ago, he was hoping for scholarship offers from either/or the Tar Heels and Pirates. As soon as one came in late October from Carolina, he pounced on it.
"This game motivated me more with them not offering me a scholarship," Highsmith said. He smiled beneath his eye-black patches with his hometown area code of "252" inscribed in white ink and added, "I can't wait to get on the phone."
And the drive spread to players from far flung locales like Washington, D.C. Marvin Austin could care less about the Carolina-ECU rivalry per se, but when he heard the Pirates chirping en masse during pre-game warm-ups, Austin threw down the gauntlet.
"They got me fired up," said Austin, who had five tackles and one break-up. "They woke the giant up. They talked a lot of smack. When they started up with all the talk, I said, `Okay, we're going to see if you're ready.' Then once the game was going on, it's like they were mutes. The quarterback wouldn't even look at me. When we got the win, they're walking around with their heads down. It's an awesome feeling."
The Tar Heels held off the ECU challenge Saturday before a rollicking crowd in Kenan Stadium, taking a 31-17 win forged with the team's best offensive performance of the year and another defensive performance that was salty against the run (1.8 yards allowed on 30 rushes) and brought the fury to Pirate QB Patrick Pinkney. "When you've got NFL-bound players coming at you every play, it's hard," Pinkney said. The Tar Heels improve to 3-0, and the non-conference appetizers have now been polished off. It's on to ACC divisional play and back-to-back divisional foes Georgia Tech and Virginia.
"Put a pencil to it--we have 48 freshmen and sophomores out of 81 scholarship players," Carolina coach Butch Davis said. "This team has 10 seniors today. We are a work in progress. Don't make any mistake about that. We are going to have challenges, we are going to have adversity. We've been challenged more with injuries maybe more than any team I've been associated with in 35 years of coaching. But our kids believe in each other and the coaches believe in the kids. We just keep fighting to find a way to win each Saturday."
Two cases in point of believing and stepping forward Saturday were the offensive line and the receivers.
The blocking front over the last year has lost three players to graduation, three to career-ending injuries and two to personal defections. One more was lost in training camp to a season-ending injury, and then starters Lowell Dyer and Jonathan Cooper missed the UConn game, the former being out for a month and Cooper questionable this week. Cooper played some in the first half Saturday but re-tweaked his right ankle. Still, the line, with Cam Holland and Greg Elleby in their second starts, did a much better job opening holes in the running game and protecting quarterback T.J. Yates. The Tar Heels gained 433 yards and suffered no quarterback sacks.
"A significant factor was that our line got to play together for a week," Davis noted. "They struggled some last week but hadn't practiced as a group for the entire week. Obviously this week was a little bit better."
"This week we got comfortable with Cam and Greg, and everyone let loose and just played ball," tackle Kyle Jolly said. "Today showed we can move the ball a little bit. We knew if we came together we could move together an offense. We got started in the fourth quarter last week and continued it this week."
The Tar Heel staff has been stoked on the future of its receiving corps, but an injury to Dwight Jones and some understandable growing pains in catching the ball, running the correct routes and blocking on the flank have stunted the young unit's progress through two games. But game three proved the charm as it was a breakout game for Highsmith and a solid performance by Jheranie Boyd and Josh Adams. Highsmith was the leading receiver with six catches for 113 yards and a touchdown. Boyd, perhaps the fastest player on the team, got behind ECU's secondary and hauled in a precise throw from Yates, showing excellent concentration as he bobbled the ball and fended off the outstretched arm of a Pirate defender. Adams, haunted by drops in the first two games, snared a vital 23-yard slant to help set up another touchdown.
With the loss of No. 88 Hakeem Nicks and No. 87 Brandon Tate from last year's high-octane offense, it's no wonder comparisons were being drawn Saturday to the new No. 88, Highsmith, and the new No. 87, Boyd.
"Those guys are both really good," says Williams, who defends them daily in practice. "I have felt all along they would step in play well from the start. Those guys are going to continue the tradition of having great receivers here with Brandon and Hakeem gone."
Offensive coordinator John Shoop and receivers coach Charlie Williams had been high on Highsmith since the day he attended a one-day camp on the UNC campus in the summer of 2008, prior to Highsmith's senior year at West Craven High. There was no scholarship offer coming yet, but Shoop told him they would monitor his production as a senior. Highsmith's lanky frame--just 170 pounds on a 6-2 frame--concerned many recruiters, and his mail was limited to missives from Carolina, ECU, N.C. State, Akron, Duke and Marshall. By late October, Highsmith was leading the state in receiving and earned his scholarship offer from the Tar Heels.
The kid nicknamed "Mookie" or "Mook" landed on Shoop's radar from the opening of fall camp.
"Mook is a really good player," Shoop said in August. "The kid shows up. He has great feel and technique. There is something about production. That's what Hakeem gave us. I told the scouts last year, `You may find guys bigger, faster, stronger, but your coaches will love Hakeem because at the end of the day, he has eight catches.' Production is a trait, and sometimes scouts don't get that. Mook is the same way. The best thing about him is he has eight catches a day."
Then last week Shoop noted the 21-yard catch Highsmith had in the fourth quarter at UConn and said his role in the offense would expand against the Pirates. "The dude is awesome," Shoop said. "This guy has a hunger you like to see. He also has hands you like to see."
Highsmith and mates gave the Pirates more than they expected. "Their receivers showed me more today than they had on film," Holtz said.
It has been a pleasant three-game launch for Carolina and its 2009 season. The Tar Heels pounded an under-manned foe from The Citadel. They went on the road, faced all manner of calamity and rallied against a good defense at UConn. And now they hopefully have some kindling and ballast to the offense following the ECU victory.
But the laundry list of potential problems is considerable, and a handful of priority items are found in the kicking game. Casey Barth made one field goal from 28 yards but missed a second from 38 wide to the right. The Heels are down to their second-team deep snapper for punts following an injury to Trevor Stuart and to their third-team snapper for place kicks with Dyer and Stuart out. With injuries and illness to Matt Merletti, Bobby Rome and then Zack Pianalto, freshman Shane Mularkey was used as the "personal protector" on the punt team. Getting punts launched safely is one of the most crucial plays in football (how often has a blocked punt changed the course of a game?), and it's a bit unnerving to have this key position manned by someone so young. Grant Schallock punted four times for a 31-yard average against ECU, one an 18-yard squib under heavy pressure from the end zone.
Davis said before the ECU game that the Tar Heels' special teams had significant room for improvement, and he has more fodder for his point of view today. Still, Davis and the Tar Heels have every right to feel chipper over their best start since 1997.
"The story is far from over," Williams says. "We just have to keep grinding, keep chipping away."
Lee Pace writes "Extra Points" twice weekly on Tarheelblue.com. He and the broadcast crew for the Tar Heel Sports Network answer reader email on the pre-game show, so send your questions to asktheheels@gmail.com.
