University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Wide Right Continued
November 7, 2010 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Nov. 7, 2010
by Lee Pace, TarHeelBlue.com
TALLAHASSEE, FLA. - We jockeyed for position under the goal posts at the south end zone of Doak Campbell Stadium--television cameramen, print photographers, security guards, newspaper guys, dancers from the Florida State Golden Girls team. Some 40 yards away, Seminole kicker Dustin Hopkins lined up a field goal with seven seconds to play, his right leg and instep to determine the outcome of a football game chock full of huge strikes downfield, bone-breaking hits (literally, unfortunately for Carolina) and clever moves of the chess pieces by the coaches.
Somewhere, you knew Bobby Bowden was ready with a one-liner. The sly-as-a-fox Seminole coach of three-plus decades retired after the 2009 season, but his verbal morsels and malapropisms are as much a part of FSU spirit and lore as the tomahawk chop, Chief Osceola and defensive warriors like Deion Sanders and Derrick Brooks.
"He doesn't know the meaning of the word fear, but then again, he doesn't know the meaning of most words," Bowden once remarked.
"Son, you've got a good engine, but your hands aren't on the steering wheel," Bowden told one player.
"If you don't discipline your children, the sheriff's gonna," he offered another time.
And, of course, after seeing his field goal specialists miss kicks to the starboard side at crunch time in games versus Miami in 1991, 1992 and 2000 to lose by less than three points, all Bowden could do was mutter "Dad gummit" and wonder, "What's the big deal about wide right? You can only miss to the left or the right. It's gonna be one of 'em."
The stadium was rocking as the Tar Heels iced Hopkins with a time out after the Seminole field-goal unit took its position. Bruce Carter jockeyed for the best lane to attack and add to his inestimable total of seven career blocked kicks, and the Carolina coaches reminded the players not to jump the line of scrimmage on any head-bobbing shenanigans from the Seminole center.
"It was a total feeling of helplessness," Tar Heel quarterback T.J. Yates said.
"I knew he was going to miss it," safety Deunta Williams added.
What a shame it would have been for the Tar Heels if Hopkins were to make the kick, turning a 37-35 Carolina lead into a 38-37 FSU triumph. What a shame to lose Carolina's first-ever win in Tallahassee in eight trips, to let so many elements of brains, passion, teamwork, maturity, courage and focus amidst a blizzard of distractions go for naught.
The coaches gave the Tar Heels a game plan that put them in position to win, no matter that the Seminoles were ranked No. 24 nationally and had been impressive in hammering common opponent Miami by 28 points, the very Hurricane team that had stomped the Tar Heels by 23 two Saturdays ago.
Offensive coordinator John Shoop had the utmost respect for Seminole cornerback Greg Reid, but he believed Reid's greatest strength--his aggressiveness and fondness for playing bump coverage at the line--could be exploited. All week the plan was to open the game with a play-action fake and have Dwight Jones spread to the left, slant inside and then angle back to the sideline. Sure enough, Reid put his hands on Jones and had to spin out as Jones cut to the outside. Jones beat Reid by three steps and was all alone to receive a 38-yard pass and set up a quick opening touchdown. Jones would go on to collect eight passes for 233 yards, giving him three games in a month with more than 100 yards receiving.
"If Dwight gets that first one, he's off to the races," receivers coach Charlie Williams said. "You can see his confidence and self-esteem growing every week."
Williams and Shoop have been miffed all season by the receivers' collective inability to ward off aggressive play at the line of scrimmage, and Williams showed his group film cut-ups from the Miami defeat of Hurricane defenders knocking the receivers off their appointed routes. The coaching mantra for the last month has been to get the receivers to pound the defenders--"You're either the hammer or the nail in this game, and there's no rule that says you can't be the hammer on offense," Shoop says. Jones has been most adept at developing that skill as evidenced by his manly play at Virginia and Florida State.
"Dwight's got strong arms, a strong upper body," Williams says. "Truth is, we made them a little mad this week. We showed them those Miami cut-ups. They didn't want to see it."
The Carolina defense has benefitted the last two weeks by the return of cornerback Kendric Burney, a senior who has played mostly on the right side over his career. With William & Mary a week ago attacking the left side vacated by Charles Brown's suspension and the inability of anyone down the depth chart to batten down that hatch, defensive coordinator Everett Withers and cornerbacks coach Troy Douglas went with a field-boundary alignment for FSU. That move gave Burney the more difficult wide side of the field to defend on all snaps, whether it be left or right, with LeCount Fantroy flopping to the shorter boundary side. When Fantroy was shaken up in the first half, freshman Jabari Price took over and played the rest of the game. The senior Deunta Williams mostly played to the boundary side alongside Price.
"I really think it helped," Williams said. "It eliminated some of the stuff they wanted to do. If they wanted to pick on our corners away from Kendric, they had to deal with me also. I give Jabari a lot of credit. He's playing hard and learning and will be an excellent corner before he leaves."
The coaches also doodled on the grease board at halftime and challenged their players' efforts to limit the damage inflicted by the FSU screen game and edge running attrack. FSU scored four touchdowns on 251 yards offense in the first half juxtaposed against seven points (gifted on a one-yard scoring drive following a special-teams mistake) and 123 yards in the second half.
"We did a terrible job of getting off blocks in the first half," Butch Davis said. "They were throwing all the bubble and jailbreak screens and guys were just leveraging it and waiting on help to come. We needed guys at the point of attack to shed and set an edge, to get off the block and not just try to cat and mouse them. We needed to get a lot more effort from the underneath guys, the linebackers and safeties. A lot of those plays were not nearly as effective the second half. We got guys to dial up the intensity."
The individual efforts came from where you expected them--Yates threw for 439 yards, his second 400-yard-plus game of his career. The offensive line gave him decent protection and controlled FSU late in the game to help the Tar Heels drive 72 yards for the game-winning field goal. Casey Barth hit 3-of-3 field goals, including a 46-yarder.
And they came from where you didn't expect them. Davis credited the defensive line with perhaps its best game of the year. A walk-on like Pete Mangum stormed downfield on every kick-off and collided with a Seminole blocker with a resounding pop. And 6-foot-4 receiver Joshua Adams has ramped up his game in recent weeks, making five catches for 91 yards and a score Saturday.
"His intensity in practice is kind of alarming," Yates said. "We had to find a way to get this guy in the game. He's a big, physical guy and can definitely cause problems for other teams."
Tailback Johnny White suffered a broken clavicle in the first half and will be lost for the year, and behind him Shaun Draughn sprained an ankle and Anthony Elzy suffered second-half cramps in both calves. Running backs coach Kenny Browning proved prophetic when he told sophomore Hunter Furr at the team hotel to be ready, "You never know when your opportunity will come." Furr, having spent the entire week working with the scout team and taking no reps with the offense, stepped up on the game-winning drive and gained 27 yards on three carries. He protected the ball, broke first contact and was patient, allowing his blocks to set up ahead of him.
"I was just thinking, `Hold onto the ball,'" Shoop said. "Ball-security was the issue. But Hunter just kept pounding it down there, churning out yards."
So here we are at the end of the game, the Tar Heels never having won in Tallahassee and still playing without Marvin Austin, Robert Quinn, Greg Little, Zack Pianalto, Greg Elleby, Devon Ramsay and Ryan Houston et al. Thirty scholarship players have missed at least one game--16 because of injury and 14 due to NCAA/institutional issues.
Now if only Hopkins can go wide right or wide left or have his kick land against the meaty mitt of one Bruce Carter ...
The snap. The spot. Burney rushes the left-side corner. Williams leaps up the middle. Carter crashes from the right. The kick.
My viewing angle is perfect--the kick is launched to Hopkins' right from the get-go. "I knew as soon as I hit it, my hips were open," he said.
Doak Campbell Stadium--the site of the Octavus Barnes "fumble" in 1994, the defensive slugfest in the rain in '96 and the multiple-touchdown hammerings of subsequent visits--falls silent. Somewhere Bobby Bowden says "dad gummit" and others in the stands use stronger language. ABC-TV puts Davis on a headset and as he's talking--"You have to absolutely love this group of kids, they refused to give in and surrender in the face of all types of adversity"--the Tar Heels are jumping and jiving and head-slapping and chest-bumping.
"I love being a part of this team," Williams said. "It's something I will cherish--the way that we fight, the way that we grind. It's unlike anything I've ever been a part of."
The Tar Heels' football season of 2010 was stamped back in the spring with the potential of being quite memorable, unique, special--apply your adjective. That it is. But not for the reasons anyone anticipated.
1979 Carolina graduate Lee Pace is in his 21st year writing about Tar Heel football under the "Extra Points" banner. Look for his missives each Monday during the season. Pace and the broadcast crew of the Tar Heel Sports Network answer questions from fans on the pre-game show; submit them to asktheheels@gmail.com.
Players Mentioned
