University of North Carolina Athletics
Walston: However
December 31, 2010 | Football
Dec. 31, 2010
`However' is kind of a neat word. It can mean, `on the other hand.' It can also mean `by any means necessary.' Thursday evening in Nashville, it meant both.
The clock ticked to zero and head referee Dennis Lipski waved his arms. "Time has run out. The game is over," he announced. Head coaches Derek Dooley and Butch Davis shook hands at midfield. Tennessee players rushed the field while the partisan Volunteer crowd celebrated a 26th bowl victory.
On the Tar Heel sideline, there was dejection. A despondent LeCount Fantroy took off his helmet and stormed off the field and into the tunnel toward the locker room. In the northeast corner of the end zone, bowl officials began rolling the stage structure onto the field to crown Tennessee the 2010 Franklin American Mortgage Company Music City Bowl Champions. No doubt there were boxes of commemorative t-shirts and hats waiting to be ripped open.
But wait: Referee Lipski was waving his arms again. Hold everything. Get back onto the sideline, LeCount. Back up that stage. The play was under review.
Lipski put on the headset that he'd become familiar with over the course of the night and the game's countless drawn-out reviews. He was on the line with the replay officials upstairs. He was talking back. On Lipski's lips were the words that injected a sliver of hope - however slight - back into the Carolina faithful. An interested party watched closely as the words formed on Lipski's lips. "One second." He nodded his head and removed the headset. The two law enforcement officials ready to whisk Lipski and his Big Ten crew off the field - no matter the outcome - stepped off the field of play.
Moments earlier on the next-to-last play of regulation, the Carolina offense had tried something that had fans on both sides scratching their heads. Without a timeout - they'd burnt them on Tennessee's prior possession - the Tar Heels ran a running play - a running play - with just 16 seconds to play. Again, with no timeouts. Shaun Draughn picked up seven yards, but the clock was ticking . . . and ticking . . . and ticking . . .
"They'd been running some three-man line, dropping eight into coverage," Butch Davis explained after the game. "We thought that we could pop a run, pick up another six or seven yards and give Casey an easier opportunity."
Confusion on the sideline sent part of the kicking team out. Trase Jones was back to hold a kick attempt with Barth behind him, but quarterback T.J. Yates needed to spike the ball and stop the clock. The ball had been snapped, but with at least 15 Tar Heels on the field.
His headset removed, Lipski addressed the crowd. "After further review, the offensive team had more than 11 players on the field," he explained. "That's a five yard penalty. However, the ball was snapped, and it hit the ground with one second remaining."
However. That sweet word.
The officials marched off five yards, and that precious second was put back on the clock. It was time enough for Trevor Stuart to snap to Jones. It was time enough for Casey Barth - who'd never stopped swinging his leg on the sideline. Barth saw the ball out of the corner of his eye and began his three-step approach. He was true from 39 yards out as time expired.
After the tying field goal went through, a Tennessee player removed his helmet. When the resulting unsportsmanlike conduct penalty was announced, that partisan crowd began to show its anger. A glass flask hit the field. It was neither the first nor last object to make its way to the field of play. A Tennessee ball boy quickly kicked it aside.
Starting just outside the 12 yard line thanks to the penalty, the Tar Heel offense scored in four plays. Yates snuck it in from the one, and who was that at fullback? Defensive tackle Tydreke Powell? Who was in at backside tight end? All-ACC defensive tackle Quinton Coples?
"You want to do stuff that kids enjoy and it was kind of a fun thing for them," Davis said. "It was also a little bit out of necessity. We've taken some big hits at fullback this year . . . we knew we might get into some short-yardage and goal line situations, and Tydreke was a pretty good option."
Tennessee quarterback Tyler Bray continued to find passing lanes in the Tar Heel defense and he didn't take long in finding tight end Luke Stocker for the answering score. Bray turned toward the Tar Heel sideline and crossed his throat with both hands.
On their next offensive possession, Tennessee drove inside the Carolina 15 before Bray made a critical error. He faked run and looked to throw to fullback Channing Fugate. Quan Sturdivant capped his college career with an interception. "I just saw the fullback go in the flats, and I just saw the quarterback release it, and I jumped up and made a play."
Instinct would tell a defender who picks a ball off in the field of play to try to return it. But Sturdivant knew to take a knee and let the offense handle its business. "(I) just had faith in Casey Barth," Sturdivant said. "He did it at Virginia Tech. He did it other places, so I just had faith that he would go in and kick the game-winning field goal."
"I can do this," Barth said he thought upon seeing Sturdivant's pick. "They gave me a chance real short, and it was awesome."
And after two Draughn carries got the Tar Heels close enough for a 23-yard attempt, Barth kicked it through the uprights. The officials extended their arms overheard. No review necessary. The Tar Heels were Music City Bowl champions. Haul out that stage again, but get the other box of t-shirts.
***
In the end, maybe that's how it had to be. After the roller coaster of a season, it was fitting that the final game of the campaign would reflect the journey. Mental mistakes seemed to doom the team at times. Injuries continued to haunt the team. Yet there was a resolve in this team to not quit. When a player couldn't play, for whatever reason, another stepped in and contributed however he could. Such was the case throughout the season, and such was the case Thursday.
•The loss of Tar Heel playmakers on the defensive line - has been well-documented. But an opportunity was opened for Coples, Powell and Donte Paige-Moss to contribute. Paige-Moss' face met Coples' helmet in the third quarter. It looked bad. After an injury timeout, he walked slowly to the sideline. On the next series, he was back on the field. In the fourth, Paige-Moss blocked a Daniel Lincoln extra point attempt to keep the margin at three. That would prove important.
•Draughn had not been 100 percent healthy all year, and he saw carries go to teammates Johnny White and Anthony Elzy. Thursday, he was called upon when needed, and responded with 160 yards on 23 carries and a score, and was named the game's MVP.
•Standout tight end Zack Pianalto was lost for the season when he fractured his right fibula at Virginia. Last season, he'd set a school record with 33 receptions by a tight end. Senior Ryan Taylor had been a special teams captain and entered the season with zero career receptions. However, he stepped in for Pianalto and finished his season with 36 receptions, including nine for 85 yards Thursday.
•Senior free safety Deunta Williams fractured his fibula at the right ankle in the first quarter Thursday. Tennessee's Bray picked on the Tar Heel secondary afterward. "When he went out, it's like we took it two ways," Draughn said. "Either we could hang our heads and be like, `Ah, we lost a great player,' or we could use it as motivation, and I felt like we did."
Then there's Yates. It was fitting that Carolina's record-setting quarterback had the ball with a chance to win or tie and under a minute to play. Throughout his career,Yates had seen that scenario, and he'd seen all possible outcomes (well, he thought he had). Thursday, Yates had a chance to put a bow on his career under similar circumstances. His 39-yard strike to Erik Highsmith to give Carolina the halftime lead was one of the finest of his career. So was the 28-yard pass to Harrelson on the eventual game-tying drive.
"At first I thought it was over," Yates admitted. "But somehow, someway we got an extra shot, and Todd came up with a huge catch and Casey had a huge kick."
***
Butch Davis had a common refrain after many of Carolina's eight wins in the 2010 season. With nine games with a margin of five points or less - six of them wins - he'd say that the individual games had tended to mirror the entire season. Each game had its setbacks, as the season had. Like the season, the challenges that each game presented forced the team to move forward. Each game day, distractions had to be brushed aside, and the team went to work.
"Tonight kind of typified this football team; its resiliency, its heart, its character," Davis said Thursday. "Never give up. Never surrender. Play all 60 minutes."
The 2010 Carolina football season will go into the books with an 8-5 record and a win in a bowl game. That's the black and white. Between the lines, however, this team will not soon be forgotten for the resolve it showed in overcoming unprecedented challenges and innumerable distractions.
Never give up. Never surrender. On some days, however, it takes a bit more than 60 minutes.
Turner Walston is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly. Turner's weekly Tar Heel football podcast, The Walkthrough, is available on iTunes.
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