Extra Points: Blue Grit

September 6, 2010 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace

By: UNC Athletic Communications

Sept. 6, 2010

by Lee Pace

The Georgia Dome has been the venue for two momentous evenings in Tar Heel football history--remember Bracey Walker terrorizing Mississippi State's punt team following the 1992 season and Ronald Curry bolting 62 yards through Auburn's defense (actually 77 yards including the drop-back for an aborted pass attempt) for the deciding points in 2001? Those Peach Bowl victories over Southeastern Conference opponents catapulted Mack Brown's Tar Heels to No. 18 nationally in the former instance and John Bunting's squad to the pinnacle of his six-year head coaching era in the latter case.

The program is now the domain of Butch Davis and Saturday the opponent was LSU--the Bengal Tigers with their signature purple and gold, pre-game gumbo and cutesy French-delineated spellings such as Geaux Tigers. Instead of visiting Atlanta for a post-season bowl treat, the setting was the 2010 season inauguration in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game. When the match was conceived back in January, both teams were projected as Top 20 aspirants and the Tar Heels were flush with news that a half dozen high-profile juniors were returning for their senior seasons.

Think how Saturday evening might have evolved with Robert Quinn and a full complement of veteran secondary players on defense; if the kick cover teams had been a bit fresher and not totally gassed with the loss of a half dozen special-team regulars; if the offense could have jabbed LSU with Shaun Draughn's quickness one minute and pummeled the Tigers with Ryan Houston's power the next; if Greg Little could have gone airborne for a few passes and stuck his face into a few blocking scrums; and if the battery of quarterback T.J. Yates and center Jonathan Cooper had a game or two working together to smooth out the kinks in their ball exchanges.

Alas, the Tar Heels took their roster riddled with 13 absences in the wake of NCAA and institutional probes into battle and came within two attempts at a six-yard scoring pass in final six seconds of pulling off an upset of historic proportions. The Tigers escaped the Georgia Dome with a 30-24 win, leaving their half of the stands ashen and in disbelief after shucking and jiving an hour earlier with what seemed like a comfortable 30-10 lead. Meanwhile, the Tar Heel fan base on the opposite side stood and offered a heartfelt and respectful ovation for a team that retained its focus through a month-long news carnival and scrapped its way back into the game after teetering on a blowout.

"I don't know if I've been prouder of a group of kids and the way they fought to get themselves back into a ball game," Davis said.

"I think we proved to everybody that no matter who's out there playing, we can compete with anybody," Yates added.

The Tar Heels were destroyed during a six-minute blitzkrieg in the second quarter when LSU struck for a 50-yard scoring run, was gifted a safety on an errant center snap, returned a punt 87 yards and hit a 51-yard pass. That was a 23-point run from midway in the second quarter until two minutes were left until intermission. Beyond that, though, the Tar Heels acquitted themselves reasonably well. Yates had 412 yards passing and connected to firecracker Jhay Boyd for a 97-yard touchdown that ignited the comeback. The new defensive tackle tandem of Tydreke Powell and Quinton Coples was stout. The safety duo of Matt Merletti and Gene Robinson lacks the athleticism of Deunta Williams and Da'Norris Searcy, but both kids have savvy and excellent instincts.

"All the stuff that has happened, I know there's a lot of people that counted us out and didn't give us a chance," Yates said. "We were depleted as is, and we had some guys go down during the game. We had guys who have never played before, coming out of high school against one of the best teams in the country. I'm just so proud of all my teammates stepping up."

Offensive coordinator John Shoop has used the word "grit" consistently throughout August training camp in discussing his unit and the questions many fans and the media had in juxtaposing its performance in 2009 with its prospects for '10. Shoop noted the successes Carolina had in the second half of the year once the Tar Heels achieved some personnel stability and believed a year's maturity would help weed out the turnovers and icy patches that still haunted them. Last week, knowing he would be without one receiver, perhaps two tailbacks and that the defense was riddled with potential personnel losses, Shoop rode that theme again.

"We've got eight or nine offensive linemen we think can play," Shoop said. "We're going to put the game on their backs. We have a quarterback who's been practicing lights out. It's in my prayers that everyone in the country sees the way this guy has been practicing. That's the game plan--put it on the shoulders of the O-line and the quarterback."

Offensive line coach Sam Pittman rotated his nine players throughout the game, no doubt beginning a live-bullets auditioning process to find the best combination. One weakness was the line's inability to generate a consistent running attack, but part of that issue was certainly LSU's fast and athletic defense, and the quarterback-center exchange problems that were evident when Cooper was playing. In Cooper's defense, this was his first game playing center after moving from guard in '09; fellow center Cam Holland had no such issues on this night, but he certainly did a year ago in his first games starting in place of Lowell Dyer. Guard Alan Pelc played every offensive snap, working the left side when Travis Bond was on the right and moving to the right when Greg Elleby was in the lineup at left guard. Junior Carl Gaskins, primarily a blocker on the extra point/field goal team in 2008 and injured in 2009, shared left tackle duties with freshman James Hurst. Cooper and Holland alternated at center. Mike Ingersoll started at right tackle but Brennan Williams got a good look as well.

"This loss hurts and it's disappointing," Pelc said. "At the same time, it's encouraging. We played a pretty good second half. We had a lot of mistakes and errors and things we've got to fix. But we stayed competitive, especially coming back at the half from a big deficit. We got a lot of guys some work tonight. That will help."

Yates threw for a career-high 412 yards (only five yards shy of the single game school mark of 417 set by Darian Durant against Arizona State in 2002), but the most important number on the box score was the zero beside interceptions. Often in the face of a furious Tiger pass rush, Yates flung the ball out-of-bounds; no harm, no foul. Last year, he was trying to squeeze those into crevices and had them picked off.

"T.J. was great tonight," said tight end Zack Pianalto, who had a potential game-tying touchdown bounce off his hands on the game's final play. "I can't say enough about him. He's had a great camp and everyone knew what he could do. He showed it tonight."

Though the coverage element of the special teams operation was dreadful (LSU piled up 326 return yards), the actual kicking was promising. Punter Grant Schallock has benefitted from off-season coaching from kicking expert Bill Renner, the dad of Tar Heel Bryn Renner and the head coach at East Chapel Hill High. He punted seven times for 44.7 yards. Place kicker Casey Barth made his one field goal try and executed a perfect onside kick late in the game; he showed some moxie as well making two tackles on Tiger run backs.

Elsewhere, the Tar Heels benefitted from the return of H-back Ryan Taylor and receiver Josh Adams from injuries in '09 and introduced a handful of newcomers on defense--among them end Kareem Martin, tackles Jordan Nix and Jared McAdoo, linebacker Herman Davidson and cornerbacks Jabari Price and Tre Boston.

"We said before the game there would be kids who would step up, that would surprise everybody, that all they needed was a chance--`Just get me in the game, Coach, let me see if I can play,'" Davis said. "I think we found some kids who'll help us before the season is over."

More than anything, Davis and the Tar Heels proved their resiliency and ability to focus in the onslaught of off-the-field distractions. There's no let-up in that category, apparently, as defensive line coach John Blake resigned Sunday afternoon, saying his presence had become a distraction to the football program. No word by early Monday morning on who will step in, though it's nigh impossible during the season to initiate a job search with anything more substantial than the word "interim" involved. The storm continues around Tar Heel football, but the second half in Atlanta Saturday night was a nice ray of sunshine.

1979 Carolina graduate Lee Pace (leepace7@gmail.com) is in his 21st year writing about Tar Heel football under the "Extra Points" banner. Look for his missives each Monday during the season.