University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Fire To Frying Pan
January 11, 2011 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Jan. 11, 2011
By Lee Pace
Carolina's dramatic overtime win over Tennessee is just over a week in the history books, but there's no pause in the pulse of the Kenan Football Center. On a Friday afternoon, Butch Davis is preparing to welcome Brian Baker to his coaching staff and five new Tar Heels (four freshmen and a junior college transfer) to campus for spring semester enrollment. One day he's out of town selling the Tar Heel program to high school seniors and juniors; the next he's in his office planning the next week's recruiting schedule and looking ahead to spring practice with his assistants.
All the while, the warm glow of a 30-27 win in Nashville resonates throughout the building and far beyond.
"Winning the game is an enormous shot of adrenaline," Davis says. "We've already been in homes and that's all anyone is talking about. `Man, what an exciting game.' It's all anyone can talk about. The bowl game helps in so many other ways. You essentially get an extra spring practice for your younger kids--we had 14 practices in December, and I can't tell you how much that helped so many of our guys.
"And it was all very much a validation of this team and these kids--their ability to stay focused and not be distracted by things from the outside. I don't think I've ever seen a team be able to do that as well as this one has. All the things we preached all year came true--play the whole game, no regrets, keep fighting no matter how many bad things happen. It was really special."
Tar Heel fans have spent the last week dissecting those frenetic final minutes of the game--many even admitting they turned off their televisions or radios as soon as the game was deemed over by referee Dennis Lipsky, only to turn on ESPN the next morning and learn the Tar Heels had in fact won the game in overtime. As head coach, Davis was quick to assume blame afterward for the confusion on the sideline as the clock wound down--at least five members of the field goal team rushing the field while the offense was intent on spiking the ball, stopping the clock and then having Casey Barth & Co. take the field.
Looking back a week later, Davis first notes that the offense and quarterback T.J. Yates did exactly what they needed to do in the last 31 seconds of the game--moving the ball 62 yards into field goal range.
"If you look at the last play, everyone on offense was lined up perfectly," Davis says. "We told them we can't have illegal procedure, can't have an illegal formation. Everyone lined up perfectly. T.J. did exactly what we'd practiced in two-minute drills for four years. The unknown part of it was all the guys running on and then running back off. T.J. had the presence of mind to spike it and take a penalty. It showed remarkable poise. A lot of guys would have just gotten frustrated with all the guys running around, but he stuck his hands under and clocked it."
During the course of any game, when third-down arrives the Tar Heels go into a special-teams "alert" on the sideline. If they are on defense, the punt return team goes on "alert." If they are on offense, the punt-protect team goes on "alert." The field goal team goes on "alert" once the offense moves inside the opponent's 40. That means that players on those units strap their helmets on, gather together and are ready to take the field if in fact their unit is called upon.
"In this situation, our field goal team goes on `alert' with 31 seconds, as soon as our offense takes the field," Davis says. "We have no time outs and they have to be ready at a second's notice."
A special situation within the field goal team is "lightning field goal," which is called when the clock is running down, there is no way to stop it and the team has to sprint onto the field and get the kick off immediately. Holder Trase Jones will drop to his knee and make sure that Barth is ready, though Barth won't have the time as he normally does to go through his standard pre-kick routine. It would be like hitting a golf shot with a 10-second timer running.
"We practice `lightning field goal' every week, knowing we may go a whole year without using it," Davis says. "It's like an onside kick. We practice and practice it and use it once against LSU. You never know when these things will come up."
After the Tar Heels picked up 28 yards on a Yates-to-Todd Harrelson pass and an additional 15 yard penalty, they competed one for 12 yards to Dwight Jones, then spiked the ball to stop the clock. The Tar Heels were moving to the south end of LP Field in Nashville, into a moderate wind, and Davis said Barth pre-game had indicated total comfort in kicking from 50 yards plus with the wind but felt 40 to 45 would be the max into the wind. With the ball spotted at the 25, Davis and offensive coordinator John Shoop wanted to get Barth a few yards closer.
"We know they're in a prevent defense, so we think we can pop a running play," Davis says of the snap occurring with 16 seconds to play. "What I'm worried about most if we throw the ball is a holding call. If Tennessee sends someone and we reach out and grab him, a holding call puts us out of field goal range and we're left with a Hail Mary into the end zone, and those hardly ever work. We ran the ball with Shaun Draughn, knowing we can get on the ball, clock it and then kick the field goal.
"As soon as we ran the ball, somebody starts hollering `alert field goal,'" Davis says. "Someone thought that meant, `Go,' and five guys start running out on the field. There's just a lot of emotion and pandemonium. Then they realized we're going to clock it and turned around. They almost got off the field. We almost screwed it up. T.J. had the presence to clock it and save the day. If you want to blame someone, blame me."
Davis says the situation is similar to the one in the N.C. State game when safety Da'Norris Searcy batted a Wolfpack pass in the back corner of the end zone back toward the field of play, allowing a State receiver to snare it for a touchdown. Both were freak plays--one going against the Tar Heels, another one the Tar Heels surviving. Both will be sandblasted into the memory banks of the staff and players.
"Oh gosh yes, you'd better believe that," Davis says. "It's one of the things about building a program. We now have a body of experiences you can share with your team. You can talk until you're blue in the face about this might happen, this could happen, things that our coaches have seen in their careers but the players have yet to see. Now they have lived through it. We're building a body of work that we can use to teach guys and help them be better prepared."
Another case in point is Donte Paige-Moss's blocked extra point following Tennessee's fourth-quarter touchdown. That point allowed the Tar Heels to be close enough to tie the game with Barth's field goal. Davis has long believed a team's discipline can be defined by how hard it plays on field goal and extra point blocks and credits Charlie Coiner, the team's interim defensive line coach in 2010, with finding a weak link in the Volunteers' kick protection.
"Charlie said their left guard played soft and high, that he's a guy we can go after," Davis says. "On that blocked kick, Donte, Tydreke Powell and Quinton Coples lined up and literally moved the line of scrimmage. Donte got his hand up just enough. Our kids bought into the effort and into our plan for this game. I firmly believe if I never saw a defense play another snap, I could watch extra point and field goal block tape and tell you if a team is disciplined and if it has heart. If you don't get great effort and you're not disciplined, you'll pay the price at some point."
1979 Carolina graduate Lee Pace leepace7@gmail.com is in his 21st year writing about Tar Heel football under the "Extra Points" banner.
Players Mentioned
