University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: 'W's and 'L's
October 28, 2011 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
Oct. 28, 2011
Charles Brown is a fifth-year senior, a starting cornerback on a defense that during his tenure has been very highly-touted, to borrow a term from Phil Steele. The last two weeks, however, have not been kind to the Tar Heel secondary. In back-to-back losses to Miami and Clemson, Carolina has been gashed for for 640 yards and eight touchdowns through the air.
After winning five of their first six, the Tar Heels find themselves 1-3 in ACC play and staring up at the rest of the Coastal Division. This week - Saturday - the Tar Heels face a 5-2 Wake Forest team. The Tar Heels and Deacons haven't met since 2007 - Brown's freshman year - with Wake Forest taking a 37-10 win in Winston-Salem. To help stop the skid, Brown and his teammates in the defensive backfield will have to rise to the challenge. "As a secondary we want to redeem ourselves from what we did last week," Brown says. "We don't feel like we played good at all, so we want to make sure we redeem ourselves."
Amid all the turmoil and uncertainty surround this football program (today's hearing before the NCAA Committee on Infractions, a new athletic director, an interim head coach in Everett Withers), Brown says the team has put in too much work to simply pack it in and wait until next year. For seniors like Brown, there is no next year in Kenan Stadium. "We don't want to give that up over two bad weeks of football. We don't want to let that affect us this week."
Mindful that he has just four regular-season games left in a Tar Heel uniform, Brown says there's an element of personal pride involved in his desire to finish strong. "I've been here. I've seen bad times, I've seen good times." In 2007, when the Tar Heels team finished with a record of 4-8. Not much was expected of them then; the team was very young and it was Butch Davis' first year in Chapel Hill. "We only won four games, and the losses were just as tough (then) as it is today," Brown says.
On the other side of the ball, left guard Jonathan Cooper says the Tar Heels have yet to play at their best, and are striving to do just that in the remaining weeks of the regular season. "The best game was against ECU, and that wasn't that great, and it's kind of tailed off since then," Cooper says. "We know that we haven't reached our maximum potential yet, and if we continue to work that we could probably reach it and be a great team."
In order to reach that potential, the Tar Heels will have to find leadership from within the roster. Losing Matt Merletti to a knee injury meant that someone would have to step forward. "Leadership is going to be key this last stretch," says sophomore defensive end Kareem Martin. Some of the young guys may be down, and some of the older guys have to pick each other up and just keep everything positive around here, so that these last two losses don't beat us in the next coming weeks."
With Bubba Cunningham officially taking the reins as athletic director next month, his first major order of business will be selecting a permanent head football coach. Though Brown won't be in Chapel Hill for the 2012 season, he's hoping to help Withers' candidacy. "We want to make it has best for him as possible," he says. "We want to go out and win these games. If we win the rest of these games, we could end up being 10-3 with a bowl win. That's not a bad season at all if you look back at it, so we could make sure people forget about these two losses in a row by just going out and wining football games. That's all it really boils down to, `W's and `L's."
Briefly
•Injury report: Reggie Wilkins (ankle) and Sean Fitzpatrick (concussion) are out for tomorrow's game. Curtis Byrd has a sprained knee but is questionable. T.J. Leifheit is also questionable with a nagging ankle. Starters Cam Holland (back), Dwight Jones (thigh) and Kevin Reddick (chest) are probable.
•Hear more from Charles Brown on this week's Walkthrough Podcast, which features former Tar Heel safety Deunta Williams, assistant athletic director for communications Kevin Best and myself discussing the week in Carolina Football.
•Special teams stalwart Pete Mangum and wideout Erik Highsmith were designated as captains for Saturday's game.
How have prior captains fared in their games?
S Matt Merletti vs. James Madison: Had three tackles, two of them unassisted. Combined with Zach Brown on a tackle for loss on JMU's first play from scrimmage. Forced a JMU fumble in the third quarter.
LG Jonathan Cooper vs. Rutgers: Helped pave the way for 405 yards of total offense. Had a solo tackle after a Rutgers fumble recovery
DB Pete Mangum vs. Virginia: Appeared on kickoff teams. Had a tackle on kickoff return after penalty pushed the kickoff back to the Carolina 15. The tackle combined with a holding penalty forced Virginia to start at their 22.
LB Dion Guy at Georgia Tech: Did not record a stat.
DE Quinton Coples at East Carolina: Five tackles, one solo, credited on half a sack for a loss of four yards.
DT Sylvester Williams vs. Louisville: Six tackles, two tackles for loss, one sack, one pass break-up.
Merletti vs. Louisville: Three tackles.
WR Dwight Jones vs. Louisville: Four catches, 91 yards, one touchdown.
Cooper vs. Miami: Helped pave the way for 141 rushing yards against the Hurricanes' defense.
LB Zach Brown vs. Miami: Tallied four tackles.
DE Kareem Martin vs. Miami: Recorded three tackles, including one for loss.
LT James Hurst vs. Clemson: Part of an offensive line that helped the Tar Heels to 102 yards on the ground and 418 yards of total offense.
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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