University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Bells of the Ball
November 27, 2011 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
Nov. 27, 2011
By Lee Pace
Everett Withers is a sap for tradition, rivalries and the accouterments that go with them. He feeds off the emotion and intensity that are ratcheted up for marquee games.
As a player at Appalachian State in the 1980s, he relished the importance of the Old Mountain Jug that went to the winner of the Mountaineers' annual grudge match against Western Carolina. As an assistant coach at Minnesota in 2007, he witnessed the passion that Gopher fans had for Paul Bunyan's Axe, the prize for the winner of the annual slugfest with Wisconsin, and the Little Brown Jug, the spoils for beating Michigan. Withers stood on the sidelines for three years in the cauldron that is the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry. He watched Tennessee Titans coach Jeff Fisher lock the training room doors the week of the Titans' bloodbath with the Baltimore Ravens.
All games are created equal, goes the sporting cliche. But some are more equal than others.
And so it was early last week that Carolina's head coach decreed to his staff as they began preparations for Carolina's 98th contest with their rivals from Duke, "Wherever we go, the bell goes too," he said.
It's not unusual for Carolina head coaches to order The Victory Bell transported each day during Duke week from its home in the Tar Heel locker room, where it has resided 20 of the last 21 years, to the team's practice field on the other side of Teague Dormitory. What is unprecedented, though, is to haul it from campus to the team's Friday night hotel headquarters in Research Triangle Park.
"I wanted our guys to see it in our meetings, see it in our walk-through, put their hands on it, hear it," Withers says. "I didn't want them having to imagine it."
The bell was in the middle of the room Friday night when 17 Tar Heel seniors spoke about their experiences over four or five years in Chapel Hill. The bell was there Saturday morning when the team went through its stretching and walk-through session. Withers sensed an attitude of business, of focus, of seriousness. Having lost four of its last five games, having been in the epicenter of the 18-month drama that has been Tar Heel football--neither was not going to distract this team from its appointed mission Saturday afternoon in Kenan Stadium.
"Their attitude was, `Hey, this is our bell, we've earned it and we're going to keep it,'" Withers said. "It's a tradition around here and it's important."
That's not something to take for granted. Tight ends coach Allen Mogridge was a Tar Heel from 1995-99 when Carolina beat Duke by an average of 30 points each November. When he joined Butch Davis's staff in 2009, he was delighted to see the bell comfortably ensconced in the Kenan Football Center but wasn't quite sure everyone in the building appreciated its significance.
"That bell has been here for so long, it's like it's part of the building," Mogridge says. "Someone new comes through: `What's that?' That's the bell. `What does it mean?' Well, I'm not sure ... People have to understand that it's important and understand how badly those guys want to take it away from here."
Several coaches on Davis's first-year staff in 2007 still marvel at the memory of that year's Duke game when the Blue Devils lined up for a potential game-winning field goal on the last play of the game. They looked across the way and saw the entire Duke team "in track stances," as one of them terms it, ready to sprint across the field and take possession of the bell. Of course, Nick Maggio missed to the left, Carolina won in overtime, the bell remained in Chapel Hill and Duke coach Ted Roof was fired. Kenan Stadium maintenance officials later found unopened cans of royal blue spray paint in the Duke locker room. Saturday morning, one Duke player, running back Josh Snead, posted on his Twitter account, "Bringing cans of Duke blue paint to Chapel Hill to paint a Bell on Wheels ..."
"The bell has been here so long, it just blends in," Mogridge says. "Coach Withers did a great job reminding everyone of why it's here and what it means."
Indeed, kudos can be spread throughout offense, defense and special teams as the Tar Heels notched a 37-21 win Saturday over the Blue Devils, giving them a 7-5 record and a chance to post eight wins for the fourth straight year with a victory in a bowl game. That's eight in a row over Duke and 21 of 22 since 1990. The Tar Heels are now likely slated for the Military Bowl in Washington, D.C., scheduled for a 4:30 p.m. kick-off Dec. 28 against an opponent to be determined.
Bryn Renner threw. Gio Bernard ran. Dwight Jones caught. Quinton Coples and Zach Brown tackled. Tre Boston and Gene Robinson intercepted. Thomas Moore kicked through the uprights and Tommy Hibbard punted with height and distance.
"This is one of the rivalries you talk about in college football," Withers said. "Our kids came to play today. They wanted to keep the bell, and they did that. I'm really proud of them and what they've accomplished this year. I said when the year began we would not blink as a staff or a team. And we did not."
Carolina's offense rolled up 508 total yards, committed but one turnover and controlled the ball more than 36 minutes. Freshman tailback Gio Bernard spun out of tackles, warded defenders off with a lethal stiff-arm and cut back against the grain behind excellent blocking to net 165 yards, including a 48-yard touchdown run. Senior receiver Dwight Jones continued his epic assault on the record books by imitating predecessor Hakeem Nicks. Three years ago in Durham, Nicks caught one touchdown when the ball bounced off his helmet, and Saturday Jones snared a pass from Renner by reaching out with his left hand for an 18-yard score, eliciting all manner of guffaws and awe on the Carolina sideline.
Bernard finishes the year with 1,222 yards rushing, the most ever by a Tar Heel freshman. Jones has 79 catches for the season, moving past Nicks' mark of 74 set in 2007, and piled up 1,119 yards receiving. It's the first season in which Carolina has wielded a runner and receiver for more than 1,000 yards each and is a testament to the staff's recruiting over four years and the kind of balance offensive coordinator John Shoop has gunned for over that period.
"I said at the beginning of the year my job was to get the ball in hands of our playmakers," Renner said. "I've been blessed to play with Dwight and Gio. They've had great years and done amazing things."
The offense averaged 28.33 points a game, the most since 1996, and averaged 6.33 yards a snap, 23rd best in the nation.
"I'm proud of the work these guys have done," Shoop says. "We're working our tail off to develop some offensive tradition. Most of our guys are coming back, except for Dwight. This thing is built to last."
The defense rode the customary bedrock play of Brown and fellow linebacker Kevin Reddick, a schematic adjustment along the line and some emergency personnel moves in the secondary to survive what is always a potent Duke offense under head coach David Cutcliffe.
Defensive line coach Joe Robinson has been quick over the last month to challenge the notion coming from the media and the bleachers that Coples, a senior end, has had anything less than a stellar season simply because he'd notched 5.5 sacks through 11 games and had 10 sacks in 2010. Robinson says Coples has absorbed extra attention from offenses that has freed up other players to make tackles, and his discipline to control his gap, maintain low pad level and manage opponents with his hands has improved significantly.
"People haven't been able to run on us, and a big reason is Quinton," Robinson says, and indeed Carolina has been among the national leaders against the run, finishing No. 16 with 106 yards allowed per game. "He's so much more disciplined than anyone can ever see. I'm really proud of him."
Robinson and defensive coordinator Art Kaufman tweaked their plan for Coples for the Duke game for several reasons. Coples has played inside effectively over the opposing center at times this year when Carolina would go with a three-man front and put Brown on the line in a three-point stance. Tackle Jordan Nix missed practice time this week because of a death in his family. And the coaches anticipated more double-team and slide protection geared toward Coples this week because Duke is playing a freshman at left tackle. The result was that Coples practiced at tackle much of the week and was used extensively there throughout the game, making it tougher for Duke to get two bodies on him in pass protection. He had a monster game with six tackles, two sacks, and a forced fumble that he recovered.
"We hadn't planned on him being inside quite as much," Kaufman says. "We needed to have someone else ready inside because Jordan missed a lot of practice. Quinton knows how to play inside as he did it all year. We knew with him at end, it would easier to chip him and slide protect against him, and we knew they'd try a lot of that to protect that freshman. It worked for us early so we stuck with it."
"It's cool, I'll take it," Coples said of the increased attention he's gotten this year. "It comes with the game of football. Once they put your name out there as a playmaker, they send them at you."
The biggest problem for the defense was adjusting to losing senior cornerback Charles Brown to a knee injury and senior safety Jonathan Smith to a sprained ankle, both coming in the second quarter and knocking them out for the game. Pete Mangum moved into the game as the fifth defensive back in nickel coverage, and first Terry Shankle and then Jabari Price played for Brown at cornerback. Duke added another wrinkle in the second half when starting quarterback Sean Renfree, more of a traditional drop-back quarterback, was injured and replaced by Anthony Boone, a freshman with running and option skills.
The defense got the feel for Boone and his style in the fourth quarter, with safety Gene Robinson intercepting a Boone pass at the Carolina nine as the Tar Heels took control the game. Robinson looked like a centerfielder settling under a lazy fly ball in a coverage that had been adjusted over the course of the second half.
"We had to juggle a lot of pieces," Kaufman said. "We had to eliminate a lot of things that were part of our plan in the second half. They hurt us with the option and a throw-back pass that we had not seen at all from them. Our coaches and our seniors did a good job making adjustments and making sure no one panicked."
As the clock ticked off the final seconds, safety Matt Merletti, injured in mid-season and dressed in navy blue sweats, mounted The Victory Bell and rang it just as Dennis Tripp and Doxie Jordan did at Wallace Wade Stadium in 1990 after the Tar Heels had edged Duke 24-22 and started this double-decade run of dominance, just as Octavus Barnes did after his 71-yard touchdown in a one-point win in 1994, just as Julius Peppers did after his pick-six helped ignite a 38-point landslide in 2000. Moments later, Withers gathered the 17 seniors around the bell for a celebratory photo. He values the strength and leadership they've shown through two tumultuous years of Carolina football and thought they should have an appropriate keepsake once they leave Chapel Hill.
"We should take that photograph every year," he says. "It should be something every senior class looks forward to."
Lee Pace has written Extra Points for 22 years and has chronicled 21 wins over Duke. He reports from the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network.
