University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Wake Up This Echo
October 8, 2014 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
by Lee Pace, GoHeels.com
CHAPEL HILL—The image is one of the most revered in the annuals of Tar Heel football and comes from the lens of photographer Bob Donnan on a gray day in Kenan Stadium in 2008. Quarterback Cam Sexton is leaping over a diving and would-be Notre Dame tackler at the goal line. Another Fighting Irish defender comes from the right— too little, too late. Bobby Rome's arms are stretching out in celebration from the left. Fans on the north side of Kenan Stadium are on the precipice of eruption, linemen are strewn across the turf in the background.
"I've seen a ton of different angles and different shots of that play, but this one is definitely my favorite," Sexton says. "The scoreboard and the crowd are in the background, I have totally cleared the Notre Dame guy. I'll never forget that play."
"I'll remember that play my whole life," says John Shoop, the Tar Heel offensive coordinator who had barked into his headset from the press box high above the field: Jumbo Left 415 Bronco. "Isn't that awesome? I love the stadium and the crowd and all the blue in the background. That's as good a picture as there is."
Notre Dame's trip to Chapel Hill on Oct. 11th, 2008, was one of the most anticipated games in Kenan Stadium in years, and the tension matched the buildup as the game ran deep into the third quarter. The Fighting Irish held a 24-22 lead when defensive tackle Aleric Mullins stripped QB Jimmy Clausen and recovered the ball at the Irish 42 yard-line.
On the Tar Heels' second snap after the turnover, Shaun Draughn took a pitch from Sexton and sped around the right side 38 yards for a touchdown. Two unfortunate things happened for Carolina, though— Hakeem Nicks was flagged for holding and Zack Pianalto, who threw a key block for Draughn, sprained his ankle in the celebration before the Heels realized the play was coming back. The Heels nipped and tucked their way down to the Irish four and faced a third-and-two call as the third quarter came to an end.
"A lot of people forget this play would never have happened if Shaun's touchdown hadn't been called back," Sexton notes.
Since the Miami game two weeks earlier, the Tar Heels had consistently used a personnel group that included Rome at fullback and Ryan Houston at tailback on short-yardage and goal-line situations. Rome and Houston together were the Tar Heels' strongest and most punishing backs, and when they entered the lineup on a short-yardage situation, everyone in the stadium—particularly Notre Dame's defenders—had a good inkling of what was coming.
So Shoop gave the Irish what they were expecting—a hand-off to Houston.
Or so everyone thought.
The "Jumbo" personnel group included three tight ends—two on the line of scrimmage and one on a wing to the left. Pianalto was still being attended to by trainers on the sideline, so true freshman Christian Wilson came into the game as the "H-Back" with Richard Quinn and Ed Barham the tight ends to either sides of the line. It would be Wilson's first snap of college football.
The noise was deafening. Head coach Butch Davis from the sideline made a motion with his hands for the home crowd to turn down the volume.
"It was way different from practice," Wilson says. "During the cadence, I could hardly hear what Cam was saying. I just kind of guessed at what he was saying. I was a split second late off the ball."
On the snap of the ball, the play set up to look like a hand-off to Houston over the left side.
"When I watch film, I want it to look the same whether I'm getting the ball or it's a fake," says Houston. "Cam faked it to me, but I rolled up my arms just like I had the ball. I lowered my head and ran hard. The safety floated over toward me and we took him out of the picture."
After faking the ball to Houston, Sexton continued a full counterclockwise pirouette and ran to the right side of the field. He had three receivers to look for—Quinn releasing to the back of the end zone, Rome into the right of end zone and Wilson across the middle. But Wilson tripped over the foot of a teammate and never got open, and as Sexton rolled to the right, he spotted an opening. Turning the corner out of the backfield at the 12 yard-line, Sexton was full bore intent to keep the ball. He never tucked the ball into his gut, though, and it joggled a foot from his body as he jetted toward the goal.
"Once you get on the edge, you're like a point guard in basketball," Shoop says. "If either of the DBs leave their guys in the end zone and come up to make the tackle, you can lob the ball over their head."
Sexton saw safety Kyle McCarthy (28), who had been covering Rome, coming toward him at about the five and went airborne.
"Most of the time you would have dived in a situation like that," Sexton says. "It was kind of happening in slow-motion in my mind. It looked like 28 was going to go for my legs and I felt like I might have to jump for this one."
Sexton leapt at the two, McCarthy undercut him, but Sexton had plenty of energy to fly into the end zone, landing on his back in the Carolina blue paint.
Kenan Stadium exploded with one of its throatiest, most passionate roars of all time.
"I was yelling, 'I'm open, I'm open .... Touchdown!'" Rome says. "The roar was unbelievable."
"It was a huge momentum swing for us," Quinn says. "You could feel the vibration from the crowd. The ground was rumbling as we ran off the field. I've never heard it that loud."
They were the last points of the game. The final was Carolina 29, Notre Dame 24.
Donnan has photographed Carolina sports for more than 25 years, and his images of Tar Heel basketball have graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. He uses two cameras to shoot most sporting events—one with zoom capabilities and one offering more of a wide-angle view. The deeper the game goes, the more he's likely to use the wide-angle lens to capture "more atmosphere, more pieces of the puzzle," he says. He was positioned in the corner of the end zone and held the zoom lens to his eye when the play started. He snapped off three frames of Sexton rolling out with the ball. As Sexton tucked the ball and ran, Donnan shifted from one camera to the next and peeled off four frames of him scoring the touchdown.
"You knew it was an athletic move at the time, but you didn't really realize how athletic until you see each frame and see him so high up in the air," Donnan says. "I am blown away almost every week—somebody does something that is that notch above, that's really outstanding."
The win over the Irish was certainly one of the signature wins of the four years Davis was Carolina's head coach; road wins at Virginia Tech in 2009 and Florida State in 2010 and three straight over Miami from 2007-07 qualify as well.
"There are a lot of emotions in this picture," Davis says. "To beat teams with mystique, you need memorable, spectacular plays. It was great improvisation on Cam's part. He had to scramble and make a play—either pass or run. He crossed the goal line and everything just erupted."
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (leepace7@gmail.com) is in his 25th year writing "Extra Points" and 11th reporting from the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network. His unique look at Tar Heel football will appear regularly throughout the fall. Follow him on Twitter @LeePaceTweet.
