University of North Carolina Athletics
Quick Lane to Consistency
December 18, 2014 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
On Monday, Larry Fedora said Carolina will practice 11 times before taking the field on December 26 against Rutgers. That practice time is crucial not only for the Quick Lane Bowl, but also to build consistency and lay a foundation that will carry into the spring and beyond.
“It's time to get better,” said Seth Littrell, assistant head coach for offense. “We've got a lot to work on. Throughout the season, we had some ups and downs, and we did some good things and we did some not-so-good things, so this is time to kind of get back focused up and get ready to prepare for a good team and get the taste out of our mouth from the last game, because that's obviously not the way we want to play.”
Quite obviously, Carolina does not want to replicate the offensive or defensive performance it put on in the 35-7 loss to NC State in the regular season finale. So the Tar Heels spent the early portion of the post-exam, pre-bowl period getting back to the rhythm of practice and then set their sights on the Scarlet Knights. Some teams can use this time to perform maintenance. The Tar Heels are not there. “You're either going forward or backwards,” Littrell said. “We have a lot of young guys who need a lot of work and continuing to grow in the offense and get better because we were too inconsistent overall.”
That inconsistency was never more apparent than in the final two games of the season, when the Tar Heels knocked off Duke on the road by a 45-20 score before the dismal output against the Wolfpack. “We've got to continue to grow and get better,” Littrell said. “It's really good work for us. We really needed this time to have these extra practices to really develop these guys.”
Extra time between games also means extra recovery time. Quarterback Marquise Williams and receiver Ryan Switzer suffered injuries against NC State but both are expected to play next Friday. Running back Elijah Hood missed five games to injury before returning for the finale, though he wasn't then 100 percent. After Wednesday's practice, Hood said he's good to go. “I feel like I'm back to full speed, full strength, so I just think everything's going well,” he said. “I should be ready to go and play my best.”
Hood at his best is a versatile weapon for the Tar Heels. T.J. Logan was beginning to flourish toward the season's end, and having Hood as a change-of-pace bruiser will be vital against a Rutgers defense that is vulnerable to the run. Hood is not one to avoid contact, rather, he plows through people. “I asked a couple of my teammates today how I've been running in the past week,” he said. “They can tell you how I've been going down (or not).”
Littrell said formulating a game plan involves both playing to your own strengths and seeking to exploit an opponent's weaknesses. “It's really a fine line because you always want to try to get after someone's weaknesses, but that may not be your strength,” he said. “You can't overdo it, and you've got to make sure you stay true to yourself and kind of do what you're good at, that the players understand you're successful at. There's no reason to go out and do a lot of new stuff that's not really what you're good at, so we've got to get back to the basics and fundamentals.”
“I think we'll just stay consistent with how we've been running the last couple of weeks, stick true to our game and our strengths,” right guard Landon Turner said. “Rutgers is a good defense. They're very athletic. They might not be as big, but I'm really impressed with the athleticism and that's definitely going to pose a challenge for us, but I'm looking forward to it.”
And while the Tar Heels want to use this time to help set a tone into the off-season and next season, there's also the matter of the game next Friday. “We're still in this season,” Turner said. “No one's cashed this season in at all. We're still 100 percent focused. It's still 2014 and we'll worry about 2015 when 2015 gets here.”
Next week's Quick Lane Bowl offers more than a chance to build something for the spring and beyond, more than a trip to Detroit and the bowl events and perks. It's a chance to end the season on a good note and get a win. For the Tar Heels, it's an opportunity to write a good final chapter to 2014. “It doesn't matter who you are, it doesn't matter where you're from, it doesn't matter where we're playing,” Hood said.”We're going out there to win, so that's basically been it. We've ben out here working, it's been really competitive this whole week, just trying to get some fire and take that with us to Detroit so we can show what we're really about.”
Players Mentioned
