University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Transfer of Energy
August 31, 2014 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
My, how quickly things can change. In the span of three minutes and 49 seconds in the third quarter, Carolina turned a 22-21 deficit into a 49-22 lead en route to a 56-29 win over Liberty in Saturday's season opener. There were big offensive plays and big turnovers, and certainly adjustments after an underwhelming opening half, but the underlying theme was a simple change in energy on the home sideline. The Tar Heel defense in particular played with a renewed vigor that was evident even before the scoring spree began.
In the first half, Turner Gill's Liberty Flames ran the ball seemingly at will on the Tar Heels. It wasn't anything fancy the Flames were doing; 13 of their 21 rushing attempts were simple and up the middle. But Liberty gained 61 yards in the first half going straight up the middle. The Tar Heel defense had the personnel to stop the run; they just needed to do it.
“We came over on the sideline, and we drew up on the chalkboard a lot,” said junior bandit Shakeel Rashad. “There were a few plays that they were hitting us with, and we recognized that that's what it was, and so we drew those up, we got it fixed.”
Perhaps in all the excitement of kicking off the season, the Tar Heels stepped out of their game plan. “We had to get back to reading our keys,” said junior linebacker Jeff Schoettmer. “We missed a few assignments in the first half, but we got it squared away in the locker room at halftime. Whether we miss an assignment or not, if we're going full force and playing with energy, then those mistakes can be overcome.”
Recognizing that the team needed to change the energy, needed to take back the momentum, needed to capitalize on the night-game-at-Kenan-crowd, the Tar Heels summoned it in themselves in the locker room at halftime. “They were disappointed in what had happened in the first half,” said Tar Heel head coach Larry Fedora. “They were extremely excited about going back out on the field, and they were rallying. The energy level in the locker room was incredible at the half, and it wasn't anything that the coaches did.”
The coaches have the schemes and the strategies, but it's the players who have to execute them with energy. And that's what they did, the defense in particular. Even while the offense sputtered early in the third, the defense was holding the line. The offense turned the ball over twice –once directly resulting in a Liberty touchdown that put the Tar Heels in a one-point hole– but the defense never wavered. This wasn't bend, don't break; this was, don't bend at all. Liberty had seven offensive possessions in the third quarter, and they went three plays and out or turned the ball over on every single third quarter possession.
Two things happened to spark the energy on the Tar Heel sideline. Two players, one unlikely, and one more likely, made plays to swing the game's momentum. After the third Liberty three-and-out of the quarter, Ryan Switzer's punt return set up the Tar Heels on the right side of the 50. Then, wide receiver Mack Hollins hauled in his first career catch and danced up the Liberty sideline for seven yards. On the very next play, on what appeared to be the very same call, Hollins used a terrific Jack Tabb block to run untouched to the end zone. Hollins, a special teams standout, a walk-on who had a terrific spring game seized the moment under the bright lights at Kenan Stadium. “Anytime we get in the ballgame, if you're in, Coach (Gunter) Brewer says you're the starter. You're the man. So, if I'm touching the ball, I expect myself to score every time, no matter how short of play it is.”
On Liberty's next play, Schoettmer snagged a Josh Woodrum pass and ran 19 yards for his first career interception and score. In 13 game-seconds, Carolina went from down one to up 13. “I had the pick-six, and you could just tell the whole energy of the sideline changed,” Schoettmer said. “It just snowballed from there. We got two more turnovers on the next two drives, and then that was it.”
The energy switch was palpable. Hollins said after the kickoff following Schoettmer's score, Liberty players looked disinterested in continuing. “You could just tell, they just didn't want it,” he said. “They didn't even try to catch the ball. They let it go, and they just started walking off the field. You could tell they were (figuratively) dead.”
That energy, positive or negative, feeds on itself. For the Tar Heels, that meant reaching in and ripping the football away from Liberty players, as they did on the next two positions. After Junior Gnonkonde forced a fumble, Marquise Williams ran in for a score. After Alex Dixon forced another that Dominquie Green returned to the Liberty 32, Mitch Trubisky found Jack Tabb for Trubisky's first career passing touchdown. Suddenly, the rout was on.
On Sunday, the Tar Heels will watch the film and learn from the mistakes they made and attempt to build on the positive things they did. They weren't perfect, certainly. Take away that four-minute stretch, and the Tar Heels fall one point short. But you can't take that four-minute stretch away, because it's as much a part of the game as any. And Saturday four minutes was all the Tar Heels needed to turn the tide, seize the energy and win the day.
“You get one guy that's real positive and excited, and it's contagious and it goes to the next guy, and the next thing you know, things start happening,” Fedora said. “That's the way it works when you've got a bunch of guys that are positive and they've got a lot of energy and they're bouncing around. Usually, good things happen.”
