University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: History Week
November 16, 2015 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
by Lee Pace
CHAPEL HILL—The strains of Pharrell Williams' Happy enveloped the youngsters cavorting and frolicking on the playing field in Kenan Stadium just after 7 p.m. Saturday night. “Because I'm happy, clap along if you feel like a room without a roof ...” Up on the fifth floor of Kenan Football Center, Larry Fedora donned a headset to begin his post-game radio conversation with Jones Angell of the Tar Heel Sports Network. “Because I'm happy, clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth ...”
The Tar Heels had just pounded Miami to smithereens by a 59-21 margin (dittos from a week ago versus Duke, when the truth was worse than the numbers), and Fedora was left to absorb the enormity of it all:
* First time the Tar Heels have won nine games since 1997, when they finished 11-1;
* First time the Tar Heels have won nine straight since 1914, when Coach T.C. Trenchard's team collected 10 in a row (five by shut-out) before dropping the season finale to Virginia;
* Only the second time in history Carolina has posted a 7-0 record in Kenan Stadium for a single year, the 1980 ACC championship team matching that mark;
* And the highest point total of 125 in back-to-back ACC games in history (FSU had 122 in 1995).
We could go on.
“Everybody on that team had a responsibility to make sure those 26 seniors went out the right way,” Fedora said. “Those 26 guys will never step foot on that field in a game again. This is a special place. I'm sure it's a bittersweet night for them.”
It was dubbed “History Week” just after the 66-31 win over Duke by junior receiver Mack Hollins, one of the sharpest knives in this drawer of Tar Heel football. On the one in a thousand chance a Tar Heel had forgotten the angst of watching The Victory Bell swiped from the Carolina sideline as it was at the end of Duke's win in Durham in 2012, Hollins took to screaming “Duke Week!!!” at various junctures in practice. Then when Fedora prefaced Miami preparations by telling the Tar Heels they could become only the second team in Carolina history to go 7-0 at home—“Guys, you can make history,” Fedora told them—Hollins tweaked the theme to “History Week!!!”
“We could go into the record books if we could keep winning,” Hollins said. “I just wanted to make sure everyone understood the opportunity in front of us.”
Leading characters in all of that history have been observing and enjoying. Paul Miller, a captain and quarterback on the 1971 ACC title team who watches in awe as this offense cranks more yards in a quarter than his team did in a game:
“Third-and-15? We had one play call for that—the draw play to Don McCauley,” Miller says with a laugh. “The longest pass I ever threw was 62 yards and it was a play we made up in the huddle. We were playing Maryland in '71 and Lewis Jolley comes to me and says, 'I can beat the cornerback.' So we invented an out-and-up, and it went for a touchdown.”
It's been noticed by Greg Ellis, a defensive end on the 1996-97 teams that went 21-3 and were ranked back-to-back Top 10. Ellis is now a film maker and showed the Tar Heels his new release, Carter High, Friday evening:
“The program's had some tough years, but they've fought hard through it all,” Ellis said. “It does my heart good and makes me proud to see us prove to the country we can play good football at Carolina.”
It's been noticed by Mack Brown, the architect of that 1996-97 high-water mark who's now a color analyst on Friday night ESPN games and a studio analyst on Saturdays.
“I bragged on them Saturday a few times,” said Brown, who's coached with or against both Fedora and defensive coordinator Gene Chizik. “I'm enjoying watching them play. Larry has always moved the ball so well, and Gene has been a great addition. Coaching does matter.”
And it's been noticed by Chase Rice, the former Tar Heel linebacker now kicking arse in the country music world. Rice watched from the sidelines before bolting to Raleigh in the second half for a concert at the sold-out Ritz, and between Carolina touchdowns and forced turnovers he graciously took selfies and signed autographs for the gaggle of fans who congregated on the other side of the hedgerows around the field. Rice wore his faded white T-shirt with the image of teammate Connor Barth hitting his game-winning field goal against Miami in 2004.
“I love this place, I love the energy,” he said. “I'm having fun singing and writing songs right now, but there's still nothing like being on a team and playing football. Those days were a lot of fun, and it's a lot of fun right now seeing the smiles on these kids' faces.”
The smiles came from the offense, which pounded out 298 yards rushing and an average of 6.5 yards a pop, a handful of them from quarterback Marquise Williams on some nifty option plays sharpened this week in plans of being stout against Miami defensive fronts.
“It's kind of a pick-your-poison offense,” said tailback Elijah Hood, who ran for 132 yards. “Last week Duke tried to stop the run, and we were able to rain the touchdowns through the air. Today they were so worried about last week, they focused on the pass and it opened up a lot of running lanes.”
The smiles came from the defense, which over 10 Hurricane possessions into the third quarter forced five 3-and-outs, three turnovers and a missed field goal and atoned for a sloppy performance the week before that left Chizik to wince, “We had a nice little meeting about that on Sunday.”
“The first half we did a great job running to the ball,” cornerback Des Lawrence said. “That's the way we want to play defense. I heard a lot of oohs and ahs with big hits.”
“Coach challenged us after the Duke game, he said that was not our style of defense and told us he holds us to a higher standard,” added senior Jeff Schoettmer, who had an interception and 60-yard return. “He really challenged us this week, and we responded in the first half.”
And they came in the kicking game, with Ryan Switzer returning a punt 78 yards for a score and Joey Mangili providing some consistency and quick operation time on three punts. Fedora dialed up a return that went big against Miami a year ago only to be nullified by a holding call. The Tar Heels used mostly double-team blocks on the Hurricanes' most athletic cover guys and left Switzer to beat the bigger, slower guys forming the shield that protects the punter. It worked to perfection.
“We talked all week in special teams meetings about just believing and making it happen,” Fedora said. “That unit took it upon themselves they were going to make it happen, and they did.”
So as the Tar Heels enter a decisive two-week stretch that includes road trips to Blacksburg and Raleigh, Mack Hollins will be on alert for another theme. Most significantly, Carolina has never won the ACC Coastal Division outright, and it's been 35 years since they've won a league crown.
“I need to find something else to scream about and lose my voice,” he said. “We're now in the record book. That's amazing. But maybe we say the rest of the month is 'History Month.' We have a chance to make history the rest of the season.”
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (leepace7@gmail.com) is in his 26th year writing “Extra Points” and 12th reporting from the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network. His unique look at Tar Heel football will appear regularly throughout the year. Follow him on Twitter @LeePaceTweet.
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