University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Finding A Way
November 21, 2015 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
Frank Beamer's last game at Lane Stadium as head coach of the Hokies. Senior Day. The opportunity to gain bowl eligibility for the 23rd straight year. The storylines swirled around Virginia Tech football on Saturday, and the Tar Heels played the villains. It was an emotional day in Blacksburg. The home team was tasked with sending their legendary head coach out with a victory, and in the process, deferring the visiting team's chance to clinch a division championship.
They almost did it.
“When we talked all week about this game, we knew that this was kind of the perfect storm,” Carolina head coach Larry Fedora said. “Everything was going against us. They had the tribute to Coach, and they needed to get bowl-eligible and (it was) their seniors' last day in this stadium, and the black unis and whatever you want to call it, it was all going against us, and we knew that crowd would be rocking today, and we knew that we were going to have to play error-free. [That's] what we talked about, just be really good in the fundamentals and techniques and be brilliant in the basics. And we didn't (do it).”
Momentum swings. On the last play of the third quarter, with the game tied at ten, Carolina defensive tackle Nazair Jones forced and recovered a fumble from Virginia Tech's Sam Rogers. Five plays later, the Tar Heel offense was in the end zone. On the next Hokie drive, Des Lawrence intercepted a deep ball. Carolina turned that into points as well. In half a quarter, Carolina had scored two touchdowns while holding Virginia Tech to 11 total yards. Here were the Coastal Division champions waking up from a sleepy game and putting it away. Or so we thought.
With fewer than six minutes on the clock, Carolina's M.J. Stewart picked off a pass from Virginia Tech quarterback Michael Brewer. The Tar Heel offense took over, up by 14 points and with the chance increase that lead or at the very least, take some time off the clock. But after getting into Hokie territory, Marquise Williams fumbled the football, giving the Hokies both possession and hope.
It was that kind of day for the Tar Heel offense, which, after the game's first drive, spun its wheels. The Tar Heels' next seven possessions ended with six punts and a Williams fumble. Frank Beamer joked early in the week that he hadn't seen much punt tape of the Tar Heels, because they hadn't punted much at all to date. He saw plenty of punts on Saturday.
Virginia Tech marched down the field and thanks to pass plays of 26 and 25 yards, was back on the board after Brewer found Bucky Hodges open in the end zone. Still, the Tar Heels were up by a score and would get the ball back with 2:54 remaining. T.J. Logan got the ball to midfield, but another Williams fumbled handed the ball back to the Hokies. The college football gods were taking care of Beamer, it seemed. Another big pass play to Isaiah Ford, and the game was soon tied. 24-24, 1:07 on the clock.
Carolina went three and out and punted for an eighth time, but Virginia Tech took a knee to send the game into overtime. The Tar Heels were in shock, and the momentum was entirely on Beamer's sideline. Just moments earlier, the Carolina players had been thinking about sizes for division championship rings. Now, they were going to have to overcome a perfect storm.
“Every week, we go out and we try to earn the right to win the game, and that's something that helps with our resiliency,” senior linebacker Shakeel Rashad said. “We don't just say we won last week, maybe we're going to roll the ball out this week and we'll win the game, but we go out Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and we try to earn the right to win with the way we prepare.”
To capture a division title, they were going to have to earn it on Saturday. When Brewer took that knee to send the game to overtime, it gave the Tar Heels a bit of new life. Virginia Tech couldn't score with seconds on the clock; Carolina would have an opportunity, too.
Virginia Tech sent four captains to midfield for the overtime coin toss; Carolina sent Rashad. As the visiting team representative, he got to make the call. He called 'heads,' and the Tar Heels won the toss, electing to go on defense first. Virginia Tech would get the ball at the Tar Heel 25, and no matter what happened, Carolina would have a chance to answer.
Rashad was confident. After the game, he reckoned that the Tar Heels spend as much time on red-zone defense as anyone in the country. “This is where we're comfortable," he said. “We know what routes we're going to get; we know what runs we're looking for . . .”
On first down, Hokie workhorse Travon McMillian rumbled for four yards. But on second down, he was stopped in the backfield by Rashad and a host of Tar Heels. “We knew what formations that they were going to get in,” Rashad said. “They were hanging their hats on certain plays all day and I believe that was one of them.”
On third down, tight coverage in the backfield combined with pressure up front forced Brewer to throw the ball out of bounds, setting up a field goal. “Everybody had their gaps, and I know we trusted the secondary enough that they're going to cover back there as long as we do our job up front,” defensive end Mikey Bart said. “And that's about it, really.”
A fresh set of downs on the opposing 25 yard-line means that if the offense gains nothing on downs one through three, it's still a 42-yard field goal. So holding a team to three points is a victory in overtime. “Keep them out of the end zone,” M.J. Stewart said. “Whatever it took, keep them out of the end zone, because we knew our offense was going to score so if we hold them to three and keep them out of the end zone. We knew our offense was going to score so we knew we had the game.”
After Joey Slye's field goal was true, the Tar Heel offense got their chance at redemption. Williams immediately went to the air, hitting Ryan Switzer for 18 along the sideline. Elijah Hood, who'd already eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards on the season, picked up four on the ground to get to the three, but a false start backed up the Tar Heels another five yards. Penalties plagued Carolina all day –they had eight for 55 yards– and they continually shot themselves in the foot. So instead of second-and-goal from the three, it was the eight. A Williams keeper set up third and goal at the five. Again, a field goal here would tie the game and send it to a second overtime. A turnover here would lose the game. A touchdown here . . .
“Coach called timeout and that was like run this play, run that play . . . Coach said 'We're throwing it to 14,' and I was like, 'Good deal, Coach,'” said Quinshad Davis, Carolina's all-time leader in touchdown catches, who happens to wear number 14. “'I've been telling you that. Throw it to me.'”
“First quarter, I threw him the ball, and he said, 'Man, are you going to come back to me?'” Williams said. “And I said, 'Yep,' and then before the play, he said, 'Talk to me,' and I said 'I can't talk to you right now; I'm too nervous. Too nervous.' But he was like, 'You're going to come to me?' and that was my last word, 'Yep,' and then I put the ball in the area.”
Davis lined up across from Virginia Tech's Terrell Edmunds, planted his foot in the end zone and went outside. There was the ball.
“The guy lined up one-on-one like they've been doing all day, and I beat him on the route and Quise threw a great ball and I made a good catch,” Davis said.
“I knew he was going to make a great catch,” Williams said. “That's what he does every day in practice, and he's making a name for himself. He's one of the best I've ever played with.”
Davis' teammates mobbed him in the end zone. The play was reviewed and upheld. One sideline was erupting with excitement over a division championship; the other held their heads high and began to chant 'Beamer, Beamer, Beamer' for their head coach. There was pride and respect on both sides.
“It's kind of bittersweet, because I have such great respect for Frank Beamer and what he's meant to college football,” Fedora said.
Virginia Tech will try again next week at Virginia to become bowl-eligible, to give the team a few more weeks with Beamer. Carolina will have a lot to learn from a game they almost fumbled away.
“Our team needed an overtime like that, I guess,” Bart said, “just to make sure we were staying motivated and trusting everybody.”
Carolina moved to 10-1 on the year and 7-0 in ACC play, setting up a date with Clemson in the conference championship game on December 5. The Tar Heels have checked the 'Coastal Champs' box and now look to do the same to the box next to 'State Champs' with a trip to NC State next weekend. This game was not pretty, but it was a win, which brings me to the last portion of Fedora's quote in the third paragraph above.
“ . . . we knew that we were going to have to play error-free. [That's] what we talked about, just be really good in the fundamentals and techniques and be brilliant in the basics. And we didn't (do it), but we found a way to win.”
Indeed. They found a way to be champions.
“They were playing for a lot,” Stewart said of the Hokies. “They had a chip on their shoulder, but we were playing for a lot, too, and our coach told us emotion can only carry you so far. Champions find a way to win. That's what we did.”
Turner Walston is the editor of CAROLINA digital magazine. Follow Turner on Twitter.
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