University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Against All Odds
November 23, 2015 | Football, Featured Writers, Lee Pace
by Lee Pace
It was one-against-four in the lengthening and nippy shadows at midfield of Lane Stadium Saturday, Shakeel Rashad representing the Tar Heels and four captains for Virginia Tech convening for the coin toss before overtime of Coastal Armageddon—the Tar Heels playing for their first conference title in 35 years and Virginia Tech for a Hollywood-scripted send-off for coach Frank Beamer. Rashad's white uniform was splotched with grass, dirt and sweat, his bare arms bruised and scratched, him standing there against four Hokies clad in black from head-to-toe offering the perfect metaphor for the week and the proceedings of the previous three hours.
Seventy Tar Heel players were on the east sideline and maybe 1,500 Carolina fans were tucked into the southeast corner of Lane Stadium on a crisp November afternoon, their collective voices drowned out by a seriously stoked Virginia Tech fan base that elicited a half dozen procedure and operational penalties on the Tar Heel offense. The entire world of college football had spent the week playing warm and fuzzy with the legacy of Beamer, the Hokies' coach since 1987 and the architect of maniacal attention to special teams detail that a young coach named Larry Fedora subscribed to years ago. And the Hokies, on the verge of being blasted like so much buckshot into the gold mountainsides in the distance as the fourth quarter ensued, rallied from two touchdowns behind in the final four minutes to tie the game by the grace of a pair of Tar Heel fumbles.
“We felt all week it was 'us against the world,'” linebacker Jeff Schoettmer said. “They had a lot of play for. But so did we—even more.”
The Tar Heels went from giddy with five minutes to play to trying to whet their throats of the cottonmouth and sop their necks of the cold sweats that had evolved with the furious Virginia Tech comeback.
“Everybody was panicking, there were heart attacks going left and right,” quarterback Marquise Williams noted.
“We were shocked, definitely shocked,” defensive end Mikey Bart said. “We were talking about getting rings fitted and out of nowhere they scored.”
“It was chaos, it was a lot of adversity, but we're always coached not to blink in the eye of adversity,” defensive tackle Nazair Jones added. “We prepare for chaos. That was a great example of that.”
Referee Ron Cherry told Rashad that the visiting team had the honor to call the flip, and the Tar Heel linebacker examined the coin Cherry held, considered his options and then announced, “Heads.”
“I almost went tails, but the tails on the coin looked like a guy mooning me, so I went heads,” Rashad said.
Heads it was, giving Carolina the advantage of playing defense first. Over 11 games and one overtime in 2015, the Tar Heels have won nine coin tosses. The modest win in a 50-50 game of chance seemed to brighten the pall over the Tar Heel bench area. The mood lifted.
“We had all the momentum and then lost it,” receivers coach Gunter Brewer said. “We got extremely lucky winning the toss, finding out exactly what we had to do. That was a good break. We've won a lot of coin tosses this year and like to play defense first—for some reason our guys latch onto that.”
Indeed, the Tar Heel defense made quick work of three Virginia Tech offensive plays and forced a field goal. The highlight was a running play to Tech's right that was summarily stuffed by Schoettmer, Rashad, Sam Smiley and M.J. Stewart for a two-yard loss. That set up a throw on third down that Carolina covered well and rushed aggressively with four down linemen, leaving Tech to kick a field goal to take a 27-24 lead.
“We spend more time than anyone practicing in the red zone,” Rashad said. “We're very comfortable there. We knew what routes we were going to get, what runs to look for. That stretch play was something they were hanging their hat on all game and we were ready for it. You saw it. Jeff hit it. Smiley hit it. I was all over it. The whole team was over there. We were smothering routes. We knew we were capable of forcing a field goal.”
“That was a huge stop,” defensive coordinator Gene Chizik said. “When things were hectic and there was chaos, guys stepped up and delivered. Our kids saw the game well and played with great effort and intensity. Championship players deliver when the game's on the line. We did that today.”
That left the offense knowing it needed at minimum a field goal, and with Nick Weiler hitting 89 percent this season, it looked like a sure bet. But Carolina almost got a touchdown on its first snap of overtime when coordinator Seth Littrell called a pass deep over the middle to tight end Brandon Fritts, who had turned a similar call into a 32-yard gain earlier. But Williams' read was a little cloudy, so he went to his second option—Ryan Switzer on a flag route for 18 yards to the Tech seven.
Two snaps later, Fedora called time out to consider the impending third-and-five call.
“Everyone was saying, 'Run this play, run that play,'” Davis said. 'Coach said, 'We're throwing to 14.' I'm like, 'Good deal, Coach, I've been saying that, throw it to me.'”
Almost one year ago, the Tar Heels were in the late stages of a blowout loss to Rutgers in a Detroit bowl game and were trying to salvage some pride with a late scoring threat. Mitch Trubisky threw a fade route into the right corner, which Davis couldn't snare and landed badly on his right leg, suffering a break that necessitated surgery and sidelined him through the late spring.
Now 11 months later with two strong legs, two long arms, infinite confidence, the school record for career catches and a sublime relationship with the quarterback honed over literally a thousand reps of this very play in formal and sandlot practice, Davis gave Tech cornerback Terrell Edmunds a quick inside move, then angled toward the back end zone pylon.
Williams lofted the ball eight to 10 feet high, to Davis's back shoulder. The receiver pirouetted, jumped, caught the ball, landed both feet in bounds and fell to ground, the ball safely in his possession.
“That's what you want when you're a little kid on the playground,” Davis said.
“Quinshad Davis is a legend,” Williams said.
The touchdown gave the Tar Heels a 30-27 win and allowed them to capture the ACC Coastal Division title with a 7-0 record before next week's trip to N.C. State.
“It's ironic to see a guy like Quinshad come full circle from a year ago, how differently the plays turned out for him personally and for the team,” quarterbacks coach Keith Heckendorf said. “I think that says a lot about where this team has come and how much different these two teams are. It was a great team win. We're thinking, 'Man, we weren't very good in so many areas, but we found a way to win.' At the end of the day, not all of them are going to be pretty. But we found ways to gut it out, grind it out. It's a 'W,' we're moving forward and the Wolfpack is next.”
Hollywood would have scripted it differently, of course, John Wayne killing the bad guy and getting the girl in the end, Frank Beamer rallying from the grave and winning with a blocked punt at the end. Instead, it was the Tar Heels who blocked a punt that led to three points, just another of the delicious ironies that played out against the odds.
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.
