University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Simply Extraordinary
October 4, 2016 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
by Turner Walston
Two weeks in a row, Carolina had the ball with the opportunity to win on the final drive of the game. Carolina fans are familiar with this scenario, particularly in the last ten years or so. Since the dawn of the 2007 season, the Tar Heels have played 51 games decided by seven points or fewer. From 2007 through 2011, they won 14 of 33 such games. In the first two years of the Larry Fedora era, 2012 and 2013, they won three of seven. But in the last two seasons and five games into 2016, the Tar Heels have won nine of 11. Since dropping a 17-13 decision to South Carolina to begin the 2015 season, Carolina has won five straight games decided by seven points or fewer.
That's a program evolving, a program growing, a team and its players and coaches becoming more comfortable when the game is on the line. Carolina is 2-0 in ACC play in 2016, scoring 37 points in each of the last two weeks, winning by a single point and two points. In both the home win over Pitt and the road win at Florida State, the offense led by Mitch Trubisky displayed tremendous poise over pressure. They never over-reached, never tried to do the impossible. They just went out and did what was necessary to win the game.
Twice, Carolina faced 4th and 6 against Pitt on that fateful final drive. Trubisky found Ryan Switzer on a slant for 15 on the first. On the second, Austin Proehl cut toward the sideline and hauled in a 13-yard completion. Later on 3rd and 16 after a sack, Trubisky calmly found Switzer again, this time for seven. He knew it was four-down territory, knew to take what he could get. That set up Switzer's leaping grab for nine and a first down. The senior wideout knew where he needed to be and ran a simple hook route to move the chains.
Of course, you know what happened next. After a routine completion to Bug Howard to set up 1st and goal, the Tar Heels ran the same play-action call three times: once a missed connection to Howard, the next an Elijah Hood rush, and finally the floater to Howard on the end zone. That play was identical to the one on which Howard scored on the previous drive. Howard even told his defender it was coming again. The Tar Heels executed, and did enough to earn a win in their first conference game.
"How many of those plays were extraordinary, when you think about it?" Fedora said Monday. "It's just throwing and catching. Now, the situation, the atmosphere, all the things on the outside, but Switz has made thousands of catches from Mitch on that route in practice. Bug has caught that ball in the corner of the end zone thousands of times from Mitch over the summers. Those are ordinary plays. If we can make the ordinary plays we've got a chance to be really really good."
The next week at Florida State, Fedora stuck with that message, reminding his team before the game that they didn't have to do anything special to be special. "You make the plays that are presented to you in this game. That's all you've got to do. Make the plays that are presented. Play with great energy and do what we do."
And then with 23 seconds left to play, the Tar Heels were asked to do what they do. What they have done lately, anyway. From their own 25-yard line, Trubisky hit Mack Hollins on a post route at the Tar Heel 45. Hollins brilliantly dove forward to the 48 before tacklers could get to him, saving precious time. Seventeen seconds remained on the game clock. After just missing Switzer over the middle, there were nine seconds left. Trubisky looked toward Hollins again, running a similar route to his prior catch. No completion, but pass interference was called. That set up the 54-yard game-winner from Nick Weiler.
Mitch Trubisky had never engineered a game-winning drive with 23 seconds to play, never led the Tar Heels to a win at Doak Campbell Stadium, never broken a 22-game home winning streak. But he and his team did so by executing the ordinary, the plays they'd rehearsed over and over in practice.
"We've been in that situation with no timeouts in practice and the fact that we had two is kind of a relief," he said. "We could stop the clock. We had two or three plays. Getting that big first catch for Mack on the first play was huge, and then luckily we got the PI call, but we had our chances. We've been in that situation. Everyone just relaxed, took a deep breath, looked each other in the eyes and just knew we had to make it happen. and then we went out there and did that, executed. Everyone just did their job, and I'm just proud of the guys for sticking together and trusting in the plan and the process, and it's worked out for us."
Weiler's previous career-long field goal was 48 yards. He'd missed a 51-yarder to open the second half. His extra-point attempt was low and blocked, creating this one-point deficit. A great snap from Kyle Murphy. A tremendous spin and hold from Joey Mangili. A true kick from Nick Weiler. A win.
These Tar Heels are playing winning football not by trying to be extraordinary, but by doing their jobs, doing what is asked of them by their coaches and directed by the playbook. "We haven't had to make any acrobatic, flipping catches or anything, it's been just make the routine plays, because they've done it so many times in practice as far as two minute situations against our defense," Fedora said. "All through camp, numerous times during camp, every week we do it, and they know on Wednesday we're going to go against our defense. We're going to have a different situation we're going to have to come up with, and then I'm going to give it to them right before they go and then they've got to figure it out."
Twice now, the Tar Heels have figured it out, taken the hand that they were dealt, executed and found ways to win. Fedora's two-minute drill scenarios are paying off. "I've got a new one now," he said Monday. "Twenty-three seconds on the clock and two timeouts. So that's a new one to work in the future. I've never used that one. Nowhere even close to that one."
And yet because of their poise, because of their practice, the Tar Heels found a comfort level and executed. They took the ordinary into incredible circumstances, executed and won. Simply extraordinary.
