University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
Extra Points: Pitt Stop
September 23, 2018 | Football, Featured Writers, Extra Points
By Lee Pace
"History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time."
The heat. The tragedy-induced layoff. The first-half hiccup. The Nathan Elliott of Pitt games of yore. Over and over Saturday in Kenan Stadium in Carolina's home opener, stories and scripts from yesterday kept coming full circle in the Tar Heels' 38-35 victory.
Saturday happened to be the 39th anniversary of No. 13-ranked Pitt with coach Jackie Sherrill and defensive end Hugh Green coming to Chapel Hill for a 1:30 kick-off under a bright sun, mid-80s temperatures and requisite Southern humidity. Tar Heel Coach Dick Crum sensed watching the visitors from eight hours north in pregame warmups that the weather would prevail as the afternoon wore on and delivered a fiery pregame speech that players from that team chuckle about to this day: "We're going to lay it to those guys and we're going to sweat those fat suckers down. So let's go!'" Indeed, the Tar Heels upset Pitt 17-7 with a handful of Panthers taking IV fluids after the game.
This game also was an endurance exercise for all involved under a piercing sun and temperatures that crested at 88 degrees. The Tar Heels had depth issues galore with eight players sidelined because of suspensions and eight more with medical issues, but they had just enough bodies and fuel to outlast the Panthers, whose preseason and September training regimen in Western Pennsylvania can't match the Tar Heels' grounding in sweltering weather. As the Tar Heels ground out a 17-0 third-quarter advantage, the Panthers had lost half a step, were lunging and breathing heavily.
"We felt good, we had too much energy out there to slow down," defensive end Tomon Fox said. "You could definitely see the heat affecting them. They were talking about it to themselves in the second half."
"We thought they'd get tired in this heat," added linebacker Cole Holcomb. "That's when we had to take it to them and step it up."
The Tar Heels' winless start to the 2018 season and cancellation of last week's UCF game in the wake of the Hurricane Florence devastation across southeastern North Carolina harkened 17 years back. Carolina lost to Oklahoma, Maryland and Texas to open the 2001 season, then the terror attacks on Sept. 11 postponed the scheduled home opener against SMU. With an extra week to regroup, refocus and drown out the caterwauling public, the Tar Heels surgically disposed of Florida State by a 41-9 margin.
Similarly the last 10 days, coach Larry Fedora and his staff used the hurricane to provide some much needed community service—multiple trucks and vans left Chapel Hill with water and other supplies for Lumberton and New Bern late last week, with every Tar Heel donating his meal money from last weekend to the effort—and to officially flush out the dismal losses to California and East Carolina.
"The message was simple," defensive coordinator John Papuchis said last week. "We got an unforeseen break. We have a clean slate and we're starting ACC play. The goal is to be 1-0. We had a chance to recalibrate and we picked up an extra day to practice."
The Carolina offense showed early in the game it had shucked the cobwebs of the first half vs. Cal and second half vs. ECU, notching touchdowns on three of its first four possessions and likely to have scored on the other if not for a fumble by Anthony Ratliff-Williams on Pitt's side of the field. The defense gave up two catastrophic plays in the second quarter, but it had three sacks, two tackles for loss, four quarterback hurries and two three-and-out stands in the third quarter. And finally the Tar Heels got a turnover, with cornerback Tre Shaw stripping the ball on a kickoff return.
"We did something that we had never done before to have four or five days off like that in the middle of the season," Fedora said. "That's not something that the guys are used to, but we constantly talked about how we were going to turn that into a positive. Our guys did that today and I'm really proud of them."
"The break allowed us to look ourselves in mirror," Holcomb said. "I felt like we were kind of playing the blame game. That extra time we had let everyone look themselves in the mirror and realize, 'It's not this guy, it's not that guy, it's me, I need to change myself.' A lot of the guys did that."
Most contrasting from weeks one and two to the Pitt game was the play of Elliott, who threw four interceptions against Cal and, though he threw no picks against East Carolina, misfired on nearly a dozen of his 38 attempts. Elliott made his debut as the Tar Heels' starter last November in a Thursday night game at Pitt and played with aplomb and with zero pressure during a six-game losing skid—21 of 32 passes, two TDs, no interceptions, spot-on game management. Now with eight months of the responsibility and pressure of being The Man, Elliott was pressing and over-analyzing and wanting it all too much in early September.
"The last week I looked at myself and went back and saw the things I did last year," he said. "I tried not to do too much and over-think things. I saw the defense, saw what they were giving me and took advantage of it. The first two games, I was thinking that maybe they are doing something else, and I was 'what-if-ing' myself to death."
Elliott went back to basics during the off week, focusing on tightening up the footwork that is part-and-parcel of accurate throwing. He hit 22 of 31 throws for 313 yards and two scores. He hit the short stuff with regularity and connected on bombs downfield to Ratliff-Williams for 37 yards and Dazz Newsome for 47. He had no interceptions and, with the offensive line pass protecting well, suffered only one sack.
"Today, he just played football," Fedora said. "He really didn't worry about things. He just took the ball where it was supposed to go according to what the coverage gave him and then he just played. I thought he did a really nice job."
Most significantly, the Tar Heels bounced back from a second-quarter deluge of misfortune—a fumble, a 65-yard TD score for the Panthers and a 42-yard completion to set up another score—to find their ballast at halftime and finish the game. That was in marked contrast to having the lead entering the fourth quarter of three games early in the 2017 campaign—only to lose to Cal, Louisville and Duke.
"Coming out of halftime, we talked about finishing," said sophomore tailback Michael Carter, who played for the first time this year after a preseason injury. "There are a lot of players out there who say, 'I'm a dog.' But dogs bite. So not everybody is a dog. And in the second half, we had to finish that. I told them, 'Everyone wants to be a dog, but not everyone wants to bite.' So we've got to finish, we've got to bite."
Carolina took a chunk out of Pitt for the sixth year in a row, the winning margin a scant average of 4.3 points. From Ryan Switzer's punt return theatrics at Heinz Field in 2013 and 2015 to Bug Howard's sky-walking catch in the end zone two years ago, the Tar Heels seem to have the Panthers dialed in. And that's history worth careful preservation as a short week for a trip to Miami unfolds.
Carolina graduate Lee Pace (1979) has written "Extra Points" since 1990 and reported from the sidelines for the Tar Heel radio network since 2004. Reach him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.
"History repeats itself because no one was listening the first time."
The heat. The tragedy-induced layoff. The first-half hiccup. The Nathan Elliott of Pitt games of yore. Over and over Saturday in Kenan Stadium in Carolina's home opener, stories and scripts from yesterday kept coming full circle in the Tar Heels' 38-35 victory.
Saturday happened to be the 39th anniversary of No. 13-ranked Pitt with coach Jackie Sherrill and defensive end Hugh Green coming to Chapel Hill for a 1:30 kick-off under a bright sun, mid-80s temperatures and requisite Southern humidity. Tar Heel Coach Dick Crum sensed watching the visitors from eight hours north in pregame warmups that the weather would prevail as the afternoon wore on and delivered a fiery pregame speech that players from that team chuckle about to this day: "We're going to lay it to those guys and we're going to sweat those fat suckers down. So let's go!'" Indeed, the Tar Heels upset Pitt 17-7 with a handful of Panthers taking IV fluids after the game.
This game also was an endurance exercise for all involved under a piercing sun and temperatures that crested at 88 degrees. The Tar Heels had depth issues galore with eight players sidelined because of suspensions and eight more with medical issues, but they had just enough bodies and fuel to outlast the Panthers, whose preseason and September training regimen in Western Pennsylvania can't match the Tar Heels' grounding in sweltering weather. As the Tar Heels ground out a 17-0 third-quarter advantage, the Panthers had lost half a step, were lunging and breathing heavily.
"We felt good, we had too much energy out there to slow down," defensive end Tomon Fox said. "You could definitely see the heat affecting them. They were talking about it to themselves in the second half."
"We thought they'd get tired in this heat," added linebacker Cole Holcomb. "That's when we had to take it to them and step it up."
The Tar Heels' winless start to the 2018 season and cancellation of last week's UCF game in the wake of the Hurricane Florence devastation across southeastern North Carolina harkened 17 years back. Carolina lost to Oklahoma, Maryland and Texas to open the 2001 season, then the terror attacks on Sept. 11 postponed the scheduled home opener against SMU. With an extra week to regroup, refocus and drown out the caterwauling public, the Tar Heels surgically disposed of Florida State by a 41-9 margin.
Similarly the last 10 days, coach Larry Fedora and his staff used the hurricane to provide some much needed community service—multiple trucks and vans left Chapel Hill with water and other supplies for Lumberton and New Bern late last week, with every Tar Heel donating his meal money from last weekend to the effort—and to officially flush out the dismal losses to California and East Carolina.
"The message was simple," defensive coordinator John Papuchis said last week. "We got an unforeseen break. We have a clean slate and we're starting ACC play. The goal is to be 1-0. We had a chance to recalibrate and we picked up an extra day to practice."
The Carolina offense showed early in the game it had shucked the cobwebs of the first half vs. Cal and second half vs. ECU, notching touchdowns on three of its first four possessions and likely to have scored on the other if not for a fumble by Anthony Ratliff-Williams on Pitt's side of the field. The defense gave up two catastrophic plays in the second quarter, but it had three sacks, two tackles for loss, four quarterback hurries and two three-and-out stands in the third quarter. And finally the Tar Heels got a turnover, with cornerback Tre Shaw stripping the ball on a kickoff return.
"We did something that we had never done before to have four or five days off like that in the middle of the season," Fedora said. "That's not something that the guys are used to, but we constantly talked about how we were going to turn that into a positive. Our guys did that today and I'm really proud of them."
"The break allowed us to look ourselves in mirror," Holcomb said. "I felt like we were kind of playing the blame game. That extra time we had let everyone look themselves in the mirror and realize, 'It's not this guy, it's not that guy, it's me, I need to change myself.' A lot of the guys did that."
Most contrasting from weeks one and two to the Pitt game was the play of Elliott, who threw four interceptions against Cal and, though he threw no picks against East Carolina, misfired on nearly a dozen of his 38 attempts. Elliott made his debut as the Tar Heels' starter last November in a Thursday night game at Pitt and played with aplomb and with zero pressure during a six-game losing skid—21 of 32 passes, two TDs, no interceptions, spot-on game management. Now with eight months of the responsibility and pressure of being The Man, Elliott was pressing and over-analyzing and wanting it all too much in early September.
"The last week I looked at myself and went back and saw the things I did last year," he said. "I tried not to do too much and over-think things. I saw the defense, saw what they were giving me and took advantage of it. The first two games, I was thinking that maybe they are doing something else, and I was 'what-if-ing' myself to death."
Elliott went back to basics during the off week, focusing on tightening up the footwork that is part-and-parcel of accurate throwing. He hit 22 of 31 throws for 313 yards and two scores. He hit the short stuff with regularity and connected on bombs downfield to Ratliff-Williams for 37 yards and Dazz Newsome for 47. He had no interceptions and, with the offensive line pass protecting well, suffered only one sack.
"Today, he just played football," Fedora said. "He really didn't worry about things. He just took the ball where it was supposed to go according to what the coverage gave him and then he just played. I thought he did a really nice job."
Most significantly, the Tar Heels bounced back from a second-quarter deluge of misfortune—a fumble, a 65-yard TD score for the Panthers and a 42-yard completion to set up another score—to find their ballast at halftime and finish the game. That was in marked contrast to having the lead entering the fourth quarter of three games early in the 2017 campaign—only to lose to Cal, Louisville and Duke.
"Coming out of halftime, we talked about finishing," said sophomore tailback Michael Carter, who played for the first time this year after a preseason injury. "There are a lot of players out there who say, 'I'm a dog.' But dogs bite. So not everybody is a dog. And in the second half, we had to finish that. I told them, 'Everyone wants to be a dog, but not everyone wants to bite.' So we've got to finish, we've got to bite."
Carolina took a chunk out of Pitt for the sixth year in a row, the winning margin a scant average of 4.3 points. From Ryan Switzer's punt return theatrics at Heinz Field in 2013 and 2015 to Bug Howard's sky-walking catch in the end zone two years ago, the Tar Heels seem to have the Panthers dialed in. And that's history worth careful preservation as a short week for a trip to Miami unfolds.
Carolina graduate Lee Pace (1979) has written "Extra Points" since 1990 and reported from the sidelines for the Tar Heel radio network since 2004. Reach him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.
Players Mentioned
Tailback
/ Football
Quarterback
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Linebacker
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Wide Receiver
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Wide Receiver
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