Extra Points: Exhale

By Lee Pace

Vonnie Holliday stood with the same 6-foot-5 bearing as when he wore No. 90 more than two decades ago and terrorized opposing offenses with a singular menu of muscle and spurt and will. He wore a light blue T-shirt with an interlocking NC on the front; there was not the slightest trace of mid-drift bulge. The former Tar Heel defensive tackle and NFL stalwart of more than a dozen years was watching his first Carolina vs. Georgia Tech collision in the city he calls home since his playing days in Chapel Hill from 1994-97.

Standing on the sideline Saturday at Bobby Dodd Stadium, he nodded toward Mack Brown running the Carolina game operation just a few yards away—coaching his coaches one minute, needling an official the next, imploring his Tar Heels to not get soft with a 17-point third quarter lead at yet another.

"It's great to see him out there," Holliday said. "There is something infectious about Mack Brown, that smile, that energy. I was not thinking about coming to the University of North Carolina. They weren't on my radar. But into my high school one day walks Mack Brown. We sat down and had a conversation. I called North Carolina State and said I'm not coming for a visit. They asked why? I said I'm going to North Carolina. They were livid.

"The rest is history."

History, indeed. During Holliday's tenure at the apex of Brown's first run at Carolina, the Tar Heels posted a 36-12 record and won three straight bowl games. Holliday, a native of Camden, S.C., understands what a roster of talented players molded in a consistent and process-driven culture looks like.

"You can already see a difference in our players, the way we play the game," Holliday said as the third quarter ended. "It's completely different from what I've seen the last few years."

Of that there is no question. Holliday picked a good game to get reacquainted with Tar Heels vs. Yellow Jackets.

Carolina ended a three-game losing streak with an efficient, workmanlike performance Saturday. The Tar Heels jumped on Tech 17-0 at halftime and notched an eventual 38-22 win, giving them a collective sigh of relief entering a bye week before traveling to Virginia Tech in two weeks. And the game wasn't nearly as close as a 16-point spread might indicate.

The Tar Heels are 3-3, but that record just feels better than its black-and-white numerical percentage. And as Brown noted to his players afterward, they've already won as many games over Power Five conference teams in six weeks as they did during all of the 2017-18 seasons combined.

"Our team is growing up," Brown said.

The Tar Heels have endured more than two decades of aches and torture in the old stadium beneath the Atlanta skyscrapers, winning only one time since Brown's Tar Heels prevailed 16-13 on a Thursday night ESPN game in 1997. This barren spell wasn't quite as severe as the 1981-2008 drought in Charlottesville, but it was in the same neighborhood. The lone saving grace for the Tar Heels was their rally from a 21-0 halftime deficit in 2015 to a 38-31 win en route to the ACC Coastal title.

There was the stuffed dive play at the goal line in overtime in the rain in 1999; the listless Thursday night performance on national TV that derailed the 2001 team's five-game victory roll; the shanked punt near the end of the 2007 game that gave Tech just enough time for a game-winning field goal; a 41-19 time-of-possession advantage by Tech in a 2013 monsoon; and of course the Chinese water torture of assorted Tech quarterbacks, A-Backs, B-Backs and low-blocking linemen of Coach Paul Johnson's "flexbone option" shredding Carolina defenses the last decade.

"I'm not superstitious, but I believe in trends," Brown said during the build-up to the game. "For whatever reason, we've not played well against Georgia Tech in Atlanta."

Another inclination that miffed Brown was this team's tendency to match its performance to the brand cachet of each opponent. Carolina was focused and frothing from the opening whistle against South Carolina, Miami and Clemson. The Tar Heels were sluggish against Wake Forest and Appalachian State.

The coaching staff broke down the Tar Heels' early offensive outputs with the games' eventual outcomes and found a stark correlation:

* Eleven plays for 70 yards and a field goal in their opening drive against South Carolina in a 24-20 win;

* Seven plays for 55 yards and a field goal against Miami in a 28-25 win;

* Stoned on three plays against Wake Forest, including two pass completions for two yards total, in a 24-18 loss;

* A quick strike versus Appalachian State for a touchdown but then four straight drives with only one first down and two turnovers in a 34-31 loss;

* And a four-play strike for 75 yards and a touchdown against Clemson in a 21-20 defeat.

Brown was worried that the Tar Heels would yawn at Georgia Tech's 1-3 record that included a loss to FCS opponent The Citadel and a thorough thrashing from Temple and lack the focus and edge they needed to dominate from the start.

And though QB Sam Howell threw an interception on the Tar Heels' first possession, Carolina dominated the first quarter with 147 yards of offense. That it held only a 3-0 lead was a byproduct of two drops on big balls by Tar Heel receivers. At halftime the Tar Heels were dominating in the score (17-0), total offense (294-92) and third-down conversions (8-of-12 to two-of-six). Tech crossed midfield only by virtue of its interception.

Tech pieced together two scoring drives in the second half and generated some energy on its sideline and in the stands, but the Tar Heels answered each threat with touchdowns of their own.

"We did not panic at any time," Brown said. "We had some surges where they did some good things and I didn't think our guys got rattled. We said, 'We're not going to let you win. You can have your little flurry, but you're not going to win.' That's something we haven't seen yet."

In a lively Tar Heel dressing room after the game, Brown told his players they were to take two days off and not come back into Kenan Football Center until 6:30 a.m. Tuesday for a team meeting before practice. He acknowledged an injury to cornerback Trey Morrison that took him out of the game in the first quarter and told the group as a whole while really addressing the younger players, "You're here for a reason. You've got to play."

That the Tar Heels won amid difficult circumstances left Brown with a different set of good vibes than the emotional wins to christen the season over the Gamecocks (his first game back in coaching since 2013) and Hurricanes (his first game back in Kenan Stadium in 22 years).

"What you did was really big," he said. "You changed a streak, you changed a trend, you changed our early tendency of not playing as well after we'd expended a lot of energy. This was huge. This was about being a better program and a better football team. I couldn't be more proud of you."

There's much to like about this team at the halfway point. Howell continues to evolve, passing with accuracy and leading the team with confidence; Saturday his 376 passing yards were the most since Mitch Trubisky threw for 439 against Florida State in 2016. Javonte Williams is a beast at tailback, and the receivers are making eye-popping catches on contested balls (the occasional drop notwithstanding). Sophomore Garrett Walston has emerged as a receiving threat at tight end. And the offensive line has gone two full games with essentially the entire starting lineup intact; the unit is playing with more and more cohesion, and you don't out-rush Clemson 146-125 without doing a lot of things right.

The defense is getting every ounce of productivity it can out of a roster that was admittedly thin to begin the season. It got off the field in four plays or fewer five times Saturday. Jeremiah Gemmel and Chazz Surratt have morphed into a solid combination at inside linebacker, and Dominique Ross is a lethal weapon on the edge. Aaron Crawford and Jason Strowbridge have lived up to their preseason billings in the interior, and seniors Tomon Fox and Myles Dorn are having outstanding seasons.

The downside is the rash of injuries on defense that shows no signs of abating. The secondary has been ravaged with Bryson Richardson, Patrice Rene, Myles Wolfolk and Cam Kelly getting hurt, Richardson's injury dating back to the summer and Kelly's occurring against Clemson just as he was elevated to the starting lineup. Morrison went down on Saturday.

"We're getting better each week," Surratt said. "It hurts that Trey went out earlier. We've had some injuries that have derailed us a little. But I think we're improving each week."

"We're a little banged up in the secondary with injuries," Gemmel added. "We need to step back and take a load off. We need a little extra time to let our bodies recuperate."

The Tar Heels step back into the ACC Coastal Division mosh pit Oct. 19 in Blacksburg with three straight conference games before a second open date—Virginia Tech, Duke, and Virginia. There's a win there for the taking each week. Or a loss as well.

It all depends on how well the Tar Heels continue to build on their inventory of lessons learned and trends snapped.

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (UNC '79) is in his 30th year writing "Extra Points" and 16th reporting from the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Follow him @LeePaceTweet and email him at leepace7@gmail.com.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Aaron Crawford

Myles Dorn

Tomon Fox

Jeremiah Gemmel

Sam Howell

Trey Morrison

Patrice Rene

Bryson Richardson

Dominique Ross

Jason Strowbridge

Chazz Surratt

Garrett Walston

Javonte Williams

Myles Wolfolk

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