Extra Points: Wake Up

Extra Points: Wake Up

By Lee Pace

Josh Mayo was a junior at Carolina during the fall of 2015 when the Tar Heels reeled off 11 straight wins and won the ACC Coastal Division title. Mayo was one of the leaders of the Carolina Fever coalition comprised of students who paint their faces and bodies and take the first rows of the Tar Pit in the west end of Kenan Stadium.

"You've heard so many times about Carolina being the 'sleeping giant' in football," said Mayo, known for his bushy and frizzy mane of hair, after a season that saw the Tar Heels pummel Duke by 35 and Miami by 38 points on consecutive November weekends in Kenan Stadium. "This is finally the sleeping giant waking up."

Four years later, Mayo reflects back on those words. He ruefully laughs that the momentum felt in 2015 and early 2016 eventually fizzled into a scant five wins over two seasons from 2017-18. The giant apparently slugged some Nyquil. Now in grad school, Mayo is sharing "Mic Man" duties with undergrad Yates McConnell, working from a platform built halfway up the end zone student section. He's been in the cauldron of energy for five straight home games in the "Welcome Back" campaign for Coach Mack Brown—wins over Miami and Duke, last-minute losses to Appalachian State, Clemson and now Virginia.

"After last time, I'm not sure I want to say it again," he says. "But the energy level has been incredible all year. The pure excitement has been incredible to see, to be in the middle of every game. It's cool to hear Coach Brown talk about how much the team appreciates the crowd and the effect it's having. The engagement of the Carolina fan base is where it needs to be. The on-field product will get there."

Indeed, that "product" demonstrated in a 38-31 loss to the Cavaliers that it has so many dynamic bedrocks—a quarterback in Sam Howell who invents a new statistical accolade for a freshman each week; a trio of receivers in Dyami Brown, Dazz Newsome and Beau Corrales who have shared the pass-catching spotlight all season; a running back tandem led by Javonte Williams that is churning out 168 yards rushing a game; and an "everyone's-a-blitzer" mentality on defense that at times has suffocated opposing offenses.

But there are liabilities as well, some born of a hundred-year flood of injuries in the secondary. Back-shoulder fades to the perimeter have been lethal elements of opposing repertoires. Quarterbacks who can run have had field days, witness Virginia Tech's Quincy Patterson and Virginia's Bryce Perkins. And sustaining constant focus and intensity over three-plus hours and particularly during that late first half/early second half window that Brown makes such a priority has been a challenge.

That last flaw played out Saturday with devastating results.

Carolina had seized momentum and taken a 17-10 lead with just over two minutes left in the first half with two Brown touchdown catches sandwiched around a three-and-out defensive stop punctuated by a D.J. Ford sack on third down. The voltage ramped up through another capacity crowd. Nearly everyone in the lower bowl was standing in anticipation of what's next in this 124th edition of the Carolina-Virginia game.

Now's time for a defensive haymaker. Instead, Perkins leads the Cavaliers down the field, 78 yards in 13 plays for a tying touchdown. He dinks and dunks 13 yards here, eight yards there, five yards on another. The Cavaliers work in a deft fourth-down gamble out of an apparent punt formation.

The Tar Heels have seen this script before: They allowed Miami a field goal and touchdown with under three minutes in the second quarter; Clemson a touchdown with less than a minute; and Virginia Tech two touchdowns with under four minutes left until intermission.

Then Virginia received the kick off to start the second half, and Perkins on the second snap ran 65 yards to the end zone. He dropped back to pass, was flushed out of the pocket, weaved his way toward the Virginia sideline, then at midfield, instead of going out of bounds, turned upfield and jetted to the end zone. It was the second of four straight possessions that the Cavaliers turned into touchdowns.

"You can't give up a drive in 2:06 right before the half and then a 65-yard run to start the second half, so that was a 14-point swing," Brown said. "As much as I talk about the last five minutes of the half and the first five minutes of the second half, it killed us tonight."

"That's definitely big," added safety Myles Dorn. "That eight minutes, the last four of the first half and the first four of the second half is big. It's what makes or breaks a team. That's a 14-point turnaround right there. If we limit just one of those, we have a chance to win the game way before the last drive. I think just making stops at those times is big for us."

What made that long run by Perkins so troublesome was that multiple Tar Heels had chances for the tackle—but they took bad angles or used careless technique, and everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to make the stop. Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman told his players afterward they'd "be embarrassed" watching their effort on film the next day.

"It was just terrible effort on our end," linebacker Dominique Ross said. "That's not our standard of defense. That play—that really killed us. We don't play like that, and when we do, that's what happens."

"All of us just weren't flying around like we normally are," tackle Jason Strowbridge added. "I think guys were kind of waiting on someone to make a play. I think we were all waiting and waiting around and then he squared himself. We weren't 100 percent with our effort."

The Cavaliers prevailed in a variety of categories—just enough to win the game and gain an edge in the Coastal Division standings with a 4-2 record. They forged into the red zone five times and came away with points on all. The Tar Heels, meanwhile, were one-of-three in the red zone. Virginia committed just one penalty. The Cavaliers made no turnovers. And they stopped the Tar Heels on all three of their fourth-down gambles, an element that Carolina had done well with 11-of-14 fourth-down conversions. The 490 yards that Perkins accounted for was the third highest output by a Tar Heel opponent, trailing only the totals of future NFL quarterbacks Lamar Jackson of Louisville in 2017 and Daniel Jones of Duke in 2018.

"It was two really even football teams, but Bryce Perkins was the difference," Brown said. "We couldn't stop their best player, and he was really, really good tonight. He is one of the best players in the country. He's a senior. And he's changed their entire program."

Another Saturday, another margin of seven points or fewer; that's eight razor-thin outcomes in nine games. Now the Tar Heels get 10 days off to nurse some wounds before a Thursday night game at Pittsburgh and hopefully sharpen more of an iron-hearted mentality—when you get the jump on Virginia or Virginia Tech, deliver the knockout blow.

"If we're disciplined we can beat anybody, but if we're not we're vulnerable to losing games," running back Michael Carter said. "I think at the end of the day, it's a true team effort. Offense, defense, special teams, we've all got to hold each other down and just play for each other. It's just a matter of putting all three units together creating a good game."

Meanwhile, the Tar Heels are getting noticed—from Josh Mayo and the denizens of the Tar Pit to high school recruits to opposing coaches. Rarely do rival ACC coaches say nice things about Carolina and seem to mean them beyond ordinary coach-speak, but both Clemson's Dabo Swinney and Virginia's Bronco Mendenhall have taken note that the eternal slumbering in Kenan Stadium is at least evolving into some serious stretching and yawning.

"Coach Brown and his staff have done a really nice job of re-energizing, invigorating and building a strong brand here at UNC," said Mendenhall, now in his fourth year in Charlottesville. "The attendance was a reflection of that. I think there is a lot of momentum being built here."

Mendenhall can be magnanimous given that he considers Brown a close friend and that his program puts little emphasis on recruiting the state of North Carolina. That's a far cry from the 1990s and Brown's first tenure at Carolina; back then, Virginia recruited the Tar Heel state with such urgency that the joke was that Cavalier assistant coach Danny Wilmer should pay taxes in North Carolina. In contrast, the roster that Virginia brought to Chapel Hill Saturday included just one player from North Carolina.

No matter the makeup of their respective rosters, the table is set for a new chapter in the South's Oldest Rivalry.

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.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Dyami Brown

Michael Carter

Beau Corrales

Myles Dorn

D.J. Ford

Sam Howell

Dazz Newsome

Dominique Ross

Jason Strowbridge

Javonte Williams

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