Extra Points: Neighborhood Watch

By Lee Pace

The Associated Press in 1936 began publishing a poll from a panel of sports editors nationwide ranking the nation's top 20 college football teams (it was expanded to 25 teams in 1989). Carolina first appeared in the list in 1937 and ventured as high as No. 7 in November 1939, with Coach Ray Wolf's team finishing the season 8-1-1 but falling from the list after a 13-3 loss to Duke.

Since then, the Tar Heels have probed the Top 10 in four separate eras:

* The Charlie Justice-era teams of the post-war 1940s surged as high as No. 1 in 1948 and spent most of two years in the Top 10;

* The early 1980s regime of Coach Dick Crum featured multiple weeks among the nation's elite, with the 1981 and '83 teams cresting at No. 3;

* Mack Brown's first run in Chapel Hill hit its apex with the 1996-97 teams, the former hitting No. 10 after a Gator Bowl win over West Virginia and the latter team the only one in school history to go wire-to-wire among the Top 10;

* And the 2015 squad that won the ACC Coastal championship under Coach Larry Fedora struck the No. 8 rung entering its ACC title game against Clemson.

It took Brown in his second tour of duty as the Tar Heels' head coach exactly 15 games to usher Carolina back into the Top 10, his squad landing at No. 8 last week after opening with wins over Syracuse and Boston College (and that included one team ahead of them, Ohio State at No. 6, which has yet to play a game because of the Big Ten's delayed start due to Covid-19).

"We want to be a program that is legitimate, respected, a factor, that is talked about," Brown said last week as he prepared for his team to face No. 19 Virginia Tech. "If you're No. 8 in the country, you're getting that respect. Now you have to earn it every week."

The Tar Heels certainly did that Saturday on a gray day in Kenan Stadium before 3,500 fans, the seven-percent-of-capacity established by the State of North Carolina. An offensive explosion decimated Virginia Tech's defense as the Tar Heels rolled to a 56-45 win that had the statisticians churning their pencils to the nub.

The offense purred on the ground (with Michael Carter rushing for 214 yards and Javonte Williams 169). The Tar Heels were prolific through the air (with Sam Howell hitting 18-of-23 throws). They didn't commit a turnover and piled up all manner of superlatives: touchdowns on eight-of-11 possessions; 656 yards total offense (fifth-highest in school history); their highest point output ever against Virginia Tech; and the second highest yardage output allowed by the Hokes since Alabama rolled up 833 yards in 1973.

Despite some defensive lapses spawned in part by the Tar Heels missing starters Ray Vohasek, Storm Duck and Ja'Qurious Conley and working defensive backs Patrice Rene and Cam Kelly back into the rotation after a year of knee rehabilitation, the victory left Brown and the Tar Heels with a heady sense of satisfaction. And why not, given Tech's 13-3 domination over Carolina since entering the ACC in 2004 and back-to-back escapes in 2018-19 when the Heels were in position late in each game to snare a victory?

"We need to buy houses in this neighborhood," Brown said. "We haven't been here enough. We've been visiting. We spent the first couple of weeks in the Top 10. That's who we want to be. But have we earned it yet? Playing a Top 20 Virginia Tech team that dominated its first two games gave us a chance to prove that we can be good. I am so proud the offense stepped up today."

"We were very intrinsically motivated this week," center Brian Anderson added. "We didn't have to get pushed by the coaches much at all. We cracked hard all week. Being ranked No. 8, that's a lot of weight on your shoulders. There were a lot of doubters saying, 'They're ranked too high' or 'The offense is under-performing.' We just put all that aside and were committed to winning this one game."

The plan from offensive coordinator Phil Longo was to open the game with a flurry of quick-hitting passes to get QB Sam Howell into a rhythm and mix in runs by Carter and Williams. Howell found Beau Corrales for three yards, Garrett Walston for seven and Dazz Newsome for seven, and Carter and Williams both sprung gains of 15-yards plus as Carolina marched efficiently down the field 75 yards in 11 plays for its first touchdown. Newsome, who had only two catches in the Tar Heels' first two games, had five receptions for 53 yards in the first quarter.

The ground game and slant- and swing-passes forced the Hokies and first-year coordinator Justin Hamilton to recalibrate, thus setting up man-coverage on Dyami Brown, who snared deep scoring passes for 37 and 43 yards.

"They had to bring their safety down in the run game because they couldn't stop the run," Howell said. "Dyami was one-on-one with a corner and he's going to win that matchup every time."

"They put more of a focus on Dazz," Dyami added. "We figured we put him in motion, get the defense off balance, we'd have some deep shots."

Virginia Tech Coach Justin Fuente acknowledged the trials of playing defense without several starters due to Covid-19 protocols and against an offense with more weapons than the Hokies' first two opponents in N.C. State and Duke.

"We played against a real offense today, with explosive skill players who are going to play on Sundays," Fuente said.

The running, catching and throwing from the Tar Heels garnered most of the eyeballs and chatter, but the blocking from the offensive line, wideouts and tight ends was the real story of the game.

Anderson and guard Josh Ezeudu, playing for the first time after an early season injury, opened a gaping hole for Williams on the game's first touchdown. Left tackle Asim Richards leveled a pancake block as Carter darted to the five yard-line late in the first half. Marcus McKethan and Jordan Tucker have now started 15 of last 16 games together at right guard and tackle, respectively, and with both in the 6-6, 330 range give that side of the line a dimension of size, strength and cohesion rarely seen before.

"Today was just a good time," Anderson said. "Today was a good example of how good our offense can be on a consistent basis. We were firing on all cylinders. When you have two guys running for more than 150 apiece, it's really special. As an O-lineman, that's something you really pride yourself on, rushing for more than 400 yards. At the same time, to see Dazz and Dyami back in the mix was really fun. It felt like today we could line up on offense do whatever we intended to do."

The work of Corrales on the flanks embodied the production of the receivers in the running game. He was a beast on touchdown plays when Williams ran for 19 in the first quarter, Newsome caught a swing pass before halftime, and Carter exploded for 62 yards late in the game; on the latter play, Corrales drove a Hokie cornerback deep into the Carolina bench area.

"That was some of the best running I've seen, but you look at the film and that's some of the best blocking I've seen, too," said running backs coach Robert Gillespie. "Not only up front, but you look at the blocking on the perimeter, the job our receivers did, and those guys were having fun. They were talking, excited about doing it and wanting to claim who made the big blocks. That stuck out to me.

"You cannot have long runs without great blocking downfield. Obviously, the blocks up front get it started, but then blocks on the perimeter create the long runs. It was fun to watch those guys compete."

The competition continues this week when the Tar Heels travel to Florida State for a 7 p.m. kick-off. Carolina will spend the week working to clean up too many penalties (10 for 87 yards Saturday), solve some defensive lapses that allowed the Hokies to strike for three touchdowns in five minutes in the third quarter and, of course, keep that offensive machine humming.

And they'll do so ranked No. 5 in the country. Florida State is 1-3-1 and is unranked. As they say, there goes the neighborhood.

Chapel Hill based writer Lee Pace (Carolina '79) has written "Extra Points" since 1990 and has been part of the Tar Heel Sports Network broadcast crew since 2004. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Brian Anderson

Dyami Brown

Michael Carter

Ja'Qurious Conley

Beau Corrales

Storm Duck

Sam Howell

Marcus McKethan

Dazz Newsome

Patrice Rene

Asim Richards

Jordan Tucker

Garrett Walston

Javonte Williams

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