University of North Carolina Athletics
Extra Points: Hump Day
November 16, 2020 | Football, Featured Writers, Extra Points
Chazz Surratt was bathed in the late-afternoon glow in the west end of Kenan Stadium, looking into the Tar Pit of Kenan Stadium where just over a thousand socially distanced, mask-wearing Carolina students were in a state of delirium. Surratt had just ripped through the middle of the Wake Forest offensive line, dodged the running back trying to block him and pounded Deacon quarterback Sam Hartman to the ground on fourth down. The reality had just registered to the senior linebacker that the Tar Heels were actually going to win this football game against Wake Forest, improbable as that might have seemed down 21 points just a quarter and a half earlier.
Surratt wagged his left index finger toward the fans as if to say, "No you don't, Wake Forest." He bent at the waist and took a quick bow, then bolted to the jubilant arms of his teammates along the sideline. It was sweet revenge indeed, given that Surratt had lost to his brother Sage, a Deacon receiver, one year ago in Winston-Salem, and that the Carolina defense in the first half had yielded five touchdowns and 394 yards of offense to the Deacons and their difficult "slow-mesh" style of offense.
"Earlier we ran a blitz, I blew up the running back coming through the B-gap," Surratt said. "I think he was waiting for me to bull-rush him. We had a double-A gap blitz, [Jeremiah] Gemmel went one A-gap, I went the other. I went inside, ducked my shoulder and was able to make a play."
"Make a play" indeed, following his teammates like Ray Vohasek, Patrice Rene, Tyrone Hopper, Ja'Qurious Conley and others in turning that avalanche of Deacon production much of the game into a stone wall from the middle of the third quarter on. As prolific as QB Sam Howell and the Tar Heel offense were on this day (multiple school records, including Howell's 550 passing yards and six touchdown passes), the about-face from the Carolina defense was the story of the game.
After yielding touchdowns on six of nine possessions, the defense stiffened and made stops on five straight Deacon drives in the latter part of the game to allow Carolina a 59-53 win that boosted its record to 6-2.
Coordinator Jay Bateman made a few schematic tweaks. The Heels on the edges ratcheted up their eye discipline and quit being baited by the Deacons' method of the quarterback "meshing" with the running back one second, two second, three seconds ad infinitum before making a decision. And the coaches inserted true freshmen secondary players Tony Grimes and Conley into the game after Wake Forest notched a too-easy 18-yard scoring pass for its seventh touchdown.
"We knew it was time and we couldn't let them score anymore," said Surratt. "We needed to get stops. Everybody knew what time it was. I think it just came down to one-on-one matchups. We put our corners out there on islands a lot of the time. They were able to make some plays and cover guys and in turn we were able to get their offense off the field."
Added Rene, who's played two stellar games against Duke and Wake Forest after finally feeling a hundred percent after off-season knee surgery: "We just stayed positive, played our game, stayed disciplined, and we knew it was going to turn around. Being able to make adjustments at halftime and do what we have to do to go out there and get the job done—that's what makes it fun."
And it's particularly fun to complete a month-long run of wins over your in-state, ACC rivals in N.C. State, Duke and now Wake Forest. Tar Heel Coach Mack Brown was particularly pleased that his team was able to build on its success from a week earlier in Durham and to have the wherewithal to not just stage a rally, but complete one. The Tar Heels were down 21 points at Florida State and lost by three. Ditto at Virginia.
Against Wake Forest, they encountered a hump in the road and blew it to bits.
Brown asked his team last week during practice: "Are you going to grow up?" On Saturday he got an answer.
"We nearly got it done at Florida State, we nearly got it done at Virginia," Brown said. "This is different. We got it done today. This is a huge step."
Howell and his ensemble of skill players were their usual prolific selves, Howell throwing to his wideouts, slots, tight end and running backs for 17 yards a completion and those running backs, Michael Carter and Javonte Williams, lathering the Deacons up with nearly 200 more. But it was a running play by the quarterback that provided the go-ahead score, Howell taking a quarterback draw 20 yards for a touchdown with 4:11 to play.
Offensive coordinator Phil Longo knew Wake Forest was worried about Dazz Newsome and Dyami Brown deep and Williams and Carter in the running and short-passing game. So he adroitly attacked the intermediate level, having Howell fake a screen pass to Williams to the left and then dart to open grass.
"The quarterback draw is a really good play there because you have defenders moving away from you," Longo said. "They were doing a really good job when we ran the swing screen, they were tracking it and leveraging it. So we showed drop back, ran the swing screen to get them moving, got them displaced and let Sam go."
"Our O-line did a really good job, the hole was wide open," Howell added. "I just tried to make a couple guys miss and get in the end zone. I was just trying to make the play to end the game."
That offensive line was playing without junior center Brian Anderson, who was injured in the Duke game, was dressed out Saturday but not able to play. Quiron Johnson, a former walk-on who goes by the initial "Q" and originally played defensive line, worked his way up the depth chart and took Anderson's slot on Saturday.
"I am as proud of Q. Johnson as any player that has played in the last two years I've been at North Carolina," Longo said. "I told him the greatest compliment I can give him is I never noticed him in practice the whole week. We didn't see mistakes that he committed that Brian didn't commit. I never thought about Q. Johnson one time during the game, which is good because you don't want to talk about your center during the game."
That players like Johnson on offense and the half dozen freshmen on defense can step forward in game No. 8 and make viable contributions vouches for the gradual evolution of Brown's program in his second year. Appropriately enough, the Tar Heels notched their win on Saturday wearing throw-back uniforms Brown designed going into the 1996 season that feature bold, navy blue piping and stripes on the pants, jerseys and helmets, all conceived to provide a darker, more menacing look during a period before the Carolina administration had green-lighted the idea of incorporating more navy into the uniforms (which actually happened in 2008). Navy was, in fact, the color of Tar Heel uniforms during the early 1900s before the lighter shade was first worn as a jersey in 1937.
Cornerbacks coach Dré Bly, who wore that uniform during his days as a Tar Heel All-America from 1996-98, addressed the squad before the game and told them his teammates who remain connected today via a text-message chain were excited and humbled to see the current squad outfitted a la that earlier era that went 21-3 over the 1996-97 seasons.
"There's a lot of history in these uniforms," Bly said. "Let's make all these guys proud."
Chapel Hill based writer Lee Pace (Carolina '79) has written "Extra Points" since 1990, is the author of "Football in a Forest" and has been part of the Tar Heel Sports Network broadcast crew since 2004. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com.
Surratt wagged his left index finger toward the fans as if to say, "No you don't, Wake Forest." He bent at the waist and took a quick bow, then bolted to the jubilant arms of his teammates along the sideline. It was sweet revenge indeed, given that Surratt had lost to his brother Sage, a Deacon receiver, one year ago in Winston-Salem, and that the Carolina defense in the first half had yielded five touchdowns and 394 yards of offense to the Deacons and their difficult "slow-mesh" style of offense.
"Earlier we ran a blitz, I blew up the running back coming through the B-gap," Surratt said. "I think he was waiting for me to bull-rush him. We had a double-A gap blitz, [Jeremiah] Gemmel went one A-gap, I went the other. I went inside, ducked my shoulder and was able to make a play."
"Make a play" indeed, following his teammates like Ray Vohasek, Patrice Rene, Tyrone Hopper, Ja'Qurious Conley and others in turning that avalanche of Deacon production much of the game into a stone wall from the middle of the third quarter on. As prolific as QB Sam Howell and the Tar Heel offense were on this day (multiple school records, including Howell's 550 passing yards and six touchdown passes), the about-face from the Carolina defense was the story of the game.
After yielding touchdowns on six of nine possessions, the defense stiffened and made stops on five straight Deacon drives in the latter part of the game to allow Carolina a 59-53 win that boosted its record to 6-2.
Coordinator Jay Bateman made a few schematic tweaks. The Heels on the edges ratcheted up their eye discipline and quit being baited by the Deacons' method of the quarterback "meshing" with the running back one second, two second, three seconds ad infinitum before making a decision. And the coaches inserted true freshmen secondary players Tony Grimes and Conley into the game after Wake Forest notched a too-easy 18-yard scoring pass for its seventh touchdown.
"We knew it was time and we couldn't let them score anymore," said Surratt. "We needed to get stops. Everybody knew what time it was. I think it just came down to one-on-one matchups. We put our corners out there on islands a lot of the time. They were able to make some plays and cover guys and in turn we were able to get their offense off the field."
Added Rene, who's played two stellar games against Duke and Wake Forest after finally feeling a hundred percent after off-season knee surgery: "We just stayed positive, played our game, stayed disciplined, and we knew it was going to turn around. Being able to make adjustments at halftime and do what we have to do to go out there and get the job done—that's what makes it fun."
And it's particularly fun to complete a month-long run of wins over your in-state, ACC rivals in N.C. State, Duke and now Wake Forest. Tar Heel Coach Mack Brown was particularly pleased that his team was able to build on its success from a week earlier in Durham and to have the wherewithal to not just stage a rally, but complete one. The Tar Heels were down 21 points at Florida State and lost by three. Ditto at Virginia.
Against Wake Forest, they encountered a hump in the road and blew it to bits.
Brown asked his team last week during practice: "Are you going to grow up?" On Saturday he got an answer.
"We nearly got it done at Florida State, we nearly got it done at Virginia," Brown said. "This is different. We got it done today. This is a huge step."
Howell and his ensemble of skill players were their usual prolific selves, Howell throwing to his wideouts, slots, tight end and running backs for 17 yards a completion and those running backs, Michael Carter and Javonte Williams, lathering the Deacons up with nearly 200 more. But it was a running play by the quarterback that provided the go-ahead score, Howell taking a quarterback draw 20 yards for a touchdown with 4:11 to play.
Offensive coordinator Phil Longo knew Wake Forest was worried about Dazz Newsome and Dyami Brown deep and Williams and Carter in the running and short-passing game. So he adroitly attacked the intermediate level, having Howell fake a screen pass to Williams to the left and then dart to open grass.
"The quarterback draw is a really good play there because you have defenders moving away from you," Longo said. "They were doing a really good job when we ran the swing screen, they were tracking it and leveraging it. So we showed drop back, ran the swing screen to get them moving, got them displaced and let Sam go."
"Our O-line did a really good job, the hole was wide open," Howell added. "I just tried to make a couple guys miss and get in the end zone. I was just trying to make the play to end the game."
That offensive line was playing without junior center Brian Anderson, who was injured in the Duke game, was dressed out Saturday but not able to play. Quiron Johnson, a former walk-on who goes by the initial "Q" and originally played defensive line, worked his way up the depth chart and took Anderson's slot on Saturday.
"I am as proud of Q. Johnson as any player that has played in the last two years I've been at North Carolina," Longo said. "I told him the greatest compliment I can give him is I never noticed him in practice the whole week. We didn't see mistakes that he committed that Brian didn't commit. I never thought about Q. Johnson one time during the game, which is good because you don't want to talk about your center during the game."
That players like Johnson on offense and the half dozen freshmen on defense can step forward in game No. 8 and make viable contributions vouches for the gradual evolution of Brown's program in his second year. Appropriately enough, the Tar Heels notched their win on Saturday wearing throw-back uniforms Brown designed going into the 1996 season that feature bold, navy blue piping and stripes on the pants, jerseys and helmets, all conceived to provide a darker, more menacing look during a period before the Carolina administration had green-lighted the idea of incorporating more navy into the uniforms (which actually happened in 2008). Navy was, in fact, the color of Tar Heel uniforms during the early 1900s before the lighter shade was first worn as a jersey in 1937.
Cornerbacks coach Dré Bly, who wore that uniform during his days as a Tar Heel All-America from 1996-98, addressed the squad before the game and told them his teammates who remain connected today via a text-message chain were excited and humbled to see the current squad outfitted a la that earlier era that went 21-3 over the 1996-97 seasons.
"There's a lot of history in these uniforms," Bly said. "Let's make all these guys proud."
Chapel Hill based writer Lee Pace (Carolina '79) has written "Extra Points" since 1990, is the author of "Football in a Forest" and has been part of the Tar Heel Sports Network broadcast crew since 2004. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com.
Players Mentioned
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Wide Receiver
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Running Back
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Quarterback
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Offensive Line
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Defensive Back
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