Extra Points: Tiger Time

By Lee Pace

The Atlantic Coast Conference was created in 1953 with seven schools, added an eighth in 1954 and by 1957 had gotten its scheduling worked out to play mostly a round-robin schedule of seven league games per school. In the second year of "Sunny Jim" Tatum's reign over the Carolina program in 1957, the Tar Heels handily dispatched Clemson in the first ACC encounter between the two institutions by a 26-0 score on a cold, rainy afternoon in Kenan Stadium, leaving Tiger coach Frank Howard to talk over his ever-present chaw of tobacco, "I'll tell you what the heck. They just beat us and that's it."

Over the next half century, the Tar Heels and Tigers would stage one of the friskiest rivalries in the ACC, and the late 1970s and early 1980s rumbles between Dick Crum's Tar Heels and Danny Ford's Tigers were legendary. Over a five-year period from 1978-82, games were decided by two, three, four and five points. The Tar Heels' 24-19 win at Clemson in 1980 on the strength of a goal-line stand by a Lawrence Taylor-led defense was tantamount in the Tar Heels winning the ACC championship, and the Tigers would never have won their 1981 national title without slipping out of Kenan Stadium in 1981 with a 10-8 decision in a collision of top 10 squads (Clemson was No. 2, Carolina No. 8).

The ACC expanding and splitting into two divisions for the 2004 season cast Carolina and Clemson into separate divisions, only to face one another every blue moon. Two Presidents have come and gone between a trip to Death Valley for the Tar Heels (the last one coming in 2014) or a venture to Chapel Hill for the Tigers (they went from 2010 to 2019 before return engagements). The last two contests have been particularly engaging, what with the Tigers winning the 2015 ACC Championship Game 45-37 and holding off Sam Howell's two-point conversion for a 21-20 escape in 2019.

ACC divisional play has now run its course, with the Tar Heels winning the final Coastal Division banner and Clemson collecting the Atlantic title. They'll play for all the marbles Saturday night in Charlotte in the ACC Championship Game, then the league morphs into its 3-5-5 scheduling format for 2023. The Tar Heels will play Virginia, Duke and N.C. State annually, then get a home-and-home with each of the other 10 teams over a four-year period.

Coincidentally, the Tar Heels go to Clemson in the first year of the new format, then the Tigers come to Chapel Hill in 2025.

"We play Clemson next year at Clemson," Mack Brown says. "Might as well start now, see what we've got."

The Tar Heels and Tigers both come into Saturday's game smarting from home losses to arch-rivals in their last games—Carolina to N.C. State by a 30-27 margin in double overtime and Clemson to South Carolina, 31-30.

Both had their most significant loss to Notre Dame—Carolina by 14 points in late September and Clemson by 21 points in early November. The common thread in both games was the Fighting Irish's ability to control the clock (a 38 to 22 minute time-of-possession advantage over the Tar Heels and 33-27 over the Tigers) and subdue their opponents on the ground. The Tar Heels rushed for 66 yards and a 2.4 yard average per snap while Clemson was corralled to 90 yards and 3.6 yards a clip.

And both Brown and Tiger coach Dabo Swinney are pushing every button within reach to pick their teams up after what were successful seasons by any measure but left their players and fan bases haunted by the words What if? Clemson is on the outside looking in on the College Football Playoff after being one of the four teams selected each of the last six years, and the Tar Heels crested at No. 11 nationally in the coaches' poll after beating Wake Forest to improve to 9-1 and secure the Coastal title.

The Tar Heels certainly have much to celebrate in the wake of Brown taking the job in December 2018 and saying he wanted the program to become "relevant again" on a national basis and to "be the cool place to be." They've had three straight top 15 recruiting classes. Their practice facility that was built from 2017-18 is second to none, and Brown has initiated a total overhaul of the Kenan Football Center, the centerpiece project at the moment being a 18,400-square-foot addition and renovation of indoor and outdoor space for new training and treatment facilities and a modernized players' lounge.

They've won four straight over Duke and Miami, three straight over Wake Forest. They're .500 combined that period against State, Virginia and Virginia Tech, inroads for sure over three teams that had belted the Tar Heels 8-1 over three years from 2016-18. Their two wins over the Wolfpack have been by a combined margin of 58 points, the losses by seven. They earned an Orange Bowl bid after the 2020 season and were perfect on the road this year in six games—both accomplishments the first in school history.

And that distinctive Carolina blue color and the faces of players like Sam Howell, Drake Maye, Javonte Williams, Michael Carter, Dyami Brown, Dazz Newsome, Josh Downs, Chazz Surratt and more have adorned national football websites and ESPN channels.

"Look at the facts," Brown says. "The facts are this is one of the best seasons in school history and we're playing for the conference championship for the second time ever. That's pretty cool. I'm not going to let a play or two get me down."

The stories on offense and defense this week for the Tar Heels are starkly different.

Defensive coordinator Gene Chizik was plugging gaps all the way to last spring when he knew safety Ja'Qurious Conley and tackle Tomari Fox could not play, and over the last month Noah Taylor, Des Evans and Ray Vohasek were lost for the year to injuries. Cornerback Tony Grimes was ruled out pre-game last Friday before the State game, and safety Cam Kelly and cornerback Storm Duck went down during the game, leaving freshmen Will Hardy and Marcus Allen to step in. Brown rues the fact that two explosive plays yielded last Friday were freakish in nature.

"A guy just falls down and another guy pulls a hamstring running on a deep throw," he says. "I've never seen that. Still, our defense has gotten better through the season. We've allowed less than 10 points a game in the second halves of ACC play. We're allowing five in the fourth quarters of ACC games. That's a drastic change from September.

"We've held teams to 21 and 24 points," he adds of opponent point outputs in regulation play the last two weeks. "Our offense should score more than that."

Indeed, after averaging 40 points and 505 total yards a game through 10 games and a 75 percent touchdown conversion rate inside the 20, those numbers against Georgia Tech and N.C. State have fallen to 22 points, 358 yards and 33 percent touchdown conversion in the red zone. Maye threw three interception through 10 games and one each the last two contests.

Offensive coordinator Phil Longo condenses the issues to one word: Patience. Maye's dynamic arm and pinpoint accuracy have prompted opposing defenses to drop into more eight-man coverage schemes, taking away the big-strike opportunities downfield.

"On our successful drives, we've done a great job of being patient," he says. "There have been times where we might force the ball or not adjust the route like we need to. On scoring drives of 12, 14, 15 plays, we've had to manufacture different ways to move the ball. They make you earn it. Against N.C. State, we became most patient in the fourth quarter. That's why we moved the ball."

Adds Brown, "We scored so fast and scored so much early in season, the last two games people have worked hard to keep us from scoring. We have to re-look at who we are and start over."

That fresh start begins at 8 p.m. Saturday in Bank of America Stadium against a team that's been the gold standard of ACC football the last eight years. The Tar Heels will forever hold the final ACC Coastal Division championship. On the cusp of a new way of life around the ACC, the timing is perfect to close the deal.

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace is in his 33rd year writing features on the Carolina football program under the "Extra Points" banner. He is the author of "Football in a Forest" and reports from the sidelines of Tar Heel Sports Network broadcasts. Follow him at @LeePaceTweet and write him at leepace7@gmail.com

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Marcus Allen

Ja'Qurious Conley

Josh Downs

Storm Duck

Tomari Fox

Tony Grimes

Will Hardy

Sam Howell

Drake Maye

Noah Taylor

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