Extra Points: Live For The Fight

"Oh, we've gotta hold on, ready or not
"You live for the fight when that's all that you've got."
Bon Jovi / "Livin' on a Prayer"

The clock read 11:01 to play in the fourth quarter and the strains of John Francis Bongiovi Jr. crackled through Kenan Stadium on a crisp October night. Noah Burnette had just flicked a 34-yard field goal through the goal posts, giving Carolina a 38-17 lead, and what a fight the Tar Heels were taking to the Miami Hurricanes.

On one end of the Carolina bench area, Tez Walker was the toast of the team and town, having hauled in three touchdown passes, his length and speed and deft hands shredding the Miami secondary with the greatest of ease. His thousand-watt smile laid waste to the frowns and tears of the previous months as his eligibility was sorted, and now his teammates lionized him with every double-secret handshake, fist bump and head slap in the book.

On the opposite end of the team area, Judge Cedric Gray held court, wandering as needed from one position group to the next, patting heads or popping noses. When Gray speaks, people listen, and why not when the senior authors a game like Saturday with 10 tackles, one tackle-for-loss, one fumble recovery, one interception and one pass breakup. At one point in the second quarter, Gray pulled the defense around him and scolded them for a rash of personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct flags.

"We got this, we're good, keep playing, but we gotta cut out these penalties!" Gray shouted in boldface italics underlined. "Play smart."

You have the kid-in-a-candy-store persona of Walker on offense getting his chance on the national stage. You have the wizened and grizzled old vet like Gray augmenting the maturity of a team that's been building for four years. Through six games, six wins and an ascension into the nation's Top 10, the Tar Heels are unleashing the perfect storm of talent, maturity and motivation.

With QB Drake Maye slinging dimes and tailback Omarion Hampton steamrolling aspiring tacklers, Walker is the perfect complimentary piece to an offensive puzzle that is No. 8 in the nation in total offense with 501 yards a game. And his hands showed their versatility when they covered a last-gasp onside kick attempt from the Hurricanes with just over two minutes left.

"I rank that the best play of the night," Walker said. "Special teams, that's what changes games and that's what sealed it. So I feel like that's one of the biggest plays of my career, honestly."

"One of the first few plays in spring practice, I think I hit Tez on a go route for a touchdown," Maye said. "I think us quarterbacks kind of said, 'He's going to be some trouble for some people.' And you saw it tonight. Three touchdowns and I think I should have found a way to target him some more."

And with Gray having nixed an NFL promotion to return to Carolina with a stated goals of winning the ACC title and a bowl game and providing smarts, skill and passion at the middle linebacker slot, the defense has made quantum leaps from 2022.

"Cedric's such a leader and he's got so much confidence," Coach Mack Brown said. "And I thought it was good that we got up and we didn't finish the game like we needed. He'll be all over them, much less me."

Call it Judgment Day Lite, this collision between the Tar Heels and the Hurricanes that Brown likened to "a heavyweight fight." It didn't carry quite the decibels of the 1997 game versus unbeaten and top-ranked Florida State (Miami had lost one game and this was mid-October, not early November). But a packed house, lively lighting effects from a new LED and spotlight system in Kenan Stadium and a mostly superlative performance from the Tar Heels turned the affair into a four-hour dance party. The patrons left with limp vocal chords and shredded finger nails.

"Big time players make big time plays in big time games," Gray said to sum it all up.

The Drake-for-Heisman theme, Walker eligibility saga and defensive improvement angle have combined to put the Tar Heels in thick of the national college football conversation. Relevance was the word Brown used the day he was hired nearly five years ago. Turn on ESPN and there is Drake Maye. Scroll onto the internet and there's that Carolina blue.

Even the opponents are paying proper homage. This week Virginia Coach Tony Elliott embraced his team's challenge of coming to Kenan Stadium Saturday night, saying, "It's primetime, it's on the road against a Top 10 team, this is what you dream about as a kid," and QB Tony Muskett added, "This is why I came here and why a lot of guys came here, to play against the best of the best."

That's all very well and good, but you can be sure every utterance from the mouths of Brown and his coaches this week have been geared toward steering their charges from the land mines littering the landscape this week with a 1-5 opponent next on the docket.

Brown is proud of the Tar Heels' No. 10 national ranking, "because we've earned it," he says. He compares that to the fool's gold of the very same No. 10 slot in August 2021 that was a precursor to laying a season-opening egg at Virginia Tech.

"They appreciate being where they are, they've worked hard to earn that and they know it's fleeting," he says. "We know Virginia is going to play hard Saturday night. We knew Miami was going to play hard Saturday night. How are we going to play? Are we going to walk around all week and be cool and talk about all these stats and how many times we've been 6-0? Better not, or you won't be 7-0."

Indeed, that 1986 anthem to the blue collar workers from the docks and diners, that admonition to never give up no matter your circumstances never sounded so good as it did Saturday night. Or does this week.

"Oh, we're halfway there,
"Oh, we're living on a prayer
"Take my hand, we'll make it I swear."

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (Carolina '79) is in his 34th season writing about Tar Heel football under the "Extra Points" banner. Look for his columns throughout the season. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.

Players Mentioned

Noah Burnette

Cedric Gray

Omarion Hampton

Drake Maye

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