Lord, this is why football can be so much fun. It's misty and it's foggy and a little chilly and night has fallen and the uniforms are muddy and the homefolks are cursing you and tossing the occasional water bottle down from the stands. The newspapers are speculating on the head coach's future and you're oh-and-freakin-five and it's the third quarter and it's time to put up or shut up and take up more tame pursuits--like needlepoint and baking cookies. Your running game's been average-to-poor since the days of the Johnson & Johnson twins a decade ago and it's been a full two years since you've been able to put an opponent away. And for the final brushstrokes on the plot, this is a game you never wanted to play--but the suits in the State Capitol were making noises so you said the blazes with it.

"Without a doubt, it was the biggest gut check I've ever been involved with," said Tar Heel guard Jeb Terry. "We decided not to take any more crap and go win the game."

So your offense comes out on the field and takes possession at the 1 yard-line after a punt and you line up with two tight ends and two backs and just starting running the football. You keep it simple--using an outside zone play, an isolation lead play and a couple variations of power plays. You churn it out--four yards here, seven there. You work in a pass--a screen over the middle here, a dink to the flat there. The chains keep moving. The clock keeps winding. The opposition wilts.

Over the final 17 minutes of the game, you play offense for 11 and half minutes. You run 26 plays and gain 190 yards. You have six third downs and convert three for first downs and two for touchdowns.

And you pack up and leave town with a 28-17 victory.

It's not beating Oklahoma on national TV. After all, the Pirates were an equally dreadful 0-5 entering the game. But it's a start nonetheless.

"We got the first one," Darian Durant said. "Now, hopefully, we can keep it going."

"Dex said after practice Wednesday we can win seven games and run the table," guard Jupiter Wilson said, referring to safety and team captain Dexter Reid. "I think this win gives us a big boost of confidence."

The Tar Heels controlled the ball and the clock the final quarter with a prolific ground attack not seen in recent memory. Ronnie McGill, Jacque Lewis and Chad Scott each had some good runs--McGill with power and Scott with speed and Lewis with a little of both.

"It's the first time we've run the ball with any consistency," offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill said. "The backs ran the ball well. McGill looked good pounding it in there. Chad made some good plays. I think we wore them down a little bit. We were pounding them pretty good. When you can run the ball like that at the end of a game, that's a good sign. And I'll tell you this-calling a game with a bunch of third-and-twos and third-and-threes is a lot easier than third-and-15s."

Tranquill has expanded the use of a second tailback running in the fullback position, and on Saturday all four tailbacks, including Willie Parker, played some snaps at fullback.

"They took turns blocking for one another," Bunting said. "Hats off to what the staff has done. We will grow more with the two-halfback offense. It started against Syracuse and has expanded to the point we've got those guys being lead blockers. It might help our running game some."

The Tar Heel offensive line came off a poor game against Virginia a week ago and had its ups and downs in the first half Saturday. Led by seniors Terry and Wilson, however, the forward wall firmed up in the second half. The line also did not allow a sack.

"The O-line struggled in the first half," said Wilson. "It was definitely a gut check the second half to make plays and control the ball. That was a lot of fun just to grind it out on the ground and wear them down. It was a big boost of confidence for the line."

"We just told each other it was time for the offensive line to win a game," added Terry. "We knew we were going to need one more touchdown at the end. We got it and we chewed up the clock. It was a very satisfying win."

Watching from the sideline was Jeff Connors, the strength and conditioning chief whose move from ECU following the 2000 season to join Bunting's staff was met with cries of treason from the Pirate faithful. To see the Heels overpower an opponent in the late stages of a game was immensely satisfying to Connors. That it came in Greenville made it that much more special.

"One of our objectives each week is to see visible signs of fatigue in our opponent in the fourth quarter," Connors said. "We made a step this week. Once you experience it, you can have confidence that it can happen again. Eventually it becomes a habit and a tradition.

"This game could be a watershed event. Hopefully, our kids will see that, 'Hey, we're good enough to make this happen, we're mentally tough enough to make this happen.' And they'll be in better position each week to make it happen."

The Tar Heels' 0-5 start--following a 3-9 performance in 2003--prompted the Raleigh News & Observer last week to begin probing the issue of Bunting's job security. A reporter asked athletic director Dick Baddour for a comment on Monday, and Baddour responded by saying he "absolutely cannot imagine a scenario" where Bunting will not return. Then on Saturday the paper's lead columnist opined that Bunting needs to win two or three games to close the year and improve the losing margins or "a change should be made." In an interview at halftime Saturday with Mick Mixon on the Tar Heel Sports Network, Baddour emphatically reiterated his position that Bunting was in no danger of losing his job.

"He is our coach and will be fabulously successful in time," Baddour said.

I have seen these "votes of confidence" from athletic directors over the years at Carolina and at various other schools, and sometimes they are quite accurately colored as "the kiss of death." In this case, however, make no mistake that Baddour is serious and that Bunting will be given fair opportunity to stabilize a program that has endured inordinate turbulence since Mack Brown went to Texas after the 1997 season.

"I believe this win should help us," Bunting said Saturday night. "I'm not going to say it's going to catapult us, but it should give us an example of how when we play together, we can win a football game. But we've still got a ton of work to do."

As the Tar Heels' young players settle into their roles more and more each week, it's evident that there's a lot of ability just waiting to mature. Every touchdown Saturday was scored by a newcomer to the program--true freshmen Mike Mason, Jon Hamlett and McGill and junior transfer Scott. Linebacker Larry Edwards had seven tackles to lead the defense for the second straight week. Tackle Brian Chacos got his share of snaps as the O-line took control in the fourth quarter. Defensive end Alden Blizzard had three tackles-for-loss, two of them being quarterback sacks.

"Our young guys are improving," Bunting said. "Alden played his best game for us. We're beginning to think maybe he's breaking through a little and can help us. We knew when we recruited Larry that he has tremendous quickness and instincts and really loves to play. He's going to get better and better."

Improvement was also noted by Bunting in a somewhat back-handed manner on the play of strongside linebacker Melik Brown, another true freshman. Brown was toasted a week ago by Virginia for a TD on a wheel route, with a back coming out the left side of the backfield while the quarterback rolls to the right and then throws back across the field. East Carolina ran the exact same play in the fourth quarter, with Marvin Townes catching a 33-yard scoring pass. The difference this time was that Brown was covering Townes step-for-step, and it looked like Brown had a good chance to intercept the ball. But it turned out Townes had inside position and made the catch. But at least Brown made the correct read and ran with him.

"You gain confidence by doing things well over and over and over again," Bunting said. "You become comfortable with them. We knew that wheel route was coming. We yelled from the sideline, 'Melik, here it is.' He looks at me and nods like, 'I know, I'm ready.' But he was not quite able to stop it. But he's developing a feel, he'll get the steps right, the angles right, the judgment right. The goal is to do things without thinking. They become instinctive."

SQUIB-KICKS - Boston College officially became the 12th member of the ACC on Sunday, joining Virginia Tech and Miami, who were added in the summer. The Tar Heels will be host to both Tech and Miami in Kenan Stadium in 2004. "It's exciting that we're now set up as a 12-team conference," Bunting said. "I think it will help recruiting. BC is a good addition. Having them might help us in recruiting in that area-New York, north Jersey, maybe even Ohio."
* Carolina suffered no substantive injuries Saturday, though DT Chase Page gave the training and coaching staffs a scare with a twisted knee suffered in pre-game warm-ups. "It was an injury he'd had in high school, and he tweaked it," Bunting said. "They taped it up and braced it, and he played the whole game. And Chase had a very good game."
* Freshman LB Fred Sparkman did not play. Bunting said that was because of special personnel groups and substitution packages the Tar Heels used Saturday. He added that Sparkman will play against Arizona State.
* The Sun Devils are 3-3 and defeated Oregon 59-14 Saturday.