Oct. 30, 2003

by Lee Pace

One of the great things about email is that you never know who will pop out of the woodwork with a missive from a faraway land. I've heard from Tar Heel fans in Germany and Russia over the last six years--from people who would never have made a phone call or written a snail-mail letter. But to knock out a few lines on the computer and hit SEND--it's never been easier to reach out and touch someone.

Which is why it was an interesting surprise this week to get the following note from the wilds of South Africa:

Will Chapman here writing from South Africa. I have been in the bush hunting and have not been able to watch or read anything about our dismal season. Could you please tell me what is going on? Is the defense terrible? I see Jeb is kicking tail, but that is about it. I know you are busy, but if you get a chance, please email your "Extra Points" or some description about the season. I am having a great time over here. I miss football but not the injuries. Thank you for your time and tell everyone hello for me.

The Tar Heels could certainly use young Mr. Chapman this year with his pass-rushing skills at defensive end. Chapman, a former walk-on who earned a scholarship, played three years of defense from 2000-02 before being forced from the game because of a multitude of injuries.

Will, here's a nutshell of the season:

Record of 1-7. Lopsided losses to Florida State and Virginia. Losses to Wisconsin and N.C. State that were stern jolts but showed some good things as well. And losses to Syracuse in three overtimes, to Arizona State on the last play of the game and to Clemson in the last minute. Each of those losses could have been a victory.

The defense, yes, you'd have to say it's terrible. It's given up 502 yards a game--115th out of 117 teams in Division I-A. It's had a lot of problems, the most serious being the lack of an effective pass rush. But there are some terrific young players who have moved into starting roles--true freshmen Larry Edwards at linebacker and Isiah Thomas at noseguard and red-shirt freshman Alden Blizzard at end.

Your bud Jeb Terry has had a terrific season and will be playing in the Senior Bowl. Darian Durant is now Carolina's all-time leader in total offense. The Heels are beginning to generate a quality running game, and in fact are leading the ACC in yards per run at 4.3 yards per snap. And there are outstanding young players on offense as well--notably receivers Mike Mason, Adarius Bowman and Jesse Holley.

The kicking game is better, with your old position coach, James Webster, focusing exclusively on special teams. The Tar Heels have much better athleticism across the board, particularly in the youngest two classes, and those players have been put to work on special teams. But the kicking game still suffers a breakdown here and there--particularly last week at Clemson when it allowed a 100-yard kick-off return for a touchdown. Three freshmen were removed from the kick-off cover team last week--Edwards, Ronnie McGill and D.J. Walker--because they're playing so much at their regular positions. The replacements weren't quite up to snuff--thus four assignment/technique breakdowns on the Clemson TD. This week we'll see McGill and Dexter Reid on the kick-off team to shore up that problem.

It's been a tough year, there's no question. But it's also entirely possible the Tar Heels could put together some good times the last month. They're not far from being respectable. We'll keep you posted.

One thing we seem to do pretty well is winning the coin toss at the beginning of the game. Why then do we elect to put the nation's worst defense on the field first and defer to the second half? It seems to me that we are missing the opportunity to script the first few series of the game on offense (no-huddle-style) and let Darian Durant do his thing. Let's take someone by surprise for a change and start a game with the lead and an aggressive attitude!
Darrell Key, Greensboro

It's actually in the early stages of the second half that coaches want to make a statement. The opening drive of the third quarter can be important to set the tone for the rest of the game. That's why nearly all coaches, if they win the coin-toss, prefer to play defense the first series of the game so they can play offense the first series of the second half. Saturday at Clemson, the thinking worked perfectly. The Tar Heels got the second-half kick-off and marched with precision on a 10-play, 80-yard drive to take the lead. One of these days, the Tar Heel defense will be able to back that offensive statement with one of its own--instead of letting the Tigers counter with a TD drive to re-take the lead.

In the Clemson game, I think Carolina was flagged at least twice for having receivers go out-of-bounds and then come back in bounds and make a catch. I thought this should be ruled simply an incomplete pass, but the Heels were penalized yardage plus loss of down. What is the rule? !
Page Lea, Virginia Beach

Coaches are a creative breed of cat and many years ago some bright but somewhat unscrupulous mind hatched the idea to have a receiver run out-of-bounds on the snap of the ball, hoping the defense would lose track of him. Then he'd sneak back onto the field of play and be wide open to receive a pass. That's why a rule was instituted that says, in essence, if a receiver is forced out-of-bounds by the defense, he can come back and make a catch. If he goes off the field on his own, he cannot return.

It's a rare penalty, but there were three called Saturday--two on the Tar Heels and one on Clemson. One of the penalties against Carolina came when Chad Scott slipped and fell out-of-bounds, then came back on to make a catch. The other was against Mike Mason. The tape was inconclusive on how Mason got out-of-bounds. He told receivers coach Gunter Brewer he didn't know he had left the playing area. Brewer thought Mason might have been out-of-bounds when he caught the ball and it ruled an incomplete pass--without it being a penalty with loss of down.

Though the Heels are no longer bowl eligible, I have not written the 2003 campaign off as a wash. As I compare last year to this year, I see vast improvement. My heart has bled puddles of blue the last two weeks. But, in the same vein, I have been energized by what I have seen. If the Heels could somehow win at least three of their last four games, I believe it could really instill some confidence for the 2004 squad. It seems our non-conference schedule softens a bit next year, although Louisville and Utah are having fine seasons this year, but our conference schedule will be especially stiff. What do you see next year for the Heels, not necessarily in terms of wins and losses, but what will our next stride be on the journey? !
Michael Julian, Mt. Pleasant, Tenn.

Next year the Tar Heels will certainly be an improved team.

They will have only two major holes to fill on offense--guard Jeb Terry and tight end Bobby Blizzard. Guard Jupiter Wilson is a senior starter, but he's divided a lot of time with sophomore Kyle Ralph, and they've graded out pretty evenly all year.

The defense will look quite different. Fred Sparkman will hopefully be ready to take over the middle linebacker position. Larry Edwards will be markedly improved after a spring of learning blitzing technique. Kyndraus Guy, by consensus the biggest steal of the past recruiting season, will be ready at one tackle. He brings a level of quickness no one on the defense currently can match. Isiah Thomas will be stronger and have lost a little baby fat. An incoming contingent of fast rush-ends and linebackers will get early baptisms. D.J. Walker and Kareen Taylor will get auditions in the secondary, and hopefully Cedric Holt will be recovered from his ankle injury. JUCO transfer Lionel Green has good skills and is becoming mentally sharper as he gets more and more playing time. Mahlon Carey at strong safety is a tremendous athlete; by 2004 he will had time to master the mental nuances of the game.

The 2004 season for Carolina will be much like the 1990 season was for Mack Brown. Carolina's administration stood beside Brown despite consecutive 1-10 seasons in 1988 and 1989. Chancellor Paul Hardin and Athletic Director John Swofford knew the program was solid beneath the dismal won-loss record, that recruiting was going well, and that Brown had been caught woefully thin in several roster spots because of recruiting miscues and the inevitable attrition that occurs from one staff to the next. The Tar Heels in 1990 were 6-4-1, almost made it to a bowl and improved on the point-differential against every ACC opponent over the 1989 game to the 1990 game.

That kind of improvement is possible for the Tar Heels next year.

The schedule certainly gets tougher. The Tar Heels will play ACC games at home against Georgia Tech, Miami, Virginia Tech and N.C. State. Their road ACC games will be at Duke and Virginia, to name two of four. Those six games will comprise the five division games as well as the State game, which will continue annually even though the Tar Heels and Wolfpack will be opposite divisions. The other two league games have yet to be determined. The Tar Heels' non-conference games in 2004 will be at Utah and at home against Louisville and William & Mary.

I went to the Clemson game and noticed that UNC did not send the entire contingent of the Marching Tar Heels. It was also obvious, based on the few UNC fans there, that we did not use all of our allotment of tickets to that game. It seems that the only away games that the band goes to en masse are the other North Carolina schools on the football schedule. Why doesn't the band travel en masse to all away games within the ACC footprint? !
Jay W. Wagner, High Point

Band director Jeff Fuchs answers your question:

"We take the entire band or a portion of the band to each conference game and the non-conference games that are within a reasonable driving distance. We continue to explore the possibility and the feasibility of taking a portion of the band to the more remote games (Syracuse, Arizona State, Utah, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Texas, etc.).

"As a rule, we take the entire band to one road game per year--this year we took the entire band to both the N.C. State and ECU games--and we take volunteer pep bands to the remaining games. The volunteer bands typically consist of 100 or so students. When the games are scheduled during fall break, as the Clemson game was last weekend, the band is typically smaller as it is when we have other performance responsibilities the same weekend--for instance, this weekend we will have a band at the soccer game on Friday night, the Maryland football game on Saturday and the basketball game on Sunday. (I wonder how many other students or fans will be in attendance at all three events?)

"We consider a number of factors--including the time taken away from academic concerns and the cost of the trip--in deciding which games to attend. We try to do as many of the trips as possible as one-day trips. For Clemson last week, we left campus at 5 a.m. and returned at 11 p.m. This week we will leave for Maryland at 4:30 a.m. and return around 11:30 p.m. We are always very considerate of the students' time as they are not compensated in any way for their participation, they receive no academic support and they do much more than just perform at football games (we do about 100 services per year for the athletic department/university).

"In my mind, the band members are among Carolina's most loyal, vocal and dependable fans--as few others (fans or students) come close to attending as many events or being as vocal during the events they attend."