Sept. 1, 2007

By Adam Lucas

Be totally honest:

Did you remember it could be like this?

Let me take you inside Kenan Stadium at about 5:15 on Saturday evening. Outside, people were selling tickets. More importantly, people were buying. Fans were greeted with chirps of, "Got any extras?" It sounded, well, remarkable.

Inside, the familiar sounds of "In the Air Tonight" were rolling through the stadium as the Tar Heels went through flex. There was a man in a white shirt, khaki pants, and white visor walking through the lines of Tar Heels. It was Butch Davis.

Really, it was. The Butch Davis. On our field. In our colors. Coaching our team.

It required a doubletake.

Flash forward to 5:55. The team had barreled on the field, where they were greeted by fireworks and a blue-clad sellout crowd. The end zone-turned-Tar-Pit section was raucous. The game ball and Carolina flag were delivered via parachute.

In all honesty, right at that moment, it was the most memorable Carolina home football game since at least the Miami game in 2004. And the game hadn't even started yet. There was this strange feeling rumbling through the crowd. At first, you couldn't quite place it, but then, with a start, you realized what it was:

Anticipation.

Sixty thousand people were looking forward to the kickoff. They were excited about football. They wanted to see how the Tar Heels would play.

Right at that moment, you remembered how good football could be in Chapel Hill. There are those who pretend it's impossible for Carolina to have a good football atmosphere, that somehow Tar Heel fans aren't entitled to get rowdy on third down and high five on touchdowns.

This is what I tell those people: Carolina's 37-14 win over James Madison was the largest margin of victory at Kenan since a win over Duke in 2001. From that point until the end of 2006, the Tar Heels were 11-20 at home. Nine games--almost two seasons worth of home games--below .500. That means that two full four-year classes entered Carolina, went to class for four years, and graduated without seeing a game like Saturday night. Listen up, entering class of 2007: you better have enjoyed that. We should probably have made you sit through a Furman game to earn this feeling.

All I know is this is what I saw on Saturday night: I saw students doing air push-ups in the stands. I saw a three-year-old sitting next to me put her hands over her ears and exclaim, "It's too loud!" throughout the first half. I saw the crowd give their team a standing ovation when the first quarter ended at 21-0. At that point, a haze still hung over the field from the fireworks explosions that greeted every score.

"That's what college football should be like," Butch Davis said.

He's right. It should be like that. It can be like that. It's just that we had all forgotten.

Oh yeah, the game. All you had to see was the first series. Two running plays netted eight yards. Third-and-two.

"We've been drilling all week that in third-and-five or less there's a good chance they would be in zero (no safety help) coverage," quarterback T.J. Yates said. "When we got the play called and got to the line, I noticed their linebackers walked up and they were playing bump coverage on the outside. Right then, I knew it could be a big play. I tried not to get nervous, but I was thinking, `Here it comes, we've got a good chance to get this one.'"

Feel that? It's anticipation, and it's made possible only by quality preparation.

Sure, it's only James Madison. ACC play begins in just two weeks. The running game needs to improve, the eight penalties for 90 yards need to be trimmed, and Yates would like to have back a red zone interception.

But it's not so much the big plays and the touchdowns and the win that sparks optimism. It's the way this team played. Even the missed plays were exciting--Kendric Burney nearly making a diving interception and Darrius Massenburg swatting a pass at the line of scrimmage and then nearly intercepting it and returning it for a touchdown, Julius Peppers-style.

Those are the plays that made the traffic--oh yes, now we remember that Highway 54 can be a challenge when fans aren't heading home in droves in the third quarter--bearable. Did you see Brandon Tate's catch? What about Deunta Williams's interception and broken-field return? Did you realize Marvin Austin was that quick?

It was fun to watch, fun to cheer, fun to relive on the drive home. This, as Davis said, is how it should be. He didn't promise that it's always how it will be; there will be tougher opponents in the very near future. But if one game is any indication, he's already restored something that has been sorely lacking in Carolina football.

It's the feeling of exiting the gates of Kenan Stadium and eagerly looking ahead to the next home game. It's your friends calling you up and asking for tickets. It's making your tailgate plans a couple weeks in advance.

It's anticipation. And it's finally back.

Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven will be released on September 1. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.