Oct. 20, 2006

by Lee Pace, Extra Points

The 2006 Tar Heel football season has gone from perplexing after the Rutgers and Virginia Tech games - maybe if the Heels could put a good offensive and defensive game together on the same afternoon ...

To promising after the Furman game - freshman QB Cam Sexton leads the offense to scores on seven of 10 possessions and does so with confidence and poise and a reasonably accurate arm, and surely the defense cannot be that bad ...

To dumbfounding after the Clemson game - how is an institution with as many resources as Carolina so thoroughly dominated as the Tar Heels are in a 52-7 loss?

To maddening after the South Florida loss - how does a program that in 2003 and '04 was penalized well below the national and ACC average harvest so many yellow flags for late hits, holds, pass interferences and illegal procedures?

To now to just being very sad in the aftermath of a 23-0 loss to Virginia Thursday night in Charlottesville.

The Tar Heels are reduced to having only one meaningful goal. "Let's just win one football game," coach John Bunting said. There's no high-profile bowl on the horizon, no competition for the ACC Coastal Division title. Explanations are difficult. Bunting scans the statistics and uses the word "anemic." Tight end Jon Hamlett is surrounded by reporters outside the Tar Heel dressing room and acknowledges the frustration, saying, "We don't have many answers." Nearby, quarterbacks Joe Dailey and Cam Sexton are talking about the need for "more passion" (Dailey) and the numbness of hearing "the same old speech" after yet another loss (Sexton).

The dislocations all around Bunting's program are staggering as the Tar Heels lurch into the second half of the season with a 1-6 record.

How does a coach with a reputation cast in granite over a playing and coaching career of discipline and focus continue to have issues like Garrett White making an inappropriate gesture to the Virginia fans, just one day after Bunting pointedly directed the Tar Heels to not be affected by the crowd? Bunting chewed out the sophomore linebacker after the pre-game incident and banished him to the sideline in street clothes, later saying the behavior was "unbecoming of any young person, certainly of this football program and this great university."

How does a coach who is forever talking about teamwork have a player like receiver Jesse Holley who stomps his feet and flails his arms after Dailey throws the ball elsewhere on one play in the third quarter and then drops a pass thrown to him on the very next snap?

It is indeed sad to see what the Tar Heels have become. ESPN commentators Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit attempted to stifle a chuckle after making a positive comment about the Carolina program at the onset of Thursday's national telecast. Later as some "B Roll" of a concert violinist playing at a nearby Charlottesville theatre crossed the screen, they drew a cute little parallel to the Tar Heels' sleepy offense. Carolina has become comedic relief in newspapers across the state of Virginia, a state the Tar Heels dominated in recruiting a generation ago. "The Tar Heels took their lumps and trudged off the field. They'll be back in two years. The Cavaliers can't wait," wrote Bob Lipper in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The knife twisted from the keyboard of Bob Molinaro in the Virginian Pilot: "The Tar Heels' defense gives porous a bad name."

This Virginia game was billed by Bunting as the start of the second half of the season, a chance to have some fun on a high-profile, Thursday night national telecast. And for almost one half, the Tar Heels competed hard and reasonably well. They certainly made a game of it.

Ronnie McGill ran with authority and steamrolled a couple of Cavalier defenders, sending a burst of energy through the Tar Heel offense and the Carolina bench area. Brian Rackley contributed a sack, only the season's seventh from the defensive front line. The Tar Heels forced three 3-and-out possessions from Virginia and turned two other possessions that could have been touchdowns into field goals. Defensive coordinator Marvin Sanders was dealing an aggressive hand, shooting the cornerbacks and safeties frequently but, alas, with no tangible tackling results in the Virginia backfield. Nonetheless, a defense ravaged all year by missed assignments, injuries and low self-esteem was actually playing well, and the Tar Heels were pumped and juiced as they left the field after forcing a Virginia punt just under the four-minute mark to intermission.

Then the game turned. Not as quickly and forcefully as Antwan Harris's 96-yard interception return exactly 10 years ago on this same field (the prick in Carolina's Fiesta Bowl dreams in 1996), but it shifted just the same.

The Tar Heels trailed 6-0 and had good field position at their 33 yard-line to start the drive. Sexton short-armed or either lost control of the football as one of several intermittent showers was falling and threw the ball at Brooks Fosters' feet on a first-down pass. McGill was stopped for one yard. Then Sexton again threw in the ground beneath Foster. So Carolina punts.

Kentwan Balmer, who has developed into one of a few bright spots on the defense this year, gets a sack on first down. QB Jameel Sewell rushes for two yards and the Tar Heels call time out, hoping to force a punt and get one more offensive shot. On third-and-16, Sanders calls for pressure, and Balmer stumbles as a simple running play comes up the middle. He's not in position to make the tackle, and safety D.J. Walker behind him misses as well. Virginia converts, moves down the field and ends the half with a field goal and a nine-point lead.

Bunting and offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti made the decision at halftime to bench Sexton (3-of-8 for 22 yards in the first half) and return to Dailey, the starter for the first two games of the season. On the Tar Heels' opening possession of the third quarter, a quick out pass by Dailey that is deflected by Jermaine Dias is ruled a backward pass and thus is a fumble. Virginia recovers, and a pass interference call on Jacoby Watkins and an 18-yard option keeper by Sewell for a touchdown put Virginia up, 16-0.

The advantage is now clearly Virginia's after that quick turn of events from the end of the first half to the beginning of the second.

"Now we're behind the eight-ball," Bunting said. "That's tough, a huge momentum swing. We're moving the ball and then get smacked."

The storyline for Carolina is familiar. A 3-0 negative turnover margin, extending the season's miscue misery to 19 giveaways, eight takeaways. "The margin is getting really, really ugly," Bunting said. "It's hard to win games that way." Virginia doubles Carolina up on total yardage, 370-182. The third quarter remains a black hole for the Heels; they've been outscored 76-17 the 15 minutes after the break this season.

"It hurts me, it hurts the players, it hurts the staff and it hurts everyone who has been supportive of this program," Bunting said of the horror flick theme of 2006.

The victory was Virginia's 13th straight over the Tar Heels in Scott Stadium since 1981, when Bunting was playing for the Philadelphia Eagles of the NFL, Kevin Bryant was demonizing the ACC and not one current Tar Heel was yet born. Carolina won 30 of 37 over Virginia from 1927-63 and then dominated 13 of 14 years from 1969-82. Those days are certainly long since gone as Virginia has been stable with coach George Welsh and now Al Groh, who has apparently survived a mild hiccup in 2006 with what he terms a modest rebuilding year.

"That one looked a little more like Cavalier football is supposed to look like," Groh said.

And it looked far too much like what Tar Heel football has become. That is what is very sad.

Send your questions about Tar Heel football to Lee Pace at leepace@nc.rr.com. Please include your first and last names and hometown. Individual replies are not possible because of volume of mail received, and names of recruiting prospects and commitments cannot be published on a school-sponsored site until the national signing day in February . The Q&A column will appear each Friday during the season.