Oct. 27, 2006

by Lee Pace, Extra Points

The Mailbag is full of queries this week from Tar Heel fans wanting to opine, vent, rant, applaud, commiserate and speculate in the aftermath of word Sunday night that John Bunting would no longer coach the Tar Heels following the 2006 season. There are many elements of the news that cannot be discussed on the University's official athletics website, but a question from Bob Orr of Raleigh is representative of the issues on readers' minds and offers a launch pad for one man's opinion.

"Can UNC realistically hire someone that can make this football program consistently successful, and by that I mean seven or eight wins and frequent trips to a bowl game? And if so, what does the AD look for?"

My philosophy on what goes into a successful college football program differs from the average fan in that I put far more emphasis on recruiting than most. Schemes, game plans, play-calling, halftime adjustments, strength and conditioning, discipline, motivation and fundamentals are all very important. But none are as important as the question: How good are your players?

In politics, you follow the money to find the real story.

In football, you follow you recruiting to find the real story.

And I am talking here on a big-picture, macroscopic view. Any email landing in my box with all caps and exclamation points asserting that all would be right with the world if Frank Cignetti hadn't called two quick out-passes at Virginia is a nanosecond from the delete key.

Bill Dooley built a consistent winner at Carolina by ratcheting up the recruiting operation when he came to Chapel Hill from Georgia in 1967. Carolina was more aggressive and more relentless than any of its ACC competitors of that era. Dooley reinvented the recruiting calendar from Clemson to College Park. He brought the mindset of a sales staff of a large corporation to the system. He knew exactly what he was doing from his first day on the job, and the Tar Heels were winning four years later.

Dick Crum rode Dooley's talent wagon for several years. He brought an excellent coaching staff from Miami (Ohio), and they recruited reasonably well in Crum's early years. But the landscape around North Carolina changed in the early 1980s. Clemson had gotten good in football and began raiding North Carolina for players. Virginia hired George Welsh and allowed him to sign players previously rejected by the admissions office, so a deep reservoir of talent in Virginia that Dooley had mined so well began drying up. Crum always believed that Chapel Hill, with warm weather, a leafy campus and great social atmosphere, was a terrific option for Midwest kids, and the program's focus lost its local roots. In the end, it was too hard to lure prime prospects away from the Big Ten powers on a consistent basis, and the pinch from Clemson to the south and Virginia from the north created a new recruiting world that Crum never conquered.

Mack Brown was hammered his first two years playing with Crum's mid-1980s recruiting efforts. But Brown knew the recruiting game. He had recruited in North Carolina before. Each member of his nine-man staff had some connection and background recruiting in the Carolinas and Virginia. He worked hard at building relationships with high school coaches in the state, and his personality made those victories come easily. Every minute of every day was focused on recruiting; every decision was made based on how it would affect recruiting. Like Dooley, he had good recruiting results out of the gate and was winning in five years.

By the time Brown had established the program by 1992 and had proved he could win, the caliber of player attracted to Carolina improved. Brown and staff had tremendous recruiting success in the 1992 and '93 signing classes, which bears revisiting here. Following are the members of those two classes, with players in italics playing all four years (or five if they were red-shirted) and being productive in some form or fashion. Those in bold italics went on to professional football.

1992 - Darrin Ashford, Perez Boulware, Marcus Brinkley, James Hamilton, Brian Honeycutt, Leon Johnson, Freddie Jones, Marcus Jones, Maurice McGregor, Marc Montoro, Andre Purvis, Michael Ramseur, Rick Terry, Byron Thomas, Marcus Wall, Chris Watson.

That's 16 players, 13 of whom were productive and seven of whom played in the NFL.

1993 - Octavus Barnes, Mike Baxter, Terry Billups, Omar Brown, Shawn Crouthamel, Nolen Duncan, Clay Eddie, Greg Ellis, Mike Geter, Jamez Griffin, Mike Hobgood, Nate Hobgood-Chittick, Ryan Hoffman, Jon Linton, Kivuusama Mays, Kris Moyer, Toby Patton, Jeff Saturday, Brian Simmons, Kevin Taybron, Todd Weeks.

That's 21 players, 13 of whom played and contributed throughout their careers and nine of whom played in the NFL. Over two years, that's 37 signees. Twenty-six of them - an amazing 70 percent - were productive and 15 played professionally. These players were the foundation of the 1996-97 teams that went 21-3 and twice finished in the nation's Top 10. It was fun back then to write about the aggressive mindset of Carl Torbush on defense and the West Coast offense of Greg Davis on offense. But don't be fooled: Those teams were outstanding because of an incredible talent level, particularly on defense. And boy could they run.

So it goes back to recruiting. Carolina absolutely can field a consistent winner, a team that by default should win seven or eight games a year. If the senior class is strong, the injury bug is light and there are a few special players around, the Tar Heels can have the occasional 10- or 11-win season. The odd off-year might be five wins.

I'll drag out an old quote from Mack Brown I've used several times over the years. The Tar Heels were 0-5 in 1988 and had just been throttled 48-3 by N.C. State. Brown was being peppered at his Tuesday press conference about the state of the program and how long it would take to turn things around.

"That depends on how well we recruit," Brown said. "This is a recruiting business. Forget Xs-and-Os. Personnel, that's the key."

So to answer the question about what Dick Baddour will look for: He needs to find a good man, a good fundamental guy and X-and-O coach; he needs to identify a good CEO to hire and manage a staff and a sharp PR guy to connect with the masses. But most of all, he needs to find someone who can lead a lights-out recruiting operation.

The ESPN announcers last Thursday night mentioned that the Heels had a large portion of their true freshman red-shirted this year (22 of 24?) What has been the portion of red-shirts this year compared to previous years in Bunting's tenure?
Nick Rupp, Greenville

The Tar Heels have actually played five true freshmen this year but are applying for a medical hardship for tight end Vince Jacobs, who played one snap against Virginia Tech but has been plagued by a hand injury since pre-season camp.

Seven true freshmen played in 2005, 13 in 2004 and 12 in 2003.

In last week's game, UVa punted the ball and supposedly downed it on the two. But the guy who downed it was laying half in the end zone. The announcers didn't even mention it. I've seen countless plays where the team trying to down the punt has one toe on the end line and they call it a touchback. What's the rule on this? At what point is the ball actually considered "down" (since you can knock the ball back from the end zone, then down it)?
Chip Gurkin, Washington, D.C.

All that is important in college football is where the ball is - not where the player is. A college player can be standing in the end zone and reach across the goal line to deaden the ball in the field of play. Once the ball passes the plane of the goal line, then it is deemed to be in the end zone and the play is ruled a touchback.

Why have we been unable to have a successful rushing attack for the last 20 years? Even in Mack Brown's time, it seemed like we struggled to run the ball against quality opponents. When I was in school in the early 1980s, we had a dominant rushing game. We even had two 1,000-yard rushers in one year with Kelvin Bryant and "Famous Amos" Lawrence. In fact, didn't we have the NCAA record for most 1,000-yard rushers? Do we still hold that record?
Stephen F. Partrick, Atlanta

Carolina has had twenty-four 1,000-yard seasons and for many years the Tar Heels did in fact lead college football in that category. But Nebraska has passed the Tar Heels by in recent years with Jammal Lord, Dan Alexander, Eric Crouch and Cory Ross posting 1,000-yard seasons since the Tar Heels had their last one, Jon Linton's 1,004-yard total in 1997. Nebraska now has 27. Southern Cal has also eclipsed the Carolina total as the Trojans have 25. Texas has had eleven 1,000-yard rushing seasons in a row and is catching up quickly with 20 total.

There are a number of reasons the Carolina rushing attack has fallen off in the last decade. The major one revolves around the very issue I discussed above. It has been a long time since any Tar Heel coaching staff - be it one coached by Mack Brown, Carl Torbush or John Bunting - has signed one of the premier running back targets in the Carolinas-Virginia area. The Tar Heels have signed some good ones, certainly, but when you think of the tailbacks every ACC and top tier program in the Eastern United States were salivating over, I can't think of a battle the Heels have won.

The Tar Heels produced All-ACC and All-America linemen on a regular basis during their run of big rushing seasons during the 1970s and '80s. That regular supply of outstanding linemen dried up in the 1990s for whatever reason. Jeff Saturday, Jason Brown and Jeb Terry are the only former Tar Heels active on NFL rosters as offensive linemen that have been recruited out of high school in the last 15 years.

The lack of a solid running game has not been because of a lack of desire for one, certainly not in the Bunting era. Both Gary Tranquill as offensive coordinator from 2001-05 and Frank Cignetti this year are consistent in their desire to be able to run and throw the ball, to adjust depending on strengths and weaknesses on annual and even a weekly basis, and to adapt to what defenses are allowing.

I wonder if the powers that be envision less than a five- to six-year rebuilding program under a new head coach. New coaches, new coordinators, new systems and putting a new coaching staff together may not fill Kenan Stadium for years to come. Your candid appraisal will be appreciated.
Fred Hasty, Fayetteville

There is no way the Tar Heels are looking at a long building process. Bunting is correct in consistently saying this year that the program is not in the dire straits the won-loss record might indicate. Monday he held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart and said, "We were that close." Lost in the calamity around Carolina's 1-6 record is the fact that, since the ACC expanded to 12 teams for the 2004 season, the Tar Heels at 9-7 in the league had the fourth-best record behind the Florida schools and Virginia Tech over the 2004 and '05 seasons.

If the new coach and his staff are good recruiters, they'll nail down the current commitments to the Bunting staff, finish the year strong and have a good nucleus to put with strong classes of young players in the program already.

***

Thanks to Rick Hallford of Chesapeake, Va., for this week's insight to keeping these games in proper perspective:

My wife and daughter travel with me 200 miles each way, every home game and usually stay overnight. I love a winning football team, but I also love recreational trips with my family. I love to cheer with the home team, yell at the officials (and laugh), meet in the Ram's Room, and just make a big day of it all. With the busy lives we lead, I go for entertainment purposes. It is not life or death, win or lose, or anywhere close. Just plain fun. So, my question is...can we all meet at the fence during warm-ups and cheer the home team on before the game? Meet you there Saturday!!!

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.