Sept. 7, 2003

In the Carolina locker room right after Saturday's triple overtime loss to Syracuse, John Bunting told the players their coaches would go right to work Sunday morning and be excited about trying to get the defense better while making the offense and special teams play better. And, that's exactly what they did as the head coach watched the entire game tape with his offensive coordinator and then his defensive coaches. He showed the special teams tape to the entire team.

"I wanted to point out to our entire team how some players have really made some strides playing special teams. The D.J. Walkers, the Kareen Taylors and the Larry Edwards. I was really pleased with the way those guys were flying around on special teams. We did some good things on special teams," Bunting said, "but there are some things we need to clean up."

Other than a 52-yard kickoff return by Syracuse in the third quarter, which set up a quick touchdown, the special teams did okay. The offense piled up 406 yards and 34 points in the game's first 40 minutes, but went scoreless during the final 20 minutes of regulation. During that stretch there was a dropped TD pass, a fumble inside the 10-yard-line, a third-and-nine conversion attempt which came up a yard short along with a couple of holding penalties on both offense and defense.

Meanwhile, the defense, which is giving up an average of 535 yards and 43 points in the first two games, came apart in the last 20 minutes. Through the better part of three quarters Syracuse had rolled up just 242 yards and 17 points. "We gave up a long run and a long pass," Bunting pointed out. "Other than that we were fairly well coordinated in our efforts from force, fill and pursuit to stop the run. We need to be more disciplined with our pass rush. The quarterback had too much time to find a receiver down field. We did not play well on defense, but in the early going we made a slight improvement."

Over the last five minutes of the third quarter, another 15 minutes in the final period and then three overtime pushes, the Orangemen added another 276 yards and 32 points to their ledger. That's why the head coach is taking his defense back to training camp during this bye week. "We will go back to fundamentals and technique to improve our more experienced players, but I also want to work with some of our younger players. I want to see them get a lot of snaps this week.

"Offensively, we will probably do some of the same and continue to develop our offensive scheme. I know that Trank (offensive coordinator Gary Tranquill) has some thoughts in mind. We will also drive home the details of special teams."

There is the possibility he could name some new starters before Carolina travels to nationally-ranked Wisconsin on September 20th.

"Obviously I'm very tempted to put a number of young players in there, but we've got to do what's best for our football team. We're going to try and continue to give players opportunities to play. I want them to earn those opportunities, and earn the right to play."

Bunting and his staff will take a look early Monday morning at what they want to do on the practice field over the next three days. Then the assistant coaches will take off Wednesday night to spend Thursday and Friday doing some national recruiting. The two coordinators will stay behind to do a tape study and a self scouting report on what the Tar Heels have done in their first two games.

The head coach will spend a lot of time on the telephone talking to prospects, but he has a Raleigh speaking engagement on Wednesday along with a couple of radio shows in Winston-Salem on Tuesday and back in Chapel Hill Thursday. He and the coordinators will handle Thursday's practice before the players checkout after their Friday classes and get the weekend off.