Sept. 20, 2008
By Adam
Lucas
Ever since Virginia Tech joined the Atlantic Coast Conference, there have been jarring on-field differences between the Hokies and North Carolina. On Saturday afternoon, through the point that Carolina led 17-3, it finally looked like the Tar Heels had closed those gaps.
The linebacker position, an area of significant Hokie advantage in the past, was a virtual standoff, with Mark Paschal, Quan Sturdivant, and Bruce Carter flying around the field and making plays. The Tar Heels finally had the offensive quick-strike capabilities to put up quick points against a typically stingy Tech defense. Momentum was back and Chapel Hill cared about football again.
After a little over a year of the Butch Davis era, those chasms between the Carolina and Virginia Tech programs have been closed. Virginia Tech-North Carolina is no longer a game where one side simply lines up and outclasses the other. That remake has been remarkable and it has been successful.
With just 20 minutes left in the game, it started to feel good to be back. Finally, Carolina was on equal football footing with Virginia Tech. Finally, this was the kind of program that could play a big game and win it, setting up for bigger, better games later in the season.
But as it turns out, there is one more major area of overhaul needed. It's the hard one--the physical one, the one that requires being able to melt minutes off a clock while clinging to a lead and grinding out ten yards every three plays.
Games like Saturday are what make a program like Virginia Tech the program that they are--the kind of team that wins games they probably shouldn't...and the kind of team Carolina hasn't yet become.
It comes down to this. Despite all the penalties, despite the missed offensive opportunities, despite the injury to the starting quarterback, if the Tar Heels could run the ball in the fourth quarter, they were going to win the game.
You can have your spread option or your shotgun formation or your fleaflicker. In the fourth quarter, when Carolina needed to win, the only possible formula was beating the Hokies on the line of scrimmage. That's what the best programs can do, because they understand that long, pounding drives are the poison that sucks the life out of an opposing defense.
"It was a must-run situation," Little said. "That's what it was."
After going up 17-3, Tar Heel tailbacks ran the ball six times and accumulated six yards. It's hard to know which is more problematic: the fact that the running game has struggled so mightily that the coaching staff only felt comfortable giving the tailbacks six carries in a situation where a running game was an absolute necessity, or that those tailbacks turned those six opportunities into only six yards.
Either way, Carolina couldn't run against a Hokie defense that was stacked to stop the run.
"We've got to do a much more effective job blocking at the point of attack," Butch Davis said. "We've got to do some work on our running game."
There's no reason to believe that work won't be done--eventually. After all, Davis has done everything else he said he'd do. He said he'd upgrade the talent level, and he has. He said he'd put a faster, more exciting team on the field, and he has.
So the running game will come. But especially if T.J. Yates is out for any length of time (he suffered a left ankle sprain and will be reevaluated on Sunday), the Tar Heels don't have the luxury of time. They need a ground offense right now--actually, they needed it a few hours ago, when Virginia Tech was reeling.
"The holes are there," Little said. "And as a running back, you also have to understand that it's not always going to be there, so you have to make it be there. We have to create yards after contact. And we have to be able to hit the ground, get dirty, and get it done."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
