Nov. 7, 2002
By Rick Brewer, SID Emeritus
Where were Harris Barton and Ken Huff?
That's a question many North Carolina fans asked late in the summer when the Atlantic Coast Conference announced its 50th anniversary football team.
Of course, there's one sure thing anytime an all-star team is selected.
Someone is going to be unhappy.
That has certainly been the case with the ACC's 50th anniversary teams.
A major part of the ACC celebrating its 50th year of existence has been the naming of the top 50 athletes in each of the league's various sports.
Each team has included both unexpected choices and surprising omissions.
Those missing names have left some fans wondering what voters were thinking when they filled out ballots. This is not unusual. The same is true when all-conference and All-America teams are selected every year.
The naming of the ACC's top 50 teams was meant to honor those athletes. Conference officials knew there would be some controversy about the teams. One good side effect has been more discussion about the league's finest athletes and additional awareness of the 50th anniversary.
Talk about the history of ACC football started quickly in late summer when the football team was announced. Eight former Carolina players were named to the team. Only Clemson had more with nine.
Still, fans could not understand why certain Tar Heels were left off the team. Fans at other schools undoubtedly had the same reaction about some of their players.
It's to be expected that there were major surprises here about some Carolina players. Those are the athletes about whom Tar Heel followers know the most. There was no way Carolina would have been represented by everyone who fans believed should have been chosen. That would have been simply impossible with nine teams in the league.
But, it's especially puzzling about a couple of missing players
Two of the most surprising exclusions are Barton and Huff. Barton is particularly strange since he played in the last 15 years and should be fresher in the minds of voters. He was arguably the ACC's premier offensive lineman during the 1980's. He played both center and tackle here from 1983-86.
Barton had never snapped a ball in a game until starting at center as a red-shirt freshman. His ability to quickly adapt to the new position solidified the UNC offensive line. The Tar Heels led the ACC that year in rushing and total offense and finished seventh nationally in both.
Coaches decided to shift Barton to tackle midway through his sophomore season. Injuries had left a big hole at left tackle and it was felt Barton could most easily learn the new position in a hurry.
Left tackle was an especially important spot in the offensive interior because players there had to protect the blind side of quarterbacks. Barton was a great pass blocker and was a perfect fit.
Although his main position remained left tackle, he moved to other spots on occasion when an injury forced someone to the sidelines for a game. He was a highly-motivated player who excelled in all phases of offensive line play.
Barton was like a coach on the field. He had to be. As a junior he led an offensive line which featured three new starters. Then in his senior year he was the only lineman who had started more than three games in college. Despite that inexperience, Carolina led the ACC and was sixth nationally in total offense.
He was an Associated Press first-team All-America and also won a post-graduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation.
Barton was a first-round draft choice of the San Francisco 49ers in 1987 and spent 12 seasons in the NFL. He started at every position in the offensive interior at one time or another. These were the lines that protected Joe Montana and Steve Young on the great Super Bowl championship 49er teams.
Barton isn't the only Carolina lineman who should have been on the team. Huff, a consensus All-America guard in 1974, was the third player chosen in the NFL draft after a tremendous college career. In his senior season Carolina set school offensive records which stood for years. As a sophomore he had started on the great 11-1 team of 1972.
Their absence from the ACC's top 50 can only be explained by one factor -- the position they played.
Only six of the Top 50 were offensive linemen. Two of those played in the one-platoon football era and were probably chosen more for their defensive play than their blocking ability.
Quarterbacks, running backs and receivers got more attention as they usually do in all-star voting. It's easy to understand their statistics, but difficult to compare them with linemen who have none.
As Dick Herbert, the longtime sports editor of The News and Observer in Raleigh, once said, "Nobody watches offensive linemen. Coaches are the only ones with an idea who the best are and they don,t see everybody in the league on a regular basis. It's pure guesswork unless you really pay attention."
Cases could be made for other Carolina players like Ron Rusnak, a consensus All-America guard in 1972; defensive tackle Dee Hardison, a consensus All-America in 1977 when the Tar Heels led the nation in scoring defense; linebacker Brian Simmons and end Greg Ellis, a pair of consensus All-Americas in 1997; and some of the Tar Heels, sensational, all-around backs like Natrone Means and Leon Johnson.
There are certainly several others. But, other schools can also point to many of their players who were left off the Top 50 list.
Among the notables who immediately come to mind are Clemson offensive guard Harry Olszewski, Tiger quarterback Woody Dantzler, Virginia tailback Thomas Jones and Duke's Ernie Jackson, a two-way star in 1971.
As mentioned, the Tar Heels weren't going to have 10 of the Top 50 players in conference history. Still, it's difficult to believe there have been 50 players in the ACC better than Barton and Huff.
Rick Brewer is in his fourth decade with the University of North Carolina athletic department and brings a unique historical perspective to TarHeelBlue.com. A native of North Carolina, Brewer served as UNC's Sports Information Director from 1975 until his retirement from full-time work in 2000. Email Rick Brewer at rbrewer@uncaa.unc.edu.
