No excuse for Heels' poor performance
Nov 22, 2008
N.C. State coach Tom O’Brien calls the Wolfpack the best football program in the state “without question.”
Well, there is a question. I’d pick Wake Forest, even after Saturday’s loss. The Deacons won the ACC two years ago, reached a bowl last year and likely will do that again.
What’s clear is the answer is not North Carolina. The Heels are deeper and more talented than in recent seasons, but Saturday’s outcome highlighted that this program is far from playing on a national stage.
The ACC looks like college football’s version of the junior varsity when compared to the SEC. And Carolina’s win over Notre Dame loses luster every time the Irish play. So the Heels have found success against a schedule that isn’t as impressive as it looked.
UNC had a chance to steal a slot in the ACC title game after impressive wins over Boston College and Georgia Tech. But Carolina couldn’t handle that success. A poor performance at Maryland was followed by a disastrous effort Saturday.
Davis pointed to the Heels’ six turnovers, but the fact was Carolina was beaten across the board.
The Heels converted three of 11 first downs, rushed for 56 yards and couldn’t force the ball to Hakeem Nicks (four catches, 56 yards).
The decision to start T.J. Yates – and to stay with him – flopped. Yates never looked as confident as he did early in the season and completed just 10 of 22 throws for 116 yards. He was sacked three times and threw one interception.
By the time he bounced a throw to Nicks, at least some Tar Heel fans were booing.
Davis, asked if he should have started Cameron Sexton, said, “You can't look in the rear view mirror. How do you know? We feel that both of those guys are pretty good quarterbacks. They have both had some pretty good success.
“Was T.J. nervous coming back for the first time? Conceivably, maybe so. That is one of the reasons with the score being 10-3 [at the half] that we let him play, let him get back into it, and see if he is the guy.”
The answer? He wasn’t.
“Of course I'm upset about not starting,” Sexton said afterward. “I'm a competitor, I want to be out there playing, I want to be out there with my teammates. ... I want to win and if I'm not playing I want my teammates to win. I love those guys and they have been there for me. I wanted T.J. to win. It's just a disappointing loss.”
That decision to try Yates hurt Carolina, but what hurt even more was that UNC lacked State’s intensity.
“We have to come out of the gates with some fire, with some passion and we just didn't have it today,” Yates said. “No matter what happens we’ve got to keep fighting.”
No fire, no passion against N.C. State?
Good grief.
North Carolina yearns for national recognition in football.
They may want to shoot for being the best team in the state first.
