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heels group-- lucas: the fun business

Source: TarHeelBlue
Lucas: The Fun Business
 
Adam Lucas on the win over Rutgers.

Sept. 12, 2008

By Adam Lucas

PISCATAWAY, N.J.--Over these last long six seasons, Carolina football has perfected the art of slinking out of town after defeat. Prior to Thursday, the routine had been the same for 20 straight games: jog to midfield for the perfunctory handshake, change clothes, grab a snack, a quick hug for the family and friends, and head to the plane.

No lingering. Just try to get out of there without drawing any attention.

Thursday night, finally, that changed. The routine had begun to alter when Butch Davis announced earlier this week that the Tar Heels were going to New York City for a business trip. There would be no Broadway show and no trip to the Statue of Liberty. Even on Sept. 11--when the low cloud cover provided the perfect backdrop for the haunting spotlights of the World Trade Center memorial, with the high-voltage beams marking the site of the buildings ending in a pillow of light on the clouds--the Tar Heels never set foot inside one of the world's great cities.

They did, however, play a mean game of football.

Davis is wily. He spent the entire week telling outsiders he was going to New York completely serious. What he'd been planning for over two weeks, however, was a special treat for his players--an unveiling of Carolina's new navy pants.

Pants color might sound like a small deal to you. In a football locker room, it's monitored as closely as Fashion Week on the E network.

"When I pulled out those pants, you'd have thought I just gave them all a Lamborghini," Davis said with a smile.

They sure played like a team that had just been gifted with something sleek, fast, and powerful.

The smallest player on the Tar Heel defense ignited the 44-12 win. Kendric Burney is listed at 5-foot-9, 185 pounds. That is probably a lie. But Tiquan Underwood believes it.

"I'm supposed to be the crazy one in the secondary," Burney said. "Me being the littlest guy and making a big hit gets guys going."

He appeared to be exactly right. A Tar Heel team that had been somewhat tentative--and, believe it or not, actually trailed 3-0 after the first quarter--proceeded to dominate the rest of play. Carolina put up 44 points, yes, the first time it had broken 40 outside the state since a game at Indiana on, coincidentally, September 11 of 1999. But what's more remarkable is that those 44 points came in a span of about 40 minutes of game action.

It was the biggest win of the Butch Davis era. Literally. By point spread (32), it was the biggest win in his Tar Heel tenure.

But it was much more than that metaphorically. It was the first game out of his 14 here that everything came together. There was a hard-hitting, speedy defense and a well-timed, opportunistic offense and explosive plays. There was a team that entered a very hostile environment and spent the second half watching those 42,502 fans clear the stadium like the Carnegie Deli was giving away free samples in the parking lot.

Mack Brown used to draw criticism for crying in his postgame media sessions after big wins or losses. For that reason, for just a second maybe you expected Davis to walk into his postgame media session waving his hands above his head or slapping a few high fives. He didn't, and it's hard to imagine him ever shedding a tear. His demeanor after Thursday's win was exactly the same as it was after any of last season's narrow defeats. He was projecting the air he knew his players needed to see: that he hadn't seen a single thing he wasn't expecting during that night's game of football.

"It was," the even-keeled head coach said, "a good team win."

No offense, Coach, but it was more than that.

"It hasn't sunk in yet," said Mark Paschal, who as a senior would finally be making his first happy airplane trip home as a Tar Heel. "It's a big jump for us."

You could tell how big it was by the way the Tar Heels celebrated. After the Rutgers Stadium cannon had sounded for the last time, after the PA announcer had wished everyone a safe trip home, they sprinted to the corner near Section 101, where a happy group of Carolina fans was bouncing and swaying to the fight song. The team drew in close, took their helmets off, and proceeded to sing along with every word of Hark the Sound, punctuating it with a nifty little dance step.

Then, exchanging high fives and slinging arms over the shoulders of their teammates, they were off, headed across the field to the locker room. One Tar Heel captured the feeling exactly right. As Greg Little grabbed his helmet and walked across the end zone, he hopped in the air and clicked his heels.

OK, maybe it was a business trip. But it's possible the Tar Heels might be back in the fun business again.