Extra Points: Snapshot

By Lee Pace

The shadows were lengthening as the third quarter drew near its close Saturday in Kenan Stadium. Carolina and No. 1-ranked Clemson were locked in a 14-14 stalemate in front of a capacity crowd and ABC-TV audience in Kenan Stadium, and the Tigers faced a third-and-11 from their 29 yard line. You halfway expected to see Danny Ford crouched on his haunches on the visitors' sidelines as he liked to do, a chaw of tobacco punctuating his cheek, or maybe Kelvin Bryant striding like a gazelle to another first down in one of those epic Armageddons of Carolina blue and Tiger orange from decades ago. Carolina vs. Clemson from the late 1970s into the mid-'80s was as good as it got.

Tiger QB Trevor Lawrence took the snap against a Carolina defense that included five defensive backs and three linebackers dropping into coverage with only three Tar Heels chasing the quarterback—nose guard Aaron Crawford, linebacker Chazz Surratt and end Tomon Fox.

Surratt came up the middle and attacked a double-team block, executed a nimble spin move and broke free and wrapped up Lawrence's legs. Fox came from Lawrence's left side, shrugged off the Tigers' left tackle and arrived in Lawrence's grill just an instant behind Surratt. Lawrence, to his credit, had the dexterity to unload the ball toward no one in particular along the Tiger bench. Clemson had to punt—it would be fourth time that its prolific offense had been stymied on a three-and-out possession in the game.

That instant in time was captured by photographer Natasha Swanson and the image appeared in a gallery on Goheels.com: Surratt hugging low, Fox attacking high, Lawrence's body contorted in at least two uncomfortable angles, his throwing arm haplessly extended above Fox's headgear. Look closely and you can see Fox's eyes closed and teeth clenched around his mouth guard. That the three players are illuminated in a sun-kissed spotlight versus the dusky backdrop amps up the drama another octave.

What a snapshot for a gallant effort by the Tar Heels Saturday in a 21-20 loss and a template for the future. If Carolina can clamp the defending national champion in its vise for three hours despite a myriad of injuries—nine expected starters and/or contributors have been out at least one game—then what might it accomplish after restocking its roster with a minimum of three quality recruiting classes?

"The future's very, very bright," Tar Heel Coach Mack Brown said. "We told the recruits who were here, 'Clemson's the best team in the country, we're going to fight our guts out tonight, but we're going to be Clemson in two more years when you guys come.'"

All week Brown and his coaching staff preached the idea of "opportunity"—a chance to beat a team that's at least on equal footing with Alabama as a college football kingpin; a chance to rebound from consecutive losses to Wake Forest and Appalachian State; and a chance for the Tar Heels to prove they could overcome that injury snakebite that would sideline junior safety Myles Wolfolk and reserve QB Jace Ruder this week on top of the other medical maladies that have accumulated all season.

"I wish we had gotten the win," linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said. "This was a great test for us. We showed what we could be as a team. I hope all the guys take this seriously. We just went toe-to-toe with the No. 1 team in the nation. It came down to the last play. I hope everyone on the team sees that and continues to put forth the effort like we did this week."

It was nine years ago that Clemson made its last sortie into Kenan Stadium, the Tar Heels claiming a 21-16 win behind the strong running from tailback Johnny White. Carolina was in the first inning that fall of what would be a seven-year morass with NCAA committees and lawyers, and Clemson was in year two of the Dabo Swinney era. The Tar Heels' fortunes dipped under the gathering clouds while the Tigers' steadily rose under Swinney's folksy persona that meshed perfectly with Clemson's meat-and-three DNA.

In a season that has seen Carolina reunite with old foe Wake Forest in an innovative non-conference scheduling arrangement, it was perhaps appropriate to see Clemson, a fellow founding member of the ACC dating to 1953, pop back up on the schedule for its now once-a-decade visit to Chapel Hill in the aftermath of conference realignment in 2004. One member of the Clemson support staff remarked on the oddity while riding the elevator to the press box before the game: "We've been to Syracuse four times since we've last been to Chapel Hill. There's something wrong about that." And Swinney himself added afterward: "This is my 17th year at Clemson, and I've only been here twice. It's kind of a crazy deal. It's a beautiful place. It's cool to come up here."

Brown and his coaches know there is one way to get back on the field against the Tigers with more regularity: Win the ACC Coastal Division and face them in the ACC Championship game in Charlotte. That's not beyond comprehension even this year given there is no clear-cut favorite in the Coastal and that the Tar Heels with performances like Saturday's are showing a total buy-in to Brown's blueprint to get them back to the Top 10 program he left at Carolina in 1997 and the national championship squad he built at Texas.

Exhibit A on Saturday was the effort of the Tar Heel defense against a prolific Tiger offense that had churned out averages of 42 points and 525 yards a game and featured a mobile, 6-foot-6 quarterback in Lawrence, a Mack Truck at tailback in Travis Etienne and an array of basketball power forwards at receiver.

Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman noted that the Tigers had been held to as few as 27 points only one time last year or this in ACC games. You have to go back to 2017 for the Tigers' last ACC loss, that by a 27-24 margin to Syracuse.

"We set 27 as a goal," Bateman said. "We thought if we could hold them to that number, we'd have a chance."

That objective was challenged by the fact that Wolfolk, who led the team in interceptions with three, would be out with an injury sustained against Appalachian State, leaving freshmen Cam Kelly and Don Chapman to play. The staff also decided to start freshmen Storm Duck at one cornerback and Tomari Fox at one outside linebacker slot. And Bateman reconfigured his inside linebacker forces, using the lean and lithe Dominique Ross as more of a nickel back in a three-linebacker grouping with Gemmel and Surratt. That trio combined for 18 tackles, one sack, three pass break-ups and five QB hurries.

"We wanted to do more stuff to isolate a linebacker on a running back," Bateman said. "Plus we had to protect our corners."

"Even with three freshmen, I thought Jay and the defensive staff were really aggressive, moving people around and bringing free-safety blitzes," Brown said. "Probably the last two weeks, we had some injuries and backed off that. This week we said, 'What the heck? Let's go be us.'"

Bateman and the Tar Heels beat their goal by six points as a result of limiting the Tigers to season lows in first downs with 14 and total yards with 331. The Tar Heels flushed Lawrence out to a career-high rushing attempts with 11 (in fairness, several were planned QB runs). Carolina had nearly two minutes more time of possession. And a veteran Tiger offensive line was guilty of an uncharacteristic five false starts.

Gemmel said the Tar Heels' approach struck a happy chord of sophistication with simplicity. "It was not too confusing so we could play fast," he said. It was also predicated on communication and unveiling some looks the Tigers had not seen from their film study of the Tar Heels.

"The thing that was so much better was we talked about communication," he said. "We had a lot of freshmen out there. We had freshmen at safety and corner and we did a great job communicating. That helped us make plays.

"We had some packages they had not seen yet, stuff we had not put on film. I think we confused the offensive line a couple of times, got Trevor out of the box, and he had to throw the ball away instead of going deep to some big-time receivers."

Of course, much of the post-game dissection of the game centered on Brown's decision to go for two points at the end of the game, trailing by one point. That was consistent with earlier aggressive moves to gamble on fourth downs (two converted), and his correct assertion that the deeper, most experienced and talented Tigers would hold the advantage in overtime. Sadly for the Tar Heels, an option play for the two-point was stuffed.

"If I had to do it again, I'd run a different play since that one didn't work," Brown said.

"It was a play we were very confident in," Howell said. "In my opinion, it was a good play call. It was something we liked against them. They just made a good play on defense."

How ironic that when Brown first came to Chapel Hill in 1988, the Tigers were the ACC's elite program. They dipped by the time Brown left for Texas (Carolina won three in a row over Clemson from 1996-98 with Brown's players), and have now come back with a vengeance. The contrast is there is no longer the recruiting vitriol between the programs as there was between Ford and Dick Crum and then Brown. Now, in fact, it's a warm-and-fuzzy relationship between Brown and Swinney, and the coaches exchanged a heartfelt embrace at midfield afterward.

"How about North Carolina?" Swinney said. "Man, what can you say about that group? Unbelievable effort. That's what happens when you give a team momentum and all of a sudden they're in a game like that."

That was Carolina's plan: Survive the early onslaught, build some confidence, hopefully catch the Tigers a hair off-stride and win a close one at the end. That would have warranted framing Chazz Surratt and Tomon Fox in the golden twilight and hanging it over the mantel for all time. As it is, it's still one hell of a photograph.

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (UNC '79) is in his 30th year writing "Extra Points" and 16th reporting from the sidelines for the Tar Heel Sports Network. Follow him @LeePaceTweet and email him at leepace7@gmail.com.

Players Mentioned

Aaron Crawford

Tomari Fox

Tomon Fox

Jeremiah Gemmel

Dominique Ross

Jace Ruder

Chazz Surratt

Myles Wolfolk

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