Extra Points: Two For One

It was the fall of 2013 when Apopka High Coach Rick Darlington noticed a man approaching him after a Blue Darters game accompanied by two boys. Darlington eyed the youths, each of them standing in the 6-foot-3 range, and in Darlington's estimation weighing 240 pounds or more. Their baby faces belied their enormous physical presences.

Curtis Barnes brought his son William and his good friend Ed Montilus to watch the game, telling the eighth graders, "One day, you can be out there playing for the varsity." It was a big deal in the suburbs northwest of Orlando to play football at Apopka, which had just won the 2012 Florida State 8A title and would collect the championship again in 2014. Barnes told Darlington the boys were teammates on a youth football league team and both played the offensive line.

"They're coming to Apopka, right?" Darlington said, half asking and half asserting.

"Yes sir, they are," Barnes said. "I graduated from Apopka and these boys will play football for Apopka."

They chatted for a while and Darlington said he'd keep an eye out for them in 2014.

"I'm thinking, 'Aw, man, there's no way we're getting two kids who look like that, two incoming freshmen who look like they already could start on the varsity,'" Darlington remembers. "I said I'll believe it when I see it. You don't see hardly one of them come into your program, much less two. Sure enough, both showed up for summer workouts the next year."

Barnes and Montilus played on the freshman team in 2014 and moved up to the varsity for spring practice in 2015. A coach from the University of Kentucky noticed them during a spring recruiting trip to Orlando and was immediately smitten.

"What stood out to me was their size and athleticism, the way they moved and their coordination," says Chad Scott, a Tar Heel running back and 2004 Carolina graduate who then entered the coaching profession. "I also liked the way they took coaching. Apopka has a great program and tremendous coaching. At such a young age, those kids could not only take coaching but respond to it and not go in the tank. Coach Darlington raved about them both, said they were on the right track and had tremendous upside. He's seen a lot of talent over the years."

Scott immediately offered both players scholarships to play for the Wildcats once their high school careers ended with the 2017 season—and this was two and half years out. In time, other schools saw the same things as the Blue Darters churned out yards and victories in an offensive scheme deemed by some a dinosaur in this world of four-wide and Air Raid offenses. Darlington ran the single wing, with an unbalanced line, a direct center snap to the tailback and the two tackles positioned side-by-side on the strong side of the formation. Jalen Carter, now a standout defensive lineman at Georgia, played the blocking back position.

"We had Will and Ed side-by-side, blocking down in the single wing, then Jalen kicking out. Needless to say, we rushed for a lot of yards," Darlington says. "We had three straight years of having three thousand-yard guys each year during that time."

Every school in the SEC, many in the ACC and beyond jumped on the Barnes/Montilus bandwagon. By September of their junior years, Barnes and Montilus had more than two dozen offers. One of the interesting dynamics was navigating the very close relationship between the two and answering the question, "Are William and Ed a package deal?"

From the day Barnes and Montilus met in a seventh-grade science class, became youth league football teammates and enjoyed the typical adolescent pursuits of video games and watching sports on TV, they have been best friends. William was the oldest of two sons to Curtis and Kay. Ed was the next-to-youngest of nine children of Dominique and Edline Montilus, and since his brothers were much older and out of the house, he gravitated to William. Ed thrived as an adjunct member of the Barnes family and the kind of structure and discipline that comes with a head of the household who's in law enforcement (Curtis is a deputy sheriff with the Orange County Sheriff's Department). And the youngsters had a nice Yin-and-Yang about them, Barnes with a more talkative and outgoing personality and Montilus quieter and more reserved.

"You never saw one without the other," Darlington says.

"Ed's like a godson," Curtis says. "He's a part of our family."

"From the beginning, we've thought of William and Ed as brothers," adds Kay.
Ed Montilus, Jack Bicknell, William Barnes

Ed Montilus, Jack Bicknell, William Barnes

One of the suitors was Jack Bicknell, the offensive line coach at the University of Mississippi. He and Rebels offensive coordinator Phil Longo visited Apopka and had dinner one night with Montilus and the Barnes family. Kay gets a laugh years later thinking about Bicknell dancing to her play list and thinking, "He was so much fun. It was like, 'Wow, okay, this guy is cool.'"

"They were both really good players, great young men with great character," Bicknell says. "I loved both of them. Based on stars, whatever that means, Will was considered the more highly recruited guy, but absolutely I always thought Ed would be a great player. He was 100 percent a legitimate prospect on his own merits. I was very disappointed when we couldn't get them to Ole Miss."

As their careers developed, Carolina gradually established a slight edge in the recruiting sweepstakes. Scott left Kentucky to return to his alma mater in 2016 as tight ends and hybrids coach on Larry Fedora's staff, and he immediately told O-line coach Chris Kapilovic he had offered Barnes and Montilus for Kentucky and that Kapilovic should give them a close look. Kapilovic agreed and offered both. It also helped that Kay Barnes was a Carolina graduate (1986 in Industrial Relations when she was known by her maiden name Kay Parson), the institution was a perennial national top 10 among public universities and that it was accessible from Orlando via airports and interstate highway travel.

"There is a vibe about Chapel Hill," says Kay, who went on to a career in pharmaceutical sales. "When you get there, it's such an inspiring, beautiful place. I met a lot of great people that I still stay in touch with. When William was being recruited, I tried to encourage him to go wherever he felt God was leading him. I kept telling him, 'Don't go to Carolina because I went there, that was my experience, you get your own.' In the end, I think he and Ed both liked the same things that attracted me—a feeling of community and a superior academic environment."

Despite a late push in January 2018 from the University of Florida, Barnes and Montilus together decided they wanted to be Tar Heels. They signed with Carolina on the first Wednesday in February 2018.

"I remember a couple of schools recruiting William, and they didn't recruit Ed," Kay says. "I told them, 'If Ed can't come, William can't come.' I just felt like they would thrive together. When I dropped William and Ed off that first year, I was at peace. I knew they were going to be okay, they were going to look after each other."

They have indeed, though they've taken slightly different paths to the starting lineup for the 2022 Tar Heels.

Going into the 2019 season, William Sweet and Nick Polino were gone from the left side of the blocking front, and Charlie Heck swung over from right tackle to left. Marcus McKeithan and Jordan Tucker staked out their domain on the right side and would evolve into being three-year starters. Montilus was tabbed for the left guard position while Barnes was projected on the right side.

There was simply more opportunity early on for Montilus on the left side than there was for Barnes on the right. Montilus made eight starts at left guard in 2019 and spent two years jockeying with Joshua Ezeudu, now with the New York Giants. Barnes saw spot duty on the right side but it wasn't until McKeithan and Tucker left after the 2021 season that his opportunity truly developed.

"That was fun, but maybe I was not ready at the time," Montilus says. "I didn't play as well as I wanted. I was grateful to play so young and play with guys like Charlie Heck. I learned a lot those first couple of years."

Meanwhile, Barnes watched as his pal started as a redshirt freshman against defending national champion Clemson in 2019 and as a sophomore in steamrolling N.C. State 48-21 the next year.

"It was tough for me in terms of not playing, but I was absolutely excited to see my brother out there on the field," he says. "I was proud of him but disappointed in myself because I was not out there with him. Seeing him out there gave me motivation to do better each day. I thought, 'If Ed can do it, I can do it.'"

"William had to wait his turn," his dad says. "I kept telling him, 'You've gotta wait, son.' The transfer portal was becoming a thing and he thought, 'Maybe I could go somewhere else.' I said, 'No, we're not going anywhere. We're going to battle through the storm. The storm is only for right now. It won't always be like this.' I told him while you're in the storm, you keep working. The coaches will notice and it will pay off."

Montilus has graduated with a degree in Sports Administration and Communications and is now working on a master's degree. One reason he wanted to return for another season was so he and Barnes could walk together during December graduation ceremonies. Montilus has started all five games at left guard and Barnes, who'll soon graduate with a degree in Communications, has started five as well, four at right guard and one at tackle. They are having a blast in the O-line's unheralded role in making another Tar Heel offense kick off big yards and points.

"As long as the offensive line gets the job done, our skill guys will do the rest," Barnes says. "We've developed a lot of camaraderie and have better trust, we trust each guy to get the job done."
Corey Gaynor, William Barnes, Ed Montilus University of North Carolina Football v Florida Virginia TechKenan Stadium Chapel Hill, NC Saturday, October 1, 2022

Corey Gaynor, William Barnes, Ed Montilus University of North Carolina Football v Florida Virginia TechKenan Stadium Chapel Hill, NC Saturday, October 1, 2022

Both players have done their parts. One of Montilus's favorite plays from his buddy is a block Barnes made on Drake Maye's two-yard touchdown run in the second quarter last week against Virginia Tech. Barnes, the right guard, blocked down on the Virginia Tech nose guard, got his head and shoulder on the play-side of his opponent, drove him to the ground and landed on top of him. Barnes then looked to the right to see Maye sprinting into the end zone, jumped off the ground and make an energetic upper-cut motion toward the Tar Pit.

"He pancaked the guy," Montilus says. "That showed why Will's a great player. He's very quick with his hands and feet, he's strong and versatile."

Barnes highlights a Montilus block against a Florida A&M linebacker in the second quarter of the season opener in August. Late in the first half, the Tar Heels were on their 38 yard line. It was a draw play to George Pettaway outside Montilus, who took on the linebacker, his hands inside the frame of his body. He got outside leverage, drove him back, to the ground and landed on top of him as Pettaway picked up 12 yards. Unfortunately, Montilus was hit with a holding call.

"Everything was perfect," Barnes says. "That looked nothing like holding."

Montilus, who responded to the flag with outstretched hands and a pleading look to the officials, grimaces at the memory.

"Lesson learned," he says. "Don't fall onto the defender, especially downfield. They look for anything downfield."

So it's on to Miami and Saturday's game against the Hurricanes. The Barnes and Montilus families will be well-represented with Apopka only a three-and-a-half hour drive away. And from the what-goes-around department, Jack Bicknell happens to now coach the Tar Heel offensive line. The Barnes were in Chapel Hill in early March for a spring practice scrimmage and were staying at the same hotel where Bicknell was headquartered, just having moved from the University of Louisville and not having moved his family yet.

"I got off the elevator and heard a familiar voice," Kay says. "We shared a big hug. I was so happy when I heard he was coming to Chapel Hill."

"We joked that I was going to get to coach her son after all," Bicknell says.

And his brother as well. It's always been a two-for-one with the kids from Apopka.

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace is in his 33rd year writing features on the Carolina football program under the "Extra Points" banner. He is the author of "Football in a Forest" and reports from the sidelines of Tar Heel Sports Network broadcasts. Follow him at @LeePaceTweet and write him at leepace7@gmail.com

Players Mentioned

Joshua Ezeudu

Drake Maye

Ed Montilus

George Pettaway

Jordan Tucker

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