Extra Points: Don't Blink, The Sequel

Readers of Goheels.com were first introduced to Phil Longo back in April 2019, before Sam Howell or Drake Maye had whizzed a pass into downtown Saxapahaw, Javonte Williams had laid waste to the Miami linebacking corps and Josh Downs and Antoine Green had caught passes doing somersaults from the Bell Tower. In case you missed it or have forgotten the story of how the buzz-cut Longo married tenets of the mesh, four verticals and "chasing grass" into an offense that attracted Mack Brown's attention when Brown took the Carolina head coaching job in December 2018, here's a refresher:

https://goheels.com/news/2019/4/1/football-extra-points-don-t-blink

As they say, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

You want to chase grass? Longo and the Tar Heels have done so into the record books at breakneck speed over 46 games. An exhaustive list of superlatives would challenge War and Peace.

* QB Sam Howell sets a Carolina career total offense record with 11,292 yards from 2019-21, and the pace incumbent Drake Maye is on with 333 yards a game project him to eclipse Mitch Trubisky's season high passing mark of 3,748 set in 2016. Both Howell and Maye have at least been in conversations where the Heisman Trophy is concerned.

* Five of the top 10 offensive total yards outputs in 134 years of Tar Heel football have come in the last three and a half years—vs. Miami in 2020 (778 yards), Wake Forest that year, Virginia in 2021, Virginia Tech in 2020 and Appalachian State in 2022.

* Receivers Dazz Newsome and Dyami Brown with prolific seasons in 2019-20 vaulted to fifth and seventh in career receiving yards with more than 2,300 each, and Downs in 2021 snared 101 balls, the most ever by a Tar Heel in one season.

* Tailback Javonte Williams scored 132 points in 2020, the most ever by a Tar Heel, and the average of nearly 10 hundred-yard rushing performances each of the last two years puts those totals within range of the most prolific ground attacks of the Dooley/Crum eras of the 1970s and '80s.

The Tar Heels do it fast. They streaked 72 yards in nine plays in 1:43 for a touchdown to end the first half in Boone in September. They had bookend nine-play drives for scores to end the first half and fourth quarter at Duke, putting touchdowns on the board in under two minutes of possession time.

"One of the best things we do is one-minute offense," Brown says. "Two minutes and 17 seconds and one timeout? That's forever for us."

And they can take their dear sweet time. Three years ago against Clemson, they drove 75 yards in 16 plays in nearly 10 minutes for a touchdown that pulled Carolina within one point. Just a month ago in Miami, they churned up more than eight minutes of clock, traveling 81 yards in 18 plays for a crucial field goal.

"We took it right down and scored and that's just a heartbreaker," Brown says. "I mean, it just breaks their momentum and their confidence and just sends a very strong message."

Longo shrugs off the records and accolades and goes back to the essence of what he's trying to do—chase grass. Chase it off-tackle if that's where there's some green. Over the middle. In the flat. The deep-left third. Pick your poison.

"It sounds cliché, but nothing can be more truthful about this offense than philosophically it's, 'Take what the defense gives us,'" Longo says. "We have our four or five run plays and our library of pass plays, but it's really more about the quarterback making a decision to attack with one of our weapons whatever their weakness is on that particular down."

He cites the 2020 season when the Tar Heels went 8-3 during a Covid-stained regular season and advanced to the Orange Bowl. They scored 59 points against Wake Forest in mid-November and three weeks later mauled Miami with 62.
Javonte Williams

"Miami chose to sit back and play the RPOs and take away deep balls, so we ran the ball," Longo says. "Wake Forest played us another way. They loaded the box and had seven and eight guys down there and gave up grass down the field. We threw for 550 that game and ran for 550 at Miami. We just want to be efficient at both, and whatever the defense gives us it's what they give us.

"I like that we have the ability to go fast, and I like that we have the patience and discipline to take what they give us underneath."

Perhaps the most remarkable element to these offensive fireworks is that the Tar Heels have flipped their lineup from what they started with against South Carolina in 2019 to what they'll play with on Saturday at Virginia. Brown and Longo inherited a solid nucleus of linemen and four outstanding skill players (Williams, Brown, Newsome and Michael Carter) and melded with their prize recruit from their first class, Howell.

Now only linemen Asim Richards and Ed Montilus are left from the integral parts of the 2020 offense. Everyone else is new. But the cash register is still ringing. And that's significant given the number of offenses across the land who have to take a year or two to reload because a franchise quarterback graduates or gets hurt.

The 2019 offense generated 430 yards and 33 points a game with the newcomer Howell throwing and handing off to four elite skill players who are now plying their trades in the NFL.

The 2020 unit revved into high gear with 500 yards and 42 points, the latter setting a school record.

The 2021 offense hiccupped a bit with 458 yards and 35 points as it pivoted to Downs being the team's single elite talent at receiver and eased transfer Ty Chandler into the tailback slot.

And this year's team is humming along at 502 yards and 42 points predicated on Maye's myriad of attributes and skills (he's a little taller and shiftier than Howell, for one thing), a deep reservoir of tailbacks, a trio of tight ends who've snared 45 passes and seven touchdowns and receivers who've landed some passes tiptoeing inbounds and others with one hand. That's not to mention an offensive line that Longo cites as being significantly improved in pass protection under first-year coach Jack Bicknell.

"I'm so proud that our recruiting is finally kicking in because some of the younger ones are stepping up and playing and they're playing older now," Brown says. "If you're a receiver right now, why would you want to go anywhere else? Ten different receivers caught balls and four different guys scored the six touchdowns against Pitt."

Crucial to the Tar Heels' success has been having the right guy at quarterback. Brown and Longo flipped Howell from his previous commitment to Florida State in early 2019, then weathered the storm of Maye originally announcing for Alabama in July 2019 before his junior year of high school at Myers Park in Charlotte. Brown and Longo never flinched, kept recruiting Maye and were rewarded the following March when Maye announced a change of heart.

A part of that decision was the Maye's deep family history with Carolina—dad Mark having played quarterback for the Tar Heels from 1983-87 and worked as a graduate assistant under Brown in 1988; his wife Aimee a former standout basketball player at West Charlotte High and a Carolina grad herself; and Drake's brothers Luke a former Tar Heel basketball player and Beau a newly minted member of Hubert Davis's squad.

But it was crucial for the Mayes to get a close look at what Longo and the Tar Heels planned schematically. Victories over South Carolina and Miami to open the 2019 season and Howell bounding from the gate with 31 completions, a 65 percent completion rate, four touchdowns and no interceptions in two games got their attention.

"Those games absolutely struck a chord," Mark says. "To see what a true freshman could do at quarterback was impressive. It's evolved exactly as Coach Longo said it would—a modern offense that spreads you out, plays up-tempo and is flexible enough to adapt to its personnel and what the defense gives you."

Longo sold Drake on the idea of playing like Patrick Mahomes II and the Kansas City Chiefs.

"They've got a big-time quarterback playing out there who's done a lot of spectacular stuff," Maye says of the Chiefs and their Super Bowl win in 2020. "Overall the way they use their guys and have so many different ways they attack the defense, it's the same here. We take weaknesses they give us and exploit them whatever way we can. It's worked out pretty well."
Drake Maye University of North Carolina Football v Miami Hard Rock Stadium Miami Gardens, FL Saturday, October 8, 2022

Drake Maye University of North Carolina Football v Miami Hard Rock Stadium Miami Gardens, FL Saturday, October 8, 2022

Young Drake will lead the Tar Heels into Scott Stadium at noon on Saturday, 35 years after his father donned a Carolina uniform and ventured into the same horseshoe in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Mark Maye's college career was nearing its end in mid-November 1987 when the Tar Heels traveled to Charlottesville, 5-4 and just having dropped a bitter 13-10 decision to Clemson. This was an era when the Tar Heels had won 14 of 18 against Virginia, but the Wahoos under sixth-year coach George Welsh were building a head of steam. Maye's knee was sore from a hit in the Clemson game and his mobility limited, and he completed nine of 16 passes. The Tar Heels blew a 17-7 lead late in the fourth quarter, lost 20-17 and put forth a lackluster effort in a loss to Duke the final week. Dick Crum was out after a decade as head coach, paving the way for Mack Brown, Chapter I.

"Things have changed a bit in football," Mark says in a giant understatement. "We'd maybe get in the shotgun at the end of the game if we were in two-minute. We didn't change formations much. There's wasn't much motion. Fortunately, there's not much film or tape out there of me playing quarterback. I'd lose a lot of credibility if my boys actually saw me play.

"That was old-style football. The game has evolved. It's a lot of fun to play quarterback now."

Particularly if you're Drake Maye, slinging 'em downfield, jumping and sliding and chasing grass. But never blink. There's another play call coming from Phil Longo.

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

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