Week 10: UNC vs. BC

After the UVa meltdown last weekend, I remember being in a trans of sorts while driving to my girlfriends house. It was the kind of trans where you stop at a stop light and just stare directly in front of you, never once noticing that the light had turned green in front of me. Just overly bummed out and playing that ‘what if’ game that we always play. What if Cam didn’t throw that INT to that D lineman? What If Nick’s hadn’t fumbled that ball? What if our prevent D actually worked? I was listening to an obviously disappointed Woody Durham and Co. and I remember then interviewing Cam Sexton. Emotional, torn up Cameron Sexton. The fans and media would put this loss on a lot of things, and Sextons turnovers would certainly be one. He knew it. You could hear it in his voice. (I’m paraphrasing)


“I feel terrible, I feel like I let my teammates, the fans, the state of North Carolina, the university down.”


I love this guy. I really do. In one sentence he said what I have always wanted to hear from a football player wearing the light blue. Disappointment like that can only come from an initial gushing of pride. That’s what athletics at UNC should be about, pride in the state, pride in the school. That’s what I always truly believed John Bunting had, and what he tried to preach to his players. I think that Butch Davis understands this, and instills it. Cam said one more thing. (again, paraphrasing)


“Im gonna lock myself into the football center and am gonna do everything I can to prepare for B.C. because this is not gonna happen again.”


At the time I was skeptical, but I still loved to hear that. Fast forward from that sullen, dark car a week later to a rain-soaked Kenan stadium. UNC is trailing BC 10-0 after a long initial drive and a recovered fumble that went for a drive. The mood in Kenan is less than cheery. Before our eyes we are seeing another game blown to turnovers. Sexton comes back out and gets under center. Our offense has run two plays and we find ourselves in a 10-0 hole already. On the next drive I watch Cam do the smartest thing, repeatedly, that he could have done; he threw the ball away. Just like he did against Miami, he did the smart thing. That’s a product of coaching and player preparation. If you want the antithesis of smart Sexton just try to remember Joe Dailey, or freshman Sexton for that matter.


I liked the offensive play call the whole game, short out routes to take advantage of the incredibly good BC front seven. I also liked how they seemed to want to establish Brooks Foster early, which led to Nicks getting open and then getting 4 TDs. The regular defense was great the whole game. I say regular because I’m trying to separate UNC’s normal D schemes from the prevent defense that has now become a bad joke. Seriously, when BC tied the game near the end of the 2nd quarter, solely because UNC went to their prevent, it was the quietest Kenan has been all year. The prevent D is not working, and if Davis and Withers don’t seriously tweak it or just throw it out all together it will be a really bad mistake, one that could kill more UNC games down the road. But, again, Carolina’s normal D for almost the entire game was very, very good. We seemed to stop the run for the most part, and we waited and capitalized off of Chris Crane’s mistakes. It’s a trend we have seen from this UNC defense all year, they capitalize off of mistakes. Whether or not they make you make mistakes I think it’s hard to tell, but regardless, every offensive coordinator in the ACC needs to realize that his QB cannot afford to make mistakes against UNC, and that’s a pretty damn good reputation to have.


Let the record show that Cam Sexton might have the biggest heart of any UNC football player in recent memory. Time and time again he realizes his mistakes, he works hard to fix them, and he succeeds. He put the UVa loss on his shoulders, the next week he lit up BC. He’s by no means a perfect QB, at all. There is probably no doubt that T.J. Yates has more of what people look for in an ‘ideal’ QB. When we all heard that UNC would be without Yates for 6 weeks, we all looked at maybe we’ll get to the bye week with 2 more wins and be able to squeak out a 6-6 record. UNC went 4-1 through that period. Sexton’s heart is a big reason UNC is now bowl eligible, ranked and respected again.