Oct. 26, 2003

Three weeks ago John Bunting was mad after the loss to Virginia. Then last weekend he was distraught following the last play defeat against Arizona State. Saturday he was disappointed in the aftermath of the close call at Clemson, yet he was not discouraged. There were some good plays by the Death Valley visitors, but still not quite enough.

"Our players played very hard," the head coach said, "and, we had a lot of playmakers on offense, defense and special teams, but we still made some errors which really killed us."

The Tar Heels gift wrapped a couple of Tiger scores by Derrick Hamilton. The first was an early 69-yard screen pass, and the second was a 100-yard kickoff return in the third period after Carolina had taken a 28-23 lead.

"Oh, my goodness. I don't even know where to start. About four or five of our guys didn't execute very well, and there was one effort situation which wasn't good enough for me.

"It's a coverage which we've done very well this year, and kickoff returns are like fitting a run play. If you don't fit the play right, and they happen to hit it right and see the hole, it's going to be an explosive play.

"Coach (James) Webster handled the setup very well during the week, and then I went over it again Friday when Coach Webster was recruiting. However, it didn't get executed that one particular time, and it was devastating, but to the players' credit we kept battling."

The biggest mistakes were probably the four turnovers. They really hurt, and the last one in the final seconds took away any chance Carolina might have had at winning the game.

"We were looking to clear out and hit a receiver underneath. When we didn't get the clearout, Darian (Durant) started to move. He almost made a big play, and it's a shame that he was just short of the goal line when the ball got knocked out of his hands."

Charlie Justice's total offense record stood for 45 years before it was eclipsed by Jason Stanicek in 1994. Then two years ago Ronald Curry set another record, and it fell Saturday to Durant. His 318 yards against the Tigers pushed his total for the season to 2,042 yards, and for his career to 6,299 yards. The Florence, S.C., junior surpassed Curry in just 29 games and 100 fewer plays. Bunting doesn't think Durant's 4-and-14 record as a starter will adversely affect his accomplishment. "Our defense just hasn't been very good during his run," Bunting pointed out, "but, those numbers will change. Believe me!"

The former All-ACC linebacker felt good about the way his team ran the ball against Clemson's Top 25 defense. The Tar Heels rolled up 287 yards rushing which was the most since the 335 yards gained on the ground against Maryland in 1994. Over the last three games the offense is averaging 222 rushing yards.

"At 4.3 we're leading the ACC in average yards per rush, and I think that's significant."

Bunting also felt good about holding Clemson to 4-for-13 in third down conversions while Carolina was able to convert 6-for-13 situations.

Now the Tar Heels will have to try and do it again next Saturday at Maryland against a defense which is rated the 11th best unit in the country. The Terrapins rank 25th in rushing defense, 3rd in passing defense and 5th in scoring defense.

Hopefully John Bunting will soon come across another game which will make him happy. He hasn't had many chances to celebrate over the last 14 months, and he deserves it.