Tar Heels Football-Big Time at Night Time

The UNC football team played like a house afire in night games at Kenan Stadium last fall, defeating Georgia Tech, N.C. State and Miami. When the Tar Heels meet Wisconsin this Saturday at 7 PM, however, head coach John Bunting will not be as concerned about the time of day as he is about how well his team applies the lessons learned this past weekend against Georgia Tech...

College students come to school to learn, and for the kids who wear Carolina football uniforms, those lessons extend into Saturday evenings.

Coach John Bunting said that he hopes his team took notes on what they did well and what they did wrong in a 27-21 loss to Georgia Tech on Saturday in Atlanta. Despite many ominous predictions in the preseason, the Tar Heels had a legitimate shot to win the game.

"I told them prior to the game, we've got to learn from this game, and hopefully we did because there were so many opportunities to win," Bunting said. "That's the next step for this football team. We're good enough to win. So we've got to learn how to win again in situations like that. As I said after the game, when you've got one, two or three situations where you can win, you need to win them to have a successful season.

"If you don't, you won't. There are just countless details — speed of the game and decision making type things — and sometimes it just wasn't being in position."

The position this coming Saturday for the Tar Heels will be against Wisconsin in a night game at Kenan Stadium, the first of this season. UNC (0-1) excelled at the late kickoffs a year ago, defeating Georgia Tech, N.C. State and Miami.

The crowd seems to get particularly rowdy and excited, and the players in turn respond.

"We look for a lot of excitement up under the lights and big crowds," said wide receiver Derrele Mitchell, who turned a short catch into an 87-yard touchdown run against the Yellow Jackets this past week. "That's about it as far as it being a night game. There's really no difference from a night game and a day game, except being up under the lights.

"Last year our crowd would be with us whether it was a day or a night game. But usually our students would be louder at night. It's just a better type of atmosphere at a night game."

Overall, the Carolina receivers did not have a great day last week against Tech. The Tar Heels dropped too many passes and also did not finish their blocks, according to Bunting.

Mitchell said he thinks the receivers will rally against Wisconsin (2-0).

"They play man a lot, with our size, our speed and our quickness," Mitchell said, "it will be a lot of one-on-one. I think we can go over the top."

Bunting said there is no doubt his receivers must play better if this team hopes to win.

"This is not high-school football," Bunting said. "I'm not putting down high-school ball. But it is big-time football in this conference. Receivers have got to step up and make plays. You saw what the Georgia Tech receivers did. They made some plays. It's incumbent on our receivers to step up and make some plays this week.

"Our quarterback can get the ball to them."

What the Tar Heels must do, Bunting said, is not talk about improving, but get on the practice field and do it this week. Meet the challenge Wisconsin presents and play with confidence and intelligence.

"We are playing a team not in our conference that we have to be absolutely totally and fully prepared for," Bunting said, "and then go out and play the way we can play. We can compete with them, be in the game and possibly win, if we play good football.

"Last year this team going into the last four weeks of the season was ranked fourth in the country," Bunting said. "They've beaten Ohio State four out of the last six years. So they're pretty doggone good. I don't want to scare anybody. I don't want to scare our players. But they're good, and we're going to have to be on the top of our game.

"We've got a game under our belt now, we should have learned from what we did wrong and we should play much better. My expectation is for us to be at the top of our game when we play this outstanding football team."

Who knows, maybe holding this dance under the lights will be enough for Carolina to surprise the Badgers and the doubters.

"We're playing at a time when we've had success in the past," Bunting said. "We're going to try to repeat what we did last year.

"It started with the fans, and then it was making some plays on special teams and some turnovers with defense. Then it grew at halftime. You need to be able to handle the adverse things that happen in a game, and we seemed to be able to handle them better in night games last year."

So there it is. Come 7 p.m. on Saturday, we will find out if the Tar Heels can continue to rule the night.

Source--TarHeelDaily