Tar Heels hope to stay grounded
CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina is back in The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since November 2001. And the No. 22 Tar Heels hope they have finally found the running attack to keep them there.
Converted safety Shaun Draughn accounted for 109 of UNC’s 146 rushing yards during Saturday’s 38-12 blowout against then-No. 24 Connecticut. Draughn is just the second Tar Heels player this season - and first tailback - to exceed 100 rushing yards in a game.
Coach Butch Davis reiterated Sunday that the Tar Heels (4-1) need all three of their running backs — including Greg Little (three carries for 6 yards Saturday) and Ryan Houston (three carries, 39 yards, one touchdown)– to play well in order to be successful. Even so, it appears that Draughn, a sophomore from Tarboro who had netted just 97 yards total in his previous four games, has earned the right to be a bigger part of the attack.
“He’s got some real quickness, some explosiveness; he’s got some speed,” Davis said after Carolina matched last year’s win total. “Prior to this season, he was an unknown commodity; we had no idea what he would bring to the football team. He’s protected the ball well, and he’s run the ball well and he’s making some plays.”
Quarterback Cameron Sexton said the tailbacks and offensive line “made it a mission to be better” against the Huskies.
“We’re winning games, but these guys are hearing, ‘We can’t run the football, we can’t run the football,’ and [they] were getting tired of hearing about it,” Sexton said. “So I think those guys said, ‘We’re going to go run the football. We need to do it.’ ”
And they did it from the beginning.
After UNC’s first offensive series of the game — during which Little rushed once for no gain — Draughn entered for the second series and carried four times for 27 yards, pushing the Tar Heels into field-goal range.
Davis said Draughn was inserted early because “he played well against Miami; he popped a big, long run against Miami that was unfortunately called back by a holding call. Somewhat like how the quarterback situation went against Miami - he got in, he got hot. He made some runs, and we kind of stayed with it from that standpoint.”
A shuffle along the offensive line might have been a factor. Lowell Dyer made his first start of the season at center, allowing Aaron Stahl (who had missed time in practice after having two wisdom teeth removed) to shift back to left guard. Alan Pelc started there, in place of the injured Bryon Bishop, but Stahl was in the game early at the position he played last season.
Draughn, who also scored on a 39-yard touchdown sprint in the third quarter, said the line and tailbacks didn’t do anything different from early in the season. “We’re just getting better at it,” he said.
“We always make an emphasis on running the ball, because we need to have two threats coming in.”
Read More:News & Observer
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