
{"id":12629,"date":"2010-09-16T08:16:02","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T16:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=12629"},"modified":"2010-09-16T08:44:51","modified_gmt":"2010-09-16T16:44:51","slug":"%e2%80%98looking-forward-to-the-challenge%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/09\/16\/%e2%80%98looking-forward-to-the-challenge%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLooking forward to the challenge\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/landreth-mug.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/landreth-mug-e1282244749712.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"landreth-mug\" width=\"100\" height=\"133\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-12005\" \/><\/a><strong>By Eddy Landreth, Staff Writer<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Defeating LSU would have been a phenomenal accomplishment for the depleted Carolina team that traveled to the Georgia Dome to play in the season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s opener against the Tigers.<\/p>\n<p>But defeating the team from Georgia in Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own division of the Atlantic Coast Conference would be an even greater accomplishment at this point. Georgia Tech (1-1) travels to Chapel Hill for the Tar Heels (0-1) home opener on Saturday at noon. The winner will be undefeated in the race for the division championship and a spot in the conference title game in December.<\/p>\n<p>The Yellow Jackets have a new 3-4 defense brought to Atlanta by former Virginia coach Al Groh, now Georgia Tech\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s defensive coordinator, and the same triple-option offense that helped propel them to the ACC championship and the Orange Bowl a year ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Every time you play them,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d UNC senior linebacker Bruce Cater said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the key word is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcdiscipline.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 You just want to go out there and play fundamentally sound. The entire game you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to play disciplined.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to do someone else\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s job. They could break off some big runs just with [you] trying to be greedy and trying to do two things at once. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do that against a team like Georgia Tech.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, a Carolina defender seemed to be waiting for the ball wherever the Yellow Jackets ran. UNC forced three turnovers and won going away, 24-7.<\/p>\n<p>Last season, UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discipline broke. Georgia Tech ran for 317 yards and held the ball for 42 of the 60 minutes. The Tar Heels absolutely cannot let Georgia Tech pound on them at will and hope to win this game.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The buzzword from day one last Tuesday has been discipline, responsibilities, read your keys,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d coach Butch Davis said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Make sure you are doing what you are supposed to be doing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>If UNC had the defense everyone expected to be on the field back in June, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to imagine Carolina not giving Georgia Tech fits. But with so many players still in limbo because of an NCAA investigation and Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own internal investigation, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to know how a far more inexperienced defense will perform.<\/p>\n<p>At this point, it does not matter, Davis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve taken the mindset that the guys who played against LSU, that is who we are going to play with,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Davis said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re fortunate to get guys back, that is good for us.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>One player who will return is senior running back Shaun Draughn. If Draughn can help Carolina maintain control of the ball and create some long, time-consuming drives that result in touchdowns, the release of pressure on the defense would be enormous.<\/p>\n<p>Davis said he is just glad his team will be playing at Kenan Stadium. There is no doubt this depleted and publicly battered team could use the support of its fans, Davis said.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exciting to get back, play the first home game at Kenan Stadium,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Davis said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the guys are excited about playing and looking forward to the challenge this week.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If UNC had the defense everyone expected to be on the field back in June, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to imagine Carolina not giving Georgia Tech fits. But with so many players still in limbo because of an NCAA investigation and Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own internal investigation, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to know how a far more inexperienced defense will perform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":12005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[431],"class_list":["post-12629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-university","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12629"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12677,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12629\/revisions\/12677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}