
{"id":14332,"date":"2010-12-02T15:35:57","date_gmt":"2010-12-02T20:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=14332"},"modified":"2010-12-02T16:36:55","modified_gmt":"2010-12-02T21:36:55","slug":"a-team-that-%e2%80%98answered-the-bell%e2%80%99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/12\/02\/a-team-that-%e2%80%98answered-the-bell%e2%80%99\/","title":{"rendered":"A team that \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcanswered the bell\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Eddy Landreth<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\nA Carolina football team held together by spit and tape managed to go 7-5 in the regular season.<br \/>\nMany may not comprehend how big an accomplishment this is.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This football team, in my 37 years of coaching, is going to be one of my proudest group of guys that I have ever been around, for the way that they have answered the bell every single week, good times, bad times, tough times,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d UNC coach Butch Davis said.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153These are some great kids, kids who refused to surrender, refused to use any excuses.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nThe team has been torn from multiple directions, was humiliated by scandal and watched its roster ground to rice paper. The players never stopped competing.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It feels great,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d senior safety Deunta Williams said after UNC secured a winning season with a 24-19 victory at Duke in the regular-season finale. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153At the end of everything, you kind of think of the beginning. It feels great to go out on a win.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nThe beginning occurred just around the time summer camp convened and allegations of impropriety by several key players filtered through the media. By the time UNC went to Atlanta to start the season against LSU at the Georgia Dome, the Tar Heels were missing 13 contributors who had to sit out while they were investigated.<br \/>\nIn the end, the opener served as a preview of how these players and coaches would respond. UNC came within two dropped passes in the end zone of defeating LSU.<br \/>\nWith the suspensions and injuries, this team had to fight, scratch and claw for all it received.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We doggone feel like we earned it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in it, you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really realize all the things that are going on. You just kind of think, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWell, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t focus on that right now.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You have to just keep pushing, keep pushing. That has been the mindset of the team. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been helpful for us every game, coming out and competing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nIn many ways, the victory against Duke reflected the season. The Tar Heels rode a roller coaster of emotions, mistakes and successes.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I told the players in preparation for this ballgame that to win this game it was going to take a total team effort,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Davis said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It took all three phases to win the game.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nThe Tar Heels went 4-1 on the road this year, broke a losing streak at Virginia that stretched to 1981 and even defeated Florida State in a miraculous victory in Tallahassee.<br \/>\nEvery time a player was pulled from the field for a suspension or an injury, someone else stepped forward to take his place.<br \/>\nAnthony Elzy is the epitome of this resilience. Johnny White broke his collarbone in the midst of the best season for a Carolina running back since Jon Linton ran for more than 1,000 yards in 1997.<br \/>\nAgainst Duke, Elzy ran 23 times for a career-high 116 yards.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Anthony ran with unbelievable determination,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Davis said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153He ran hard. He is a tough, physical kid.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nSo now it is on to a bowl game and a chance to finish with eight victories, which would be a remarkable accomplishment, given all that has happened.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Carolina football team held together by spit and tape managed to go 7-5 in the regular season.<br \/>\nMany may not comprehend how big an accomplishment this is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":13938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[431],"class_list":["post-14332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14332","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=14332"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14361,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14332\/revisions\/14361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}