Football battles back for bowl after rough start

The Larry Fedora effect on Marquise Williams has been unmistakable.

Before the Duke game, after the bowl berth, at practice, at the podium — it’s all been the same.

“We’re trying to be 1-0.”

The rallying cry emerged just before a hard-fought loss to the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes on Oct. 17, and the redshirt sophomore quarterback has ostensibly taken his coach’s midseason mantra to heart.

It focused a season that was once in blurry disarray. It simplified a mission that could’ve easily been too daunting.

It eliminated all distractions.

“We just had to focus on ourselves, man,” Williams said in the middle of UNC’s late-season five-game winning streak. “We were too busy worrying about what we needed to do at (N.C.) State and this and that.”

By the end, North Carolina earned its much-desired bowl game, but the season didn’t play out like UNC (6-6, 4-4 ACC) expected it to. Williams himself — who only became the starter after Bryn Renner underwent season-ending shoulder surgery Nov. 5 — can tell you that.

In a front-loaded schedule that began with a Jadeveon Clowney-sized matchup at South Carolina, North Carolina struggled to find its footing, falling to 1-5 in the young season.

The sources of adversity were fairly easy to point to. The absence of Giovani Bernard, a two-year starting tailback who finished one vote shy of ACC Player of the Year in 2012, created an imposing hole in the backfield. A young, injury-sapped defense routinely missed coverage assignments and allowed momentum-shifting plays. And the offense as a whole kept braking at the red zone.

The tipping point, however, came in week four in a 55-31 loss to East Carolina at home — the product of an overconfident Tar Heel squad.

“There were a lot of guys in the locker room who were jumping around and shouting, saying that we were ready to make plays and blow this team out,” said wide receiver T.J. Thorpe after the loss. “For some of those guys, they had a lot of us fooled.”

Even though the Tar Heels went on to lose their next two games , they could see marked improvement in effort and in the film room after that loss — and eventually, that growth led to wins.

The defense, spurred by a players-only meeting led by senior Kareem Martin, pared down on its missed assignments and tightened its coverage. The offense found balance in shifting to a dual-quarterback system and leveraging A.J. Blue,T.J. Logan, Khris Francis and Romar Morris in the running game. Even special teams found new life in the form of freshman Ryan Switzer, who assumed Bernard’s mantle as a punt returner extraordinaire and returned four punts for touchdowns.

It all came together under a single goal — that the only goal should be Saturday’s opponent. Though UNC’s season ended sourly with a 27-25 loss to Duke, that renewed focus led the Tar Heels to a bowl game.

And that’s an achievement UNC isn’t taking for granted.

“When we were 1-5, a lot of people didn’t even have us going to a bowl,” said senior cornerback Jabari Price. “When you’re 1-5 and you’re going to workouts and practice, you’re like, ‘For what?’ It hurts. It hurts very bad.

“We kept working, keep lifting, kept practicing, we didn’t change anything. Guys just practiced harder, and it ended up showing.”

sports@dailytarheel.com