Family Reunion - QB Back On Track

It couldn't have been, not after the words had come so slowly, so haltingly for Darian Durant when he had stared down at the sheet in front of him just minutes before. Media members had crowded in front of him in the press conference room of the Kenan Football Center, but his eyes hardly had lifted off the prepared page from which he had read.

"This was not a spontaneous decision," he had said as his coach sat beside him at the Feb. 25 press conference. "I've pondered over this a long time, thought hard about it, and I feel like it's the best thing for me to do."

After asking that the media respect his privacy, Durant stood up and turned to North Carolina coach John Bunting, who wrapped him in a quick embrace. As the two broke away, Bunting gave Durant a reassuring look before his quarterback left, seemingly walking out of the program for good. Just as quickly as the 5-foot-11, 226-pounder had flashed onto the scene as a redshirt freshman, he was gone, ready to transfer to another school.

But a day before the Tar Heels' 2002 season begins, Durant is again in the spotlight after showing renewed faith in the program that stood by him since he was in high school.

"I think Darian Durant is a very special person," Bunting said. "He's got some unique thought processes. He's shown a great deal of resolve in the way he's prepared for the season."

And if you believe Durant, he's brought a new attitude to life. If you believe people close to him, he's ready to flourish.

"I have never seen him at peace until now," said Israel Durant, Darian's father. "I don't know why. Maybe some people want to be wanted, respected -- everybody does -- and compete and do well. It's a test, and he's gone and passed it."

Back when he was a youngster, there didn't seem to be any challenge too difficult for Durant on the fields and courts of Florence, S.C. He grew up an athlete, just like his oldest brother, Keshawn, who played quarterback at South Carolina State.

Durant's father remained close, though he and Darian's mother, Betty Durant, were divorced. When Israel Durant's sister died in the early 1990s, he moved into her house -- which just happened to be across the street from the house in which his ex-wife and children lived. "Some people feel that their kids are special," Israel Durant said. "I feel that way about mine."

Darian eventually became the starting quarterback at Wilson High School and dominated his junior year. Schools from all over the South began paying attention -- at least until he broke his left ankle four games into his senior year.

"It was depressing because the schools I was really interested in at the time, they kind of backed off on me," said Durant, whose favorite schools included Georgia Tech and Clemson.

While the other schools wavered, UNC continued recruiting Durant. That loyalty paid off, even after South Carolina coach Lou Holtz told Durant that he wanted to install the spread offense specifically for him, Israel Durant said.

After sitting through a frustrating redshirt year, Durant played in his first game at the start of the 2001 season. At Oklahoma, no less. Despite his nerves, he outplayed starter Ronald Curry.

No longer did Curry hold a lock on all the playing time. And neither player was immune from questions about a brewing controversy that eventually turned into a two-QB system.

"We understood what kind of situation we were going to be in," Durant said. "We wouldn't dare let either one of our successes on the football field get in the way of our friendship."

After the Tar Heels upended No. 6 Florida State 41-9 on Sept. 22, the new system was in place for good. UNC rolled, and everything went well for Durant until his stepmother, Anta Maria Blandshaw Durant, died Nov. 3 after a short illness.

With Curry out due to injury, Durant started a week after burying his stepmom and lost. But UNC won the Peach Bowl, which Durant considered a relief after his 0-2 mark as a starter.

As the off-season came on, Durant began to ponder transferring, and then he told Bunting that he wanted to leave. The press conference, and the questions, followed.

"I didn't talk to anybody," he said. "I pretty much kept my feelings away from everybody, including my family."

UNC tailback Willie Parker, one of Durant's friends, said he tried to get him to not bolt. Soon Parker set his mind on bringing the QB back.

Meanwhile, Durant's dad tried to get his son to make up his mind by speaking out in the media, even saying Darian shouldn't have left UNC. "I had to get him moving," Israel Durant said. "I got sick of Darian sitting there."

His father's urging helped a bit, as did a lunchtime conversation with Parker. Parker said he told Bunting that Durant didn't want to leave and that he would convince his friend to return.

"(Bunting) told me, 'If you set everything up, then he'll be here," Parker said. "I did what I had to do, Coach did what he did, and now he's here."

Five weeks after announcing his transfer, Durant asked Bunting if he could return. Bunting allowed him back on but told Durant he would have to fight with transfer C.J. Stephens for the starting job, as well as for the team's respect.

After all, these were more than mere teammates. So in a players-only meeting, Durant apologized and told the team he was wrong.

"You have to look them in the eye and tell them you're for real," he said. "This is my family, and you have to be loyal to your family. I didn't feel like I had to be loyal, but it was the right thing for me to do."

Saturday, Durant and his teammates will see how he handles the pressures of holding the everyday job. And maybe Durant will think about what would've happened if he didn't have a support system around him at UNC -- or if he had left it to go to another school with a whole new set of unknowns.

After all, said Israel Durant, "Why go somewhere else and do it again when you already have a family here?"