Football 82-83 The Daily Tar Heel 7
TUNC
T1
MaM(Qii(BpiI!
By S.L PRICE
Assistant Sports Editor
If you want someone to blame, he's always there. If
you need someone to praise, he'll be waiting. When the
pressure is on, the game inevitably falls into his hands.
No guts, no glory. The hero. The goat f-
The quarterback.
He's Namath lounging in a lawn chair and guarantee
ing Super Bowl III, he's Tarkenton scrambling for his
life, he's every little kid rocketing spirals through a tire
hanging from a tree. He's Rod .Elkins,,he's Scott Stanka
vage, he's Ike Brady.
For each North Carolina quarterback the season that
starts tonight holds a different kind of pressure. In this,
the most cerebral and closely watched position in foot
ball, all three find the additional burden of either trying
to makeup for the past or somehow direct their futures.
As North Carolina's starting quarterback for the past
two years, Elkins knows what is expected of him.
. ''I'm not the real vocal type, but by nature of the posi
tion, the quarterback is the leader," Elkins said. "He's
the one that picks the team up and he's the one that takes
the blame. You've got to know how to handle the pressure.-
.
"I've got confidence in my ability, in myself, and in '.
my teammates, and I can't afford to get down, just be
cause you're the quarterback, people naturally look to
you to lead. If I get downothers look at it and get down
too. But I'd rather shoulder that burden than anyone
else.". ;. . . ; . '.
Elkins passed for 994 yards and nine touchdowns last
season, but he sprained his ankle in the seventh game
against South Carolina.
"You've got to try to block it out of your mind; I
couldn't afford to think about it," Elkins said. "You've
got to go 100 percent, if you go half-speed you're going
to get hurt"
During a game, the most crucial time for the quarter
back begins when offensive coordinator John Matsko
calls the play and ends when the QB takes the snap.
Here at the line of scrimmage the defense shifts, here
the quarterback must adjust on his own.
' x - -A . '
, , - T "
. . ,,-v: ::..: :: T ..:
, f - f 55 - I
to- " ? Ji V f Hi
)c;0 m -1
nil I" p- i
I ., V
r- ' - W f I
f V 1 '
f
.. :v' ,; i
V y- j.- -V0 ; v www.
V iff r Vv. " -
f I : f V
9 . .:
f - ,
n mi m -jv
. v.-- -. . ...
- 3
1!
m
Rod Elkins
OTHScott Sharpe
"The coaches say that they give me the chalk last,".
Elkins said. "Their defense dictates the play called at the
line and.you have to concentrate and think about it That
puts a lot of responsibility on the quarterback, but I'd
rather have it that way on my shoulders." r-,.
- Because of his ankle, Elkins played for just a short
time in last year's Clemson game billed as the biggest
game in ACC history and missed his shot to perform
"well in front of a slew of pro scouts. Tonight's game at
Pitt could change everything. ...
"I don't have anything to prove to myself. But it
means a lot to me and this team, because if we win it we
can give the program some national recognition," Elkins
said. . :;;.V.V'--''-r :';""V"-:
"And I can prove myself a good quarterback; I don't
think I've done that yet I do need to have agood game
fto reassure people that I can do the good job. ; '
"A good quarterback shows that he can play well urn
der pressure against the good teams. We're playing the .
best here Pitfs number one and if 1 play well under
pressure in the big games, I'll have proved that I can do
the job." ... .-VVfS'- " v --:;;.-:
Stankavage has had a hard time convincing people
that he can do the job. North Carolina's only two losses
last year came at the hands of South Carolina and Clem- .
. son, and Stankavage was the QB of record for both
games. The clincher is that both contests were at home, ''
and the popular, although unjustified, conception of
Stankavage is that he cannot win..Pin that up next to El
kin's enviable 20-1 record as a healthy starting quartern
back and Stankavage is suddenly4a loser in the public
eye. ' : ". . ""
But the statistics show differently. Against South
Carolina, Stankavage completed 16 passes in 35 at
tempts for 1 81 yards and one touchdown, but the Came
cock's Cordon Beckham went berserk, completing 1 6 of
17 passes for 195 yards. Stankavage had the North Caro
lina season-high for passing yardage, but it. was Beck
ham's day. . ' '
And the next week Stankavage connected on 17 of 24
passes for 177 yards at Maryland, including a 20-yard
touchdown pass to Tyrone Anthony with 1:20 left to win
it Stakavage's South Carolina and Maryland passing
games were the top two all year for North Carolina.
Against Clemson, he had a sub-par game 8 for 21 for
93 yards while the Tar Heels came up short 106.
And Stankavage has been dealing with it ever since.
"I try and put that behind me, thinking that no one
man loses a ballgame," Stankavage said. "But the ones I
was worried about were the coaches. I worked hard in
the spring and fall and prepared myself to go in and do
the thing necessary to win.
"J have to be ready, because with every play the
whole burden could fall on me. The whole team has got
to have confidence in me and I've been working hard to
get their confidence."
For Stankavage, the South Carolina and Clemson
games were what he called "a confidence tester," a time
when he wondered not only if he had the faith of his
teammates, but of himself as well. , ;
"I know what I can and can't do, and I try to play
within my limits," Stankavage said. "I see it as a test of.
my character,' to see if I can rebound." '
Elkins has a firm lock on the starting spot But
Stankavage said that there is enough competition be
tween the two to keep each other sharp.
"It's kind of a precarious situation. On the field, I'm
competing with him, but I want the team to win; so on the
sidelines I'm his biggest fan," Stankavage said. "I want
Carolina to win whether ifs 10 or 14 under center thafs
the most important thing."
"Scott goes out every day and works hard, and he
pushed me to work hard," Elkins said. "He went up
against a lot of adversity, but 1 feel real comfortable to
have him out there." . '
j Si 11
I L I ? !
X
ZJ
- ' V
ft-
,3
4
Scott Stsnkav&ga
OTHScott Sharpe
As backup to the backup, Brady wil probably not see
a lot of action this season, but he
already knows the pressure that a
quarterback lives under
"It takes a whole lot of self
confidence, because the quarter
back has to pick the team up if
&tm $ something goes wrong and go on,"
z waay said. Me s got to oe a leader
:iiwrtMi3 on the field, run the offense, as
Ike CrccSy well as off it
"And the quarterback's got to have a lot of composure
and stay calm, not get out his head. He's got to be ex
cited, but he's got to keep his composure."
Elkins agrees.
"I just don't get too psyched up for a certain game, I
just want to execute and have good ball control, and
complete 60 percent of my passes."
Brady knows that he is not in contention for the start
ing job, but he had a fine spring which included double
duty for a while during the Blue-White Came, and with
Elkins graduating he should move up on the depth chart
So he's got to keep pushing in practice, pushing himself
and in turn Stankavage, and in turn Elkins.
"In practice, you've got to be in it mentally, as well as
physically. By the end of the day, the coaches want us to
be as mentally tired as we are physically," Brady said.
"There's competition, because we're all trying to im-
nivsifs K! r' m n .c-V. A.U A-Un- "
Pressure by each other, pressure by the coaches, pres
sure by the fans, pressure on themselves. And pressure
now by last year's number one defense.
"I'm aware of all those things," Elkins said. "But I just
realize that they put their pants on one leg at a time, the
same as us. I think that Pitt's defense is good, but we've
seen defenses as good before in Arkansas and Okla
homa." The game starts at 9 p.m. The pressure is on.
GIVE TO THE AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY. Y