12 Football '85Thursday, September 12, 1985
Kevin Anthony. FhSMeta Kappa? baby Hace? quarterback
By SCOTT FOWLER
Assistant Sports Editor
If you were a parent, Kevin
Anthony is the type of guy you
wouldnt mind taking your daugh
ter to the prom.
If you were a professor, Kevin
Anthony is the type of student who
would reaffirm your dwindling
faith in the mental capability of
athletes.
If you were a defensive back, you
would worry very much about
Kevin Anthony. He is the North
Carolina quarterback that team
mate Dave Truitt says can be the :
"best in the country" and UNC
offensive coordinator Randy
Walker says is the best at that
position that "weVe ever had."
Meet this year's local version of
perfection. Kevin Anthony, a
fourth-year Phi Beta Kappa junior
from Decatur, Ga., stands poised
on the verge of breaking most of
the Tar Heel seasonal passing
records this year through a com
bination of a fortuitous turn of
events in the offensive scheme, a
glut of talented wide receivers and
a personal truckload of
determination!
How good is this babyfaced 6
2, 188-pounder, a young man who
has dated the same girl, Nancy
Norman, since 10th grade and
wants to be an athletic director
after he gets an M.B. A.? In the final
three games of last season,
Anthony set the all-time high for
passing yards in a single game
against Virginia with 281 yards,
threw an average of 34 times a game
for 232 yards, fired four touchdown
passes and caught another.
He picked up where he left off
Saturday night aginst Navy, com
pleting six of his first seven passes,
with the only incpmpletion a
dropped ball in the end zone by
Earl Winfield. Anthony was 16-for-29
for 250 yards on the night,
throwing for one touchdown and
two interceptions.
Last year's final three games
were an upbeat ending to a con
troversial, confusing season for
Anthony, who battled his way
through a media-hyped quarter-'
back duel with Mark Maye and his
frustration with a lack of input into
the offense. "About all I was doing
for awhile is handing the ball off
60 times a game," Anthony said.
The low point came in the Wake
Forest debacle, when Anthony
went 9-for-26 for only 83 yards and
two interceptions.
However, to even be in a position
to have awful performances,
Anthony had to win his job.
Despite being the second-string
quarterback and heir apparent to
Scott Stankavage in 1983, Anthony
found himself the underdog and
villain in UNC's version of dueling
quarterbacks,, which ran for most
of last year. .
"In a sense the competition hurt
me because I became so conscious
of trying to avoid the errors,"
Anthony said. "Both Mark and I
were concerned about every mis
take we made."
To add to the pressure, Anthony
was an out-of-stater and had not
been nearly as heavily recruited as
Maye, a Charlottean whose high
school career bordered on the
miraculous. Maye was a recruiting
coup for UNC, and the coaching
staff wanted to put him to use.
Quickly.
"We didn't recruit Mark to run
the option," UNC coach Dick
Crum said. "When we recruited
him we fully intended to go to the
passing game.
Anthony, on the other hand, was
recruited as an option quarterback.
It didn't take a 3.97 grade-point
average (which Anthony has) to
figure out who UNC planned to
start at quarterback for the 1984
season. "Everybody on our coach
ing staff thought Mark was going
to be our starter," Crum said. f
But he wasn't, primarily because
Anthony held onto his slight
experience advantage with all the
tenacity of a bulldog until Maye
made the point moot by injuring
his shoulder. "To be honest, Kevin
beat him out when he was healthy,"
Walker says. .
This season Anthony had the job
by default as Maye will sit out the
entire year. And with the added
responsibility of being the undis- i
puted No. 1 quarterback comes,
ironically enough, a reduction in
pressure. ;
"1 feel a lot more at ease this
year," Anthony says. "IVe got more
input into the offensive scheme
because I get along so well with
Coach Walker and I feel like I'm
showing more leadership."
"He's a great leader," offensive
tackle Harris Barton agrees. "That '
helps because the quarterback
situation was so jumbled around
last year. It's not a guessing game .
anymore."
Unless you're trying to guess how
many times Anthony really will
throw this season. He figures it will
be about 35, a far cry from some
of last year's statistics, when UNC
attempted only nine passes in the
N.C. State game and 14 against
Memphis State (the Tar Heels won
both games).
Rus and Lorelei Anthony
became parents for the third time
20 years ago. Kevin was born in
a Waco, Texas hospital, the first
boy in the family. The elder
Anthony, who is 6-foot-5, was in
the Air Force, and the family
moved around a lot before settling
in Decatur when Kevin was 7.
One afternoon Kevin got a flier
in the mail advertising youth league
football. "I think my dad wanted
me to play, but he didn't say
anything," Anthony remembers
with a smile. "But when I said I'd
decided to give it a shot, he looked
pretty happy."
Anthony began his career as an
imposing 8-year-old offensive and
defensive end, but was switched to
tailback and linebacker three
games into the season. He stayed
at those positions for five years.
"But I always had a knack for
throwing the ball," Anthony says.
"Just about every team I played on
as a tailback, whenever we wanted
to throw the ball we'd run a
tailback pass and they'd always
pitch it to me."
In eighth grade, he made the
switch to quarterback. "I'm glad I
changed," Anthony says. "I'd have
As a senior at Lakeside High
School m Atlanta, Anthony was
named the state 4A Player of the
Year, despite the fact that he often
played only half the games because
Lakeside would be so far ahead at
halftime. That year he also was one
of the few high school quaterbacks
in the nation trusted enough to call
his own plays.
In one high school game in which
he played only the first half,
Anthony completed nine of 10
passes for 249 yards . and three
touchdowns. However, he was
primarily an option quarterback
and was recruited as such by most
4T"
v
XT-,
4
Kevin Anthony won't struggle for
of the major Southeastern schools,
besides receiving appointments
from the Air Force and Navy,
However, the two-year National
Honor Society member wanted a
strong academic school, and chose
UNC. When he first came to the
UNC football camp, Walker, then
the quarterback coach, filmed him
doing some drills. "I looked at them
again just the other day and the
improvement was remarkable,"
Walker says, shaking his head,
"First of all he looked like he was
about 12 with that babyface, and
he was so skinny. But he border-
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the quarterback job in 1 985 since
lines on being a workaholic, and
it's hard to believe you're looking
at the same quarterback now.1
Indeed, Anthony has stayed in
Chapel Hill each of the last three .
summers, taking one class each
summer school session and work
ing in the weight room and with
whatever receivers were around.
The large amount of time he has
spent learning his receivers has paid
off in a collective, emphatic vote
of confidence. '
"He's real smart and has great
perspective," Eric Streater says.
"Last year he had some trouble
St
.
i
Mark Maye is out of the picture.
witn recognition oi tne aeiense, out
he's played enough now that he
Knows tne ngnt cans ior tne ngnt
situations."
"Hell play like a senior," says
Earl Winfield.
For Anthony's part, he still feels
he has ample room to get better.
"A huge part is the mental aspect,"
Anthony says. "You cant ever see
enough film or spend enough time
in the playbook."
With dedication Jike that, it's
easv to see Anthony popping up
m. opposing coaches' nightmares
this season.