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(Hlje Sattg ®ar Hrel UNC Looks to Start Season on Right Foot North Carolina limped out to a 1-4 start last year and hopes to win its first season opener in the last three years. By Bret Strelow Assistant Sports Editor North Carolina football coach Carl Torbush has never claimed to be a math ematical genius. The number crunching he has done in his head since the end of last season has been short and simple. Add a few wins, subtract a few losses, and the Tar Heels have a respectable season. Of course, that’s not how 1999 played out. “I can promise you that if we were 4-1 after those first five games, we wouldn’t have ended up at 3-8,” Torbush said. Torbush is not Albert Einstein, but he did know the Tar Heels’ fate would be decided in the first five games of last sea son. North Carolina played the top four ACC squads in its first five games of the year. The Tar Heels mustered only a i :.. JZ . t • UNC quarterback Ronald Curry missed the final six games of 1999 after suffering a torn Achilles tendon. win against nonconference foe Indiana. A 3-8 season was well in the works. North Carolina has a much more favorable schedule to begin this season. That doesn’t mean the Tar Heels can sigh with relief, though. UNC has set many goals for the upcoming season, but few are attainable if it looks past the first task at hand: Tulsa. “We expect to win the first game,” Errol Hood said. “That’s our goal right now - to win the first game. After that, the other goals will come.” Those other goals include winning the mythical state championship and DTH/SEFTONIPOCK Errol Hood, left, tied for second in the ACC with five interceptions in 1999. UNC gave up a combined six points in wins against N.C. State and Duke. appearing in a bowl game. Torbush also mentions an ACC and national champi onship because he is obligated to. North Carolina has high aspirations for a team that posted a 3-8 record last year. But these aren’t last year’s Tar Heels. For one, UNC has required the ser vices of its top offensive and defensive players. Quarterback Ronald Curry and linebacker Brandon Spoon sat on the sidelines last year with season-ending injuries. Spoon suffered a torn biceps tendon in the second game of the year, and Curry tore his Achilles in the fifth game. Curry and Spoon did not commiser ate with each other about their respective injuries last season. They talked only briefly of the pain they both endured. Curry knows how important he and Spoon are to the Tar Heels’ hopes for a improved season. “Me and Spoon are two people who they depend on heavily,” Curry said. “I was on offense, he was on defense. Two vocal leaders, two people who when things need to be happening, they can look at us.” Curry will depend on an otherwise inexperienced group of starters to help him on offense. He will be jomed by redshirt freshman Willie Parker at tail back and five offensive linemen who didn’t start a game last season. Bosley Allen, who severely injured his knee against N.C. State in 1998 and missed all of last season, returns to the wide receiving corps. “I believe we have the weapons to be a really good offensive team,” new offensive coordinator Mike O’Cain said. The Tar Heels are loaded with weapons on defense, which has been taken over by new coordinator Ken Browning. North Carolina will start three seniors - Spoon, Sedrick Hodge and Merceda Perry - at linebacker. Spoon is the only player ever to be nominated for the Butkus Award for four consecutive seasons. Junior safety Billy Dee Greenwood headlines a secondary that performed better than Torbush expected it would a year ago. Greenwood led UNC with 118 tackles, but he would be happy making Football 2000 • v,; : ; " ,; ? ' - >- t*** DTH/CARA BRIC'KMAN Sophomore Julius Peppers had six sacks last season, including four against Wake Forest. Peppers, who led the team with 10 tackles behind the line of scrimmage, said he expects greatness out of himself this season. half that number this year because that would mean runners were being tackled before they got into the secondary. Greenwood is joined in the sec ondary by Hood, who developed into one of the best comerbacks in the ACC. Returning starters Julius Peppers and Ryan Sims anchor the defensive line and are preseason candidates for All-ACC recognition. Peppers had six UNC ‘OO Schedule Sept. 2 Tulsa Sept. 9 at Wake Forest Sept. 16 at Florida State Sept. 23 Marshall Sept. 30 Georgia Tech Oct. 14 N.C. State Oct. 21 Clemson Oct. 28 at Virginia Nov. 4 at Pittsburgh Nov.ll Maryland Nov. 18 at Duke sacks last year, while Sims made six tackles behind the line of scrimmage. The defense is filled with confidence after it limited N.C. State and Duke to a combined six points in the final two games of last season. “Last year, we were working on this year,” Perry said. “We just wanted to end up on a good note.” Some players aren’t looking at the final AKr North Carolina 1999 record: 3-8 (2-6 in the ACC) Head Coach: Carl Torbush (14-21 overall, 11-13 at UNC) Home Field: Kenan Memorial Stadium (60,000) Returning Starters: 4 offense, 10 defense Key Returnees: TE Alge Crumpler, QB Ronald Curry, CB Errol Hood, DE Julius Peppers, LB Brandon Spoon Key Losses: FB Deon Dyer, PK Josh McGee, P Brian Schmitz Strengths: The Tar Heels played much of last season without their top offensive player in Curry and top defensive player in Spoon. They are back this season. UNC has anew offensive coordinator in Mike O'Cain and anew defensive coordinator in Ken Browning. Weaknesses: UNC will start five different players on its offensive line this season, and kicker Jeff Reed has never played in a game. The punting job is up for grabs. Keys to season: North Carolina hasn't won a season opener since 1997. UNC must get off to a strong start because its schedule gets tough during the middle of the year. Key Game: Oct. 14 vs. N.C. State Friday, September 1, 2000 two games of 1999 as an ending. Rather, it will serve as the start of the program’s resurgence that will continue through the first game of the 2000 campaign. “You can just tell by the way people walk around that we expect to win now,” Hood said. “We’ve been through the hardest part - we’ve got that crazy season over. Now it’s time to ball, it’s time to win.” h Jb Carl Torbush 3
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Sept. 1, 2000, edition 1
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