Dane Huffman
Dane Huffman, a Raleigh native, has covered North Carolina sports since 1983. He is the Sports Managing Editor at WRAL.
By Dane Huffman
Nov 3, 2009
One of Duke’s toughest losses became what turned the football program around.
In November of 2007, everyone knew coach Ted Roof was in danger of losing his job when the Blue Devils played at North Carolina on Nov. 28.
Carolina was rebuilding in the first year of Butch Davis and N.C. State was showing new promise under Tom O’Brien. Even Wake Forest was winning. But the Devils had won just six games overall under Roof and you figured Duke was about to fire yet another coach.
Then suddenly, Duke played a marvelous game in Chapel Hill, a game it should have won. The Blue Devils drove to Carolina’s 23-yard line and called timeout for a field goal with a second to play.
But Nick Maggio’s kick was wide left from 40 yards as time expired, and the kick was so close the Blue Devils were already pouring on the field and dumping ice on Roof.
Duke, in shock, couldn’t regroup. Roof had a different kicker, Joe Surgan, try a field goal in
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By Dane Huffman
Oct 28, 2009
The Panthers have had some bizarre days in their history, but Wednesday was one of the strangest. Coach John Fox, who made his name on the defensive side, was, well, defensive in announcing his quarterback for Sunday.
“It will be Jake Delhomme,” said Fox, chin out.
So Delhomme will start at Arizona, and the Panthers have gone full circle. The last time the teams played, he lost a fumble and threw five interceptions.
It was so bad it was comical. Heck, you could almost forgive Delhomme even if he did botch a golden path to the Super Bowl.
But the Panthers haven’t recovered, and Delhomme is a disaster. He has four touchdown throws and 13 interceptions. If this were baseball he’d be back in Triple-A.
The Panthers’ season started out bad, with a humiliating home loss to Philadelphia, and has only gotten worse. Carolina is now 2-4, and while Fox pointed out Carolina’s
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By Dane Huffman
Oct 27, 2009
A measure of how bad the Triangle football schools have been is that this could mark the third time in four years the area fails to send a team to a bowl.
That’s an astonishing achievement, given that the ACC has eight bowl tie-ins this year and the league is far from being a football juggernaut.
The Triangle didn’t send teams to bowls in 2006 and 2007, and the fact that the programs were so depleted was why all three made coaching changes in the last three years.
But making a bowl won’t come easy this season, especially if this weekend comes with further setbacks for the local schools. Both N.C. State and Duke face games they almost have to win to make a bowl.
Here’s how it looks for the three local schools, each of whom needs seven wins this year to qualify:
N.C. State (3-4 overall)
Oct. 31 @ Florida State
Nov. 7 Maryland
Nov. 14 Clemson
Nov. 21 @ Virginia Tech
Nov. 28 North Carolina
Do
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By Dane Huffman
Oct 25, 2009
Roy Williams loves this time of year, and you could see that Sunday. Relaxed, candid, excited about his team, Williams seemed unconcerned about where his North Carolina club would be picked in the ACC and what others expected of it.
He is coming off his second national title, a remarkable feat for an accomplished coach who once yearned to finally land the sport’s biggest prize.
He has taken a UNC program that had fallen behind Duke and made it the league’s elite team again. Even in a year where Carolina pumped a ton of talent into the NBA, the Heels are still right there, picked with Duke to win the ACC again.
But Williams’ perspective on this title is a surprising one, and it’s a perspective that to some extent North Carolina shares with Duke. For all the differences in the schools and fan bases, the two eternal rivals share a common rival – complacency.
You’ve seen it at Duke, where students don’t clamor for space in
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By Dane Huffman
Oct 20, 2009
This was the Tom O’Brien Show that wasn’t, the Monday night on an off week when O’Brien is away and the N.C. State coordinators take over. So it wasn’t a big crowd this time at the Backyard Bistro as Tony Haynes peppered Dana Bible and Mike Archer with questions.
The opening was interesting. Both Bible and Archer insisted O’Brien remains the right coach for the job – you’d expect that on his show after all, right? – and they also insisted State has a plan in place.
“We’ve been there, done that and we’ll do it again,” said Bible, the offensive coordinator.
And that N.C. State will stick with that plan.
There was a hint of defiance in that as well. Let’s face it – no one thought State would be in this predicament when O’Brien arrived. Yet here we are three years in and the slope is sliding downward.
The Wolfpack coaches are pointing out that linebacker Nate Irving was
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By Dane Huffman
Oct 18, 2009
Saturday's performance at Boston College continued a season that's a lost opportunity for N.C. State.
The Wolfpack entered this fall with two of its better players in memory, Russell Wilson and Nate Irving. It had a season with eight home games, two of them guaranteed wins. And it faced an ACC schedule that was desperately mediocre.
Then Irving was lost for the season in a car accident, and State's defense lacks teeth without him. Willie Young is a good player and great quote, but State just needs more talent on that side of the ball.
Now the Wolfpack must win four of its last five games to reach a bowl, and this doesn't look like a club capable of that.
It's too bad. N.C. State thirsts for success in football as much as any ACC school, and that hunger has elevated as the basketball team has struggled. State is a good school with a great fan base, but winning doesn’t come easy for the Wolfpack.
The last two losses in football are crushing. Duke's
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By Dane Huffman
Oct 9, 2009
The ACC has nine bowl ties this season, which means there are plenty of options for teams in a league where only seven teams have three wins by the second weekend of October.
N.C. State, North Carolina and Duke all need seven wins to qualify for a bowl. All three could fail to make it. But given the mediocrity in the league, there are huge opportunities if any of those teams can finish strong. As we head into the second half of the season, it's worth taking a quick look at the ACC’s bowl schedule this season.
ACC champion: Orange Bowl
The winner of the ACC championship game goes to the Jan. 5 Orange Bowl (if the winner doesn’t go to the national championship game, which is unlikely). Virginia Tech looks like the best team out there, but given the mediocrity of the league, anything is possible. If you can find a good team in the Atlantic Division, let us know. Strange though it sounds, the biggest ACC game of the weekend could be Maryland
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By Dane Huffman
Oct 8, 2009
The change coming at the NCHSAA is a major development, and how Davis Whitfield performs in his new role will shape high school athletics across the state.
Whitfield, an assistant commissioner at the ACC, is taking over as executive director at the NCHSAA, a change that hasn’t happened since 1984. That’s when Simon Terrell, the longtime executive director for whom the building is named, resigned and the NCHSAA promoted his assistant, Charlie Adams.
Today, the NCHSAA offices remain on a quiet street in Chapel Hill right after a bunch of fraternity houses and before you get to the golf course. But otherwise, the change has been dramatic.
Adams energized the NCHSAA from the beginning. He had a keen sense of people, a fantastic ability to recall names and faces and he connected immediately with the press. He knew how to engage a powerful school superintendent and gently bring that person to his point of view. And he also knew when he’d picked a battle
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By Dane Huffman
Oct 5, 2009
Two weeks ago, North Carolina looked ready for a huge season. But now we know North Carolina’s victory over East Carolina Sept. 19 was a mirage.
Coach Butch Davis said as much Monday. Davis explained at length at his news conference that the Tar Heels needed to simplify their approach, that the new plays they put in for Virginia didn’t work.
A plan, Davis said, isn’t effective if the players aren’t ready to execute it.
But that led to an obvious follow-up question. The Tar Heels knew from the start of fall drills that they had inexperienced receivers and little depth on the offensive line. Given that, I asked, should Carolina have kept it simple from the beginning?
Davis’ response was telling. The Heels were pleased with what they saw in the opening win over The Citadel. And then came the win over Connecticut and what looked like a breakthrough win over ECU.
But that ECU game made Carolina think it was further along than it
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By Dane Huffman
Oct 3, 2009
One of the popular dive bars in Chapel Hill in the 1980s was Troll's, a T-shirt and jeans sort of place where the beer was cheap and the decor was even cheaper.
The walls of the men's room were always splashed with colorful graffiti - amazing what you think of after that second pitcher hits empty. One piece of wall wisdom I remember was "10 biggest lies." Of course, the lies included "The Mercedes is paid for" and others on the raunchy side. But the funniest one was: "Carolina is a national football power."
For a moment, in the early 1980s, Carolina competing on a national stage seemed possible. Dick Crum had Bill Dooley's recruits and a team that included Lawrence Taylor and Kelvin Bryant and others. But all that early promise disappeared faster than a dollar draft.
Those hopes flickered again, under Mack Brown, and now under Butch Davis. But Saturday's disastrous performance was a reminder of how far Carolina has to go - and couldn't
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