By Briana Gorman
bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668
CHAPEL HILL -- After spending the past few seasons relying on a group of talented wide receivers to carry much of the offensive load, North Carolina began forging a new identity as a running team in Saturday's season-opening victory over The Citadel.
And even though running back Shaun Draughn deserves much of the credit for helping UNC notch it's biggest day on the ground in the Butch Davis era with 261 yards, just as much credit also belongs to the offensive line.
The lack of depth in the line was well documented in the preseason, but starting right guard Alan Pelc thinks a lot of those questions were answered in Saturday's win. The junior graded out a team-best 90 percent and helped the line give up just one sack. The coaching staff also had enough confidence to have twice as many rushing attempts as passing attempts.
"It definitely set a pretty good tone for us," Pelc said. "It kind of gave us a good stepping stone in the right direction. ...Establishing the running game was huge. We struggled last year sometimes with the running and I really think this year that people know we can run the ball -- we have the line to do it."
But even though UNC's offensive line had a solid first outing, Davis knows his team had a significant size advantage and the competition will only get tougher. The Citadel is a Football Championship Subdivision team that went 4-8 last season. The Tar Heels' next opponent, Connecticut, is a Football Bowl Subdivision team that had three sacks in a win over Ohio on Saturday.
"I mean it was a mismatch in some respects from the standpoint of the guys that we had blocking," Davis said. "We're not going to get very many opportunities like that where physically we're going to outman the other team. Their defensive line was significantly smaller than our offensive line."
Another advantage to Saturday's rout was that the Tar Heels were able to build some offensive-line depth. Ten linemen saw action on at least 12 snaps, and for five of them it was their first collegiate action on the line.
"We felt like we were kind of thin at the line at the very beginning of training camp ... but we definitely established some depth this week," Pelc said. "All those guys that played this week really stepped up to a big stage. ... It's definitely going to help us out in the long run."
Junior backup left guard and left tackle Greg Elleby made his debut after spending the previous seasons as defensive end. Offensive linemen Travis Bond and Brennan Williams were two of 11 true freshmen who saw playing time against The Citadel, and redshirt freshmen Jonathan Cooper and Sam Ellis also got in the game.
"A lot of those young guys that had never even played a snap of college football got out there and did an exceptional job for us," quarterback T.J. Yates said.
Pelc knows the Tar Heels will have more of challenge this week against UConn, but he thinks his team has set a good foundation for building its ground game.
"I think we did a good job," Pelc said. "It was one of those things where we're trying to establish an identity in the running game this year and I think Shaun did a fantastic job, the line did a great job. We definitely have a lot of work to do and hope to do a lot better in the upcoming games."
