bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. -- It took the North Carolina offense three quarters to get going in Saturday's win over Connecticut, and the biggest difference on the final two scoring drives of the game was the play off the offensive line.
"We weren't necessarily getting on the right guys [the first three quarters], and then we started getting on our guys and pushing them back and just getting a little push on it," senior left tackle Kyle Jolly said. "And then once we got to those last two drives, we looked at ourselves and went, 'All right, let's go, we've got to score here, this is all heart.' "
In the first three quarters of Saturday's game, quarterback T.J. Yates was sacked six times and never seemed to have enough time in the pocket. But in the fourth quarter, Yates wasn't sacked and had plenty of time to account for 97 of his 233 passing yards.
The offensive line also finally opened some holes in the final quarter, as running back Ryan Houston had 32 yards rushing in the final scoring drive after UNC was held to 2 yards in the first three quarters.
The Tar Heels still finished the game with 35 rushing yards, a week after gaining the most rushing yards in the Butch Davis era with 261. Junior Shaun Draughn had 118 yards in the opener against The Citadel but finished with just 21 against the Huskies.
"It's Connecticut. You can put UConn, period," Davis said. "It had not much to do with anything else other than they're a very, very fundamentally sound and well coached team."
Even though Davis said UConn's defense was the reason for the poor ground effort -- the Huskies' defense was sixth in the nation in 2008 -- UNC also was missing two starting offensive linemen.
Junior Cam Holland started in place of senior Lowell Dyer, who was out with a shoulder injury, and junior Greg Elleby replaced starting left guard Jonathan Cooper, who has an ankle injury.
Jolly said having some new starters threw the line off a little bit, but mostly he thought the Tar Heels came out too flat. He said the experience the younger players gained will only benefit UNC down the road.
"We know we'll have Greg and Cam once Lowell and Cooper come back," Jolly said. "They'll be able to step in, and we won't have to worry about them at all."
Houston said the changes in the offensive line were part of the reason for UNC's early struggles, but he said they stepped up at the end of the game.
"We got a couple guys banged up and sick on the offensive line, and it just took us a minute to gel," Houston said. "But you've just got to be patient with the reads, and I got faith in our linemen."
