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By rallying UNC over Miami, Cam Sexton finds he's now the Tar Heels' starting QB. |
BY JIM McCONNELL
Cam Sexton thought his days of meaningful playing time at North Carolina had come to an end last season, when he was beaten out for the starting quarterback job by redshirt freshman T.J. Yates and attempted only one pass in 12 games.
So when opportunity knocked--in the form of Yates' ankle injury against Virginia Tech--Sexton scrambled to open the door.
Third on the depth chart just a couple weeks ago, Sexton came off the bench to replace struggling freshman Mike Paulus last Saturday and led North Carolina to a stirring 28-24 victory over Miami.
He completed 11 of 19 passes for 243 yards and two touchdowns as the Tar Heels rallied from a 14-point deficit and stunned the Hurricanes, who were playing their first home game in Dolphin Stadium.
"Cam's a really good kid," North Carolina coach Butch Davis said during yesterday's weekly ACC coaches teleconference. "As impressive as his performance was during the course of the ball game, I was almost equally as impressed with how humble he was after the game.
"You couldn't ask for a player to handle the situation any better than what he did. I think it speaks to the character and the integrity of the kid that he's handled the last 18 months pretty much exactly the same way."
Davis said that Sexton, who started five games in 2006, clearly had made the most of his practice reps because he was ready to play well when called upon.
"The plays that we ran last week are the plays that we've been running for 18 months. He probably had 300 or 400 opportunities to run a lot of those same plays in two straight spring practices and two training camps and as a backup or third-team quarterback, so now it's just implementing those things," Davis added.
"If he would have wasted that body of work of practice opportunities prior to last week, he probably wouldn't have had the performance that he had."
TACKLING MACHINE
Pronouncing his last name may be more difficult than blocking him, and that's saying something when you're talking about Duke linebacker Michael Tauiliili.
The senior from Houston was named national defensive player of the week by the Walter Camp Football Foundation after recording a career-high 16 tackles in the Blue Devils' 31-3 rout of Virginia last Saturday in Durham, N.C.
Tauiliili also forced a fumble, recovered another and recorded one of his team's four interceptions to help Duke snap a 25-game ACC winless streak.
"He's truly a fierce competitor," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said. "He's not the biggest guy, but he packs a tremendous punch."
Cutcliffe also credited Tauiliili, the ACC's leading tackler, for "buying into" the new coaching staff's emphasis on offseason conditioning--which the first-year head coach said has been vital to the Blue Devils' 3-1 start.
"His intensity in practice probably means more to us than the games, although his contributions have been great," Cutcliffe added. "He's gone from a 255-pound butterball to a 230-pound athlete. People saw his commitment to conditioning and that's made a big difference."
WELCOME BACK
N.C. State's injury-depleted roster got a boost last week when Clem Johnson returned to the field for six plays in the Wolfpack's lopsided loss to South Florida.
Johnson, a junior college transfer, was projected to start at safety this season until he suffered a broken jaw during N.C. State's third preseason scrimmage. After Johnson underwent surgery to stabilize the jaw, Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien said it was unlikely he'd return to the field this season.
But Johnson, who lost 10 to 15 pounds while his jaw was wired shut, quickly regained eight pounds after he was able to eat solid food. Now he needs to get back in game shape so he can add some much-needed depth to the secondary.
"We're starting all over with him," O'Brien said. "We have some time after the game this week and that helps. It's part of a process that's rather difficult going game to game."
Jim McConnell: 540/374-5444
Email: jmcconnell@freelancestar.com
