Art’s Angle: Network Needs Work

What can you say about the ACC Network? A lot.

Carolina’s first appearance on the ACC’s new baby had been sparsely distributed as more than 50,500 people jammed into Kenan Stadium for the dramatic win over Miami. With more cable carriers on board, Saturday was the unofficial official debut of the ACC Network in North Carolina with a UNC-Duke doubleheader.

The Tar Heels ran away from Georgia Tech, which despite changing head coaches and offensive schemes is still challenged moving the football.

The Yellow Jackets did score 22 points in their fourth loss of the season, but their last 15 came in elongated garbage time against reserve defenders. The emerging Chazz Surratt led all starters with 12 tackles.

Carolina could have been further ahead than 17-0 at the half if not for several dropped passes at the goal line from Sam Howell, who also missed a few open receivers in wide-open spaces. Mack Brown’s team reached the midway point of the season and a much-needed off week with a 3-3 record by answering his challenge to play as passionately as it had in the loss to Clemson.

The execution was sloppier and the opponent not even close, but the Heels controlled the both lines of scrimmage with beefy linemen. 

Howell and Javonte Williams combined for 520 total yards, each averaging more the seven yards per throw and run while accounting for all five UNC touchdowns. The Heels ran 97 plays from scrimmage to just 53 for the mostly hapless Yellow Jackets.

The solid showing from a thin squad sent a strong message to the rest of the Coastal Division for the remaining games, beginning with a October 19 visit to enigmatic Virginia Tech. The Hokies got blown out by Duke in the second half and blew out Miami in the first half in the last two weeks.

Watching on TV, Carolina-Georgia Tech in Atlanta had a strangely familiar feeling to it. The ACC Network broadcast was called by Wes Durham, who has been dubbed by some media “Voice of the ACC” after his late dad, Woody, was the Tar Heels’ voice for 40 years.

Wes was also “Voice of the Yellow Jackets” for 18 years and his sidekick for this game was former Tech team captain Roddy Jones. The ACC Network aired old clips of Woody describing Roddy, which sounded just like Wes.

Howell — who needs to play every snap since his current back-up is a walk-on true freshman — was mostly spectacular, upping his freshman highs with 360 yards and four touchdown passes. The numbers might have been Earth-shattering if receivers Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome didn’t drop easy passes in the end zone and Howell had hit open wide-outs on several other long bombs.

Granted the ACC Network is in its first season and struggling to pull in the projected revenue that is supposed to markedly increase distribution dollars to member schools.

However, split screen production and camera work isn’t close to its ESPN parent. Advertising must be very slow if so many commercials are direct solicitations from My Pillow and Night Hero Binoculars, where you could get two for the price of one, and Granite Stone frying pans were absolutely FREE, if “you call this number right now.”

They did get halftime and post-game interviews with Brown, who seems to enjoy any victory more than his edgy old self and shared a happy hug with Sparky Woods, one of his three “senior advisors” as the final seconds ticked off the clock. Again, you cannot minimize UNC’s good fortune in having Brown back to right the ship in Chapel Hill.

After about an hour break, Duke kicked off against Pitt at a pathetically empty Wade Stadium in Durham, and this broadcast was almost as disjointed as the game that unfolded. The play-by-play guy was Dave O’Brien, voice of the Boston Red Sox, who took the ACC Network gig after his baseball team failed to even attempt defending its World Series championship,

The Blue Devils look completely different without Giants’ rookie sensation Daniel Jones at quarterback. They were awful in the first half, and the Panthers were equally awful for most of the second half, with the teams combining for ten turnovers.

Doesn’t it seem that whenever Duke plays a home game at night on TV there if an officiating mess?

This one was a tying two-point conversion turned into a do-over while the teams lined up for the ensuing kickoff and officials talked to the head coaches on both sidelines. New Duke quarterback Quentin Harris appeared to be stopped on a keeper until a massive offensive lineman shoved him across the goal line.

One ref signaled “no good” and “good” while the other officials raised both arms as Harris was body banged into the end zone. Almost as bizarre as the college version of the Miami Miracle a few years ago.

It didn’t matter at the end, which was very exciting. Duke got the ball back and scored on a long pass up the middle of the field to take a four-point lead. The drive was kept alive on a terrible targeting call against a Pitt defender who left the field cursing the officials and the Duke fans cheering his ejection.

But the Panthers, who once led 26-3, got the last laugh, going 82 yards to score the winner after barely being able to get a first down for most of the third and fourth quarters. Head coach Pat Narduzzi hugged the neck and kissed the cheek of the hero receiver who was left wide open in the middle of the field by a faked-out Duke defense.

The 33-30 victory was Pitt’s fifth straight against the Blue Devils. Ironically, the Panthers will carry a six-game losing streak with UNC into their November 14 game at Pitt two and a half weeks after the Tar Heels try beat Duke for the first time in four years on October 26 in their return to Kenan Stadium.

Hopefully, neither game will be carried by the ACC Network, which still has some work to do.