Three Clemson football players were sent home before the Orange Bowl national semifinal for failing a drug test. Well, the entire Baylor team should have been tested for speed after running through and past the Tar Heel defense for an embarrassing post-season record of 645 yards on 84 rushing plays.

Marquise WIlliams vs Baylor

Marquise Williams runs against the Baylor Bears in the Russell Athletic Bowl. (Photo via Smith Cameron Photography)

The Baylor Bears are mis-named. TCU teams are the Horned Frogs, but Baylor is more like the really fast frogs. How many times did their runners actually stop at the line of scrimmage, eyeball the opening and then dart through it to the secondary where they fired the after-burners and were gone? Those fast frogs had runs of 14, 15, 19, 27, 28, 37 and 41 yards.

And that was only the first half. In the second half, the 80-yard touchdown jaunt by converted quarterback Johnny Jefferson was the killer because it followed T.J. Logan’s fumble at the goal line after Elijah Hood had a 67-yard burst to apparently make it a game again. Instead of trailing by four, the Tar Heels were down 18 late in the third quarter, a critical 14-point swing.

Ball game, as they say.

Baylor may have discovered a brand new offense after having three weeks to figure out how to play without its first two quarterbacks, leading receiver and starting tailback, all felled by injuries. Coach Art Briles, perhaps the best offensive mind in the game today, decided his bullet Bears could run on the Tar Heels from a variety of wildcat formations with up to six different players taking the snap, running options, reverses and quarterback keepers, whoever the hell the quarterback was at that time.

Guaranteed, that offense will be part of Baylor’s attack next season and for as long as Briles has a stable of sprinters. Run some different guys out there, and before the other team figures out who to cover the ball is snapped and one of them is off to the races. The Tar Heels like to play that way, but the Baylor Bears are still in another league.

Not to say Carolina could not have won, just as it could have beaten Clemson back on December 5. But the Heels had to play mistake-free football.  They had score on just about every possession because the other team was a threat to, which is why Logan’s fumble was so crucial.

Gene Chizik has some work to do with that defense, which looked a step slow in the secondary and weaker along the interior lines. He could have loaded the box with nine players, daring Baylor to pass, and still not stopped its running game.  At least the Tar Heels got a bird’s eye view of the team they want to be, the kind of team that sets the Big 12 apart as the fastest league in football. It looks like Briles recruits speed demons and then teaches them how play football. Obviously, most learn well.

The Russell Athletic Bowl was not without its questionable calls by the officials, who will all be glad when his season finally ends. They ruled a botched Baylor pitch on a reverse as an incomplete forward pass instead of a UNC fumble recovery. They ejected Mack Hollins on a spearing call that was as much shoulder as helmet. They picked up the flag on a launch-pad hit on Ryan Switzer, who came up seeing stars. They let a chippy game almost get out of control between yapping receivers and defensive backs and verbal assaults from the boisterous Baylor sideline.

And Carolina penalized itself by running into the kicker on Baylor’s only punt of the night, giving the Bears a first down they turned into another touchdown with minutes.

Landon Turner

Senior offensive guard Landon Turner waves goodbye as he exits the field for the last time as a Tar Heel. [Photo by Smith Cameron Photography]

Carolina had many big plays of its own but, in the last two games, clearly lost the consistency that had sparked the 11 straight wins. Led by Marquise Williams, UNC set season records for most points (570), points per game (40.7), yards of total offense (6,817), yards per game (486.9), yards per play (7.3), touchdowns (73), first downs (335), yards rushing (3,142), yards per rush (6.0), rushing touchdowns (40), yards passing (3,675) and touchdown passes (31).

Place-kicker Nick Weiler set a UNC single-season record with 127 points, breaking the 1970 mark of tailback Don McCauley (126).  Weiler converted 20 field goals and made all 67 extra point attempts (also a single-season school record).  Against Baylor, he made a 32-yard field goal and all five PATs to edge past McCauley.

Williams holds a bevy of school records and finished near the top in several ACC categories. His rise from an ineligible red-shirt freshman to an electrifying runner and passer took the Tar Heels to a new level on offense. Now, the ball goes to rising junior Mitch Trubisky, who some say is a superior passer if not as explosive a runner as the Marquis de Sod.

The schedule was clearly the culprit in determining just how good this 11-3 UNC football team was. After finishing this season against top-ranked Clemson and Baylor (healthy, one of the best teams in the country), the Tar Heels open in 2016 against Georgia in the Georgia Dome. The Bulldogs have a new coach in Kirby Smart, but Georgia is always Georgia.

Then comes a return visit to Illinois and two more FCS opponents, James Madison coached by former Carolina interim Everett Withers, and The Citadel, which was good enough to do what the Tar Heels couldn’t (beat a bad South Carolina team). Without a doubt, the game that will give Fedora’s fifth team its best chance to climb in the CFP standings is against Florida State in Tallahassee.

Before then, plenty of work remains to restock a high-flying offense and get the defense, which is also losing several key payers, to take the next step. As seen against Baylor, neither side of the ball is quite up to speed.