It’s a Seminole Moment for the Tar Heel Program

It wasn’t long ago that Dean Smith was a coach and North Carolina was a basketball school.

Not this week.

Maybe not this year. Maybe not ever again?

For years, the football Tar Heels cowered in Smith’s long shadow; drawing up game plans in 70-year-old offices while the school

erected a “Dean Dome” for the exalted, and recently retired, Smith.

A victory over Florida State this weekend and the school might have to break ground on “the Mack Shack.”

Saturday may be simply another showdown for No. 2 Florida State, which plays a “game of the century” once or twice a season.

But for No. 5 North Carolina, it’s the defining moment in the school’s football history.

It’s put-up-or-shut-up time. Florida State is 47-1 since joining the Atlantic Coast Conference in 1992. Virginia, not North Carolina, is the “one.”

The Tar Heels are 0-7-1 against the Seminoles, 0-5 since Florida State joined the ACC.

North Carolina so much wants to be like Florida State, it basically has heisted the Seminoles’ blueprint, becoming a mirror of Bobby Bowden’s team.

Tar Heel center Jeff Saturday: “If you cut up the film, our defense and their defense would look almost identical.”

Tar Heel defensive end Greg Ellis: “What people don’t realize is how similar our offenses are.”

Hey, steal from the best, right?

North Carolina Coach Mack Brown is a Florida State graduate, an unabashed Bowden believer and no dummy.

He has been preparing for this game for five-plus years.

Brown understood the ACC changed the day Florida State became a partner.

“You can’t win our league until you beat Florida State,” Brown said last August, only dreaming then his team might be 8-0 this week.

“When I watch film [on a recruit], I say, ‘Can he win the championship?’ And that means, can he beat Florida State? We don’t want to be second anymore.”

Second place is on the line.

The Tar Heels get the Seminoles at home. They’ve seemingly closed the personnel gap, matching the Seminoles, pawn for pawn, on the ACC chessboard.

They even stole Florida-born quarterback Oscar Davenport from the Seminoles.

“I think the big thing Mack wants to know is how far has his program come, and have they reached our level yet,” Bowden said this week. “And they sure look like they have to me.”

If not now, North Carolina, when?

The Tar Heels are 0-28-1 against teams ranked in the AP top five.

One know-nothing national college football writer from Los Angeles has had the audacity to rank North Carolina No. 1 all season in his weekly poll.

Ah, that would be moi.

Last year, North Carolina held Florida State to a 10-year low 213 yards in a 13-0 loss in Tallahassee.

This week, North Carolina has the nation’s second-ranked defense behind Michigan. Florida State ranks fourth, first against the run.

The Tar Heels can’t blow this chance. This is a game great programs win to remain great.

Everything is at stake. Recruits are watching.

A North Carolina victory, plus wins over Clemson and Duke, would put 11-0 Tar Heels in the Orange Bowl on Jan. 2 in a likely national championship matchup against Nebraska.

A half-dozen highly skilled Tar Heels turned down the chance to turn pro this year for the opportunity to line up undefeated against undefeated Florida State on the second Saturday in November.

Ellis was a probable first-round NFL pick. So was linebacker Brian Simmons. “We individually came to the same conclusion,” Ellis says, “but we’re all on the same wavelength. We do want to do something special here.”

They can do something special Saturday.

“Here” is here.

GIVE IT TO THE WOOD-MAN

The Heisman Trophy race is a mess.

Tennessee’s Peyton Manning is coming off his worst weekend in three seasons, an eight-for-25, 126-yard, no-touchdown effort in a win over South Carolina.

Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf passed for 447 yards against Arizona State but fumbled twice late in a 44-31 defeat.

Penn State’s Curtis Enis is closing fast for a top-five team but didn’t have a 100-yard day until the fourth game of the season.

Ricky Williams, the Texas junior not likely to become a senior, leads the nation in rushing and seeks his fifth consecutive 200-yard game this weekend, but the Longhorns are 3-5 and about to jettison their coach.

Marshall’s Randy Moss might shatter every receiving record in the NCAA books, but too many Heisman voters have written him off because he plays in the Mid-American Conference, which can’t seem to shake its second-rate image.

Iowa tailback Tavian Banks was going great guns until he ran into Big Ten defenses.

It is time to settle the chaos and award the Heisman to a guy who might actually be the best player in the country:

Michigan cornerback/receiver Charles Woodson.

Woodson is the most dominant player on the nation’s most dominant defense, at a school that plays the nation’s toughest schedule.

Woodson not only made the play of the year--his one-handed interception against Michigan State--but has been a factor as a receiver.

“I think he’s the greatest player I’ve seen in a really long time,” Penn State’s Enis said. “He’s an amazing, unbelievable athlete. He has every right to win that award. If I was voting, I’d vote for him.”

WHO ARE THESE GUYS?

The starting quarterbacks in Saturday’s two top-five, marquee games--Florida State at North Carolina and Michigan at Penn State--have much in common.

None are superstars, all know the meaning of rejection, and all are undefeated--a cumulative 31-0.

* Davenport, North Carolina. He started the season on the bench behind All-ACC quarterback Chris Keldorf but earned his way into the starting lineup and has secured the job for the Tar Heels’ national title run.

* Thad Busby, Florida State: He was so maligned after going 11-1 and losing the national title to Florida last season that Bowden declared the position open last spring. Busby fought off Dan Kendra and Chris Weinke to keep his job, but Busby still has his detractors.

* Mike McQueary, Penn State: He’s a State College-born, fifth-year senior who had thrown 52 passes before this season. McQueary still runs hot and cold, but the Nittany Lions’ title hopes are in his hands.

* Brian Griese, Michigan. The former walk-on stewed on the bench behind Scott Dreisbach last year, emerging briefly to throw a game-winning touchdown pass against Ohio State. Griese came close to not returning for his final year of eligibility: “I didn’t want to be sitting home this time of year, watching this team playing games like Penn State and Ohio State, and wondering if I could have been part of the team.”

Keen decision.

COACHING WATCH

We can’t imagine a repeat of last year’s carnage, when 24 Division I coaches were either fired or “retired,” but a few famous names are fighting to save their necks:

* John Mackovic, Texas. Saturday’s loss to Baylor probably sealed his fate, despite the fact the 3-5 Longhorns are defending Big 12 champions.

After the Baylor loss, the Austin American-Statesman bannered the headline “The Darkest Hour” over a picture of Mackovic. Intermediaries have sent feelers out to Northwestern Coach Gary Barnett and former Alabama coach Gene Stallings. Stallings is a 100-to-1 longshot, but Barnett has not denied interest. Texas can’t buy out the remainder of Mackovic’s $1.8-million contract, but he could be reassigned.

Texas should make a run at Bobby Stoops, Florida’s defensive coordinator.

* Danny Ford. Word is he’ll step down at Arkansas, with insiders pining for Mississippi’s Tommy Tuberville.

* Dick Tomey. Desert Swarm could be dust at Arizona. Might Larry Smith, in the midst of some miracle working at Missouri, consider returning to Tucson if only to take an annual whack at USC?

* John Robinson. If this is Robinson’s last ride, Mike Garrett should beat a path to the Tennessee Oilers and snatch coach Jeff Fisher, a former USC defensive back. Any short list should also include current NFL head coaches and former USC assistants Dave Wannstedt (Chicago Bears), and Norv Turner (Washington Redskins).

Forget about Arizona State’s Bruce Snyder. He wouldn’t trade next year’s returning talent for all the trinkets in Troy.

COAST TO COAST

* Historical note: Michigan has not won a Big Ten title since Penn State joined the conference in 1993.

* North Carolina’s Brown is sick that Florida State has suddenly discovered a running game with freshman Travis Minor, who hails from Baton Rouge Catholic High, the school that produced Warrick Dunn.

“The first play of the Virginia game, Travis Minor looked like Warrick Dunn,” Brown said of Minor’s 87-yard touchdown run two Saturdays ago. “I had to get up and throw up after watching the thing.” Minor has totaled 347 all-purpose yards and scored six touchdowns the last two games.

* Remember how desperately UCLA and Georgia tried to hire Barnett two years ago? The 10th-ranked Bruins are 7-2 under Bob Toledo and Jim Donnan’s No. 9 Bulldogs are 7-1. Barnett’s team is 3-7.

* With his 38th victory Saturday, Arizona State’s Snyder passed Darryl Rogers on the school’s all-time victory list. Snyder, 38-26 in Tempe, is a distant second to Frank Kush, who was 176-54-1. “I know I’ll never catch Frank,” Snyder says, “but I’ll do what I can to make it harder for someone to finish second.”