Longo's Bag Of Tricks Includes A Monsoon

CHAPEL HILL – They call it “Monsoon.”

As nightfall had fully settled in around Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, VA, on Saturday night, Phil Longo reached into his bag of tricks and let ‘er rip.

North Carolina’s offensive coordinator had been waiting a few weeks to use it, and when finally presented with a situation where it made sense, he pulled the trigger.

Setting the stage: The Tar Heels were in possession of the ball with a first-and-10 at their own 32-yard-line and tied 24-24 with Virginia Tech past the mid-point of the fourth quarter. UNC center Brian Anderson snapped the ball to quarterback Sam Howell who handed it off to Michael Carter, who was cutting from right to left in front of Howell.

Carter then flipped the ball to wide receiver Dazz Newsome, who was going left to right behind Carter. Newsome then pitched the ball back to Howell, who set, planted his feet and let loose pass down the middle of the field to a wide open Antoine Green.

Green caught the ball at the Hokies’ 31-yard-line with barely any maroon-clad defender within sight and easily raced into the end zone giving the Tar Heels a 31-24 lead with 5:11 remaining in regulation.

The Heels haven’t run a lot of trick plays this season, but they did then because the perfect opportunity presented itself.

“You have a library of exotics, as I like to call them, or trick plays,” Longo said during his weekly press conference Monday. “Some games you go into the ballgame and a game plan you don’t carry any, you don’t think you need it. Other games you feel like you do.”

It was one of five touchdown passes Howell threw on the day, and the second that went for 40 or more yards.

The staff identified the play a few weeks ago as one the Heels could pull off, so it was installed as part of the game plan prior to the win at Georgia Tech. But Carolina didn’t use it. They saw something in the Hokies, however, that made them think Saturday in the chilly Virginia mountains was the time to strike.

“You go to your library of things and you pull out what you think you have run that’s worked that you have confidence in,” Longo said. “You pull them out and if the team that you’re playing is susceptible to them you choose a few.”

Most of Tech’s defenders bit on the run to Carter and all of them bit on the reverse to Newsome. That left Green standing and essentially waiting for the ball with nary a Hokie within 15 yards of him.

Howell said the time was right.

“We have definitely been working on that play for a really long time," he said following UNC’s 43-41 loss in six overtimes. "We liked it against what they do defensively and Antoine made a good play.”

So how exactly was the pass route designed?

The tight end was the wheel down the sideline, but it ended up going to Green, who was what Longo described on the play as running “the inside vertical.

“He was the one they cut loose, so Sam found him. We hit it as a good time, I thought, in the fourth quarter.”

Carolina lost the game, but monsoon was one of the many plays the Heels made to pick up a win, sans their many mistakes.