Team struggles to replace Tate’s impact

The numbers don’t lie. Brandon Tate leaves behind some large cleats to fill.

Those shoes covered some 4,756 yards and scored 96 points in his four-year career at UNC, including an NCAA-record 3,523 return yards.

Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, those shoes will not be laced up for the blue and white anymore after Tate tore his ACL and MCL on a punt return against Notre Dame two weeks ago.

He was the big play threat, dancing down the sidelines and in the nightmares of cornerbacks and punters alike, and he even accounted for 143 rushing yards this season.

“We don’t have another Brandon Tate,” head coach Butch Davis said. “There’s not another guy in the program that you could just say, ‘Here’s our punt returner, kick returner, starting wide receiver.’”

UNC’s first performance without Tate was a surprising loss to Virginia in Charlottesville, and it appeared that the team missed No. 87, both on offense and in the return game.

The Tar Heels played like it, too, amassing 46 return yards and 76 receiving yards to accompany Hakeem Nicks’ 90.

A few offensive players even wrote Tate’s number on their eye-black.

If the Tar Heels want to bounce back against Boston College, they know they will have to find alternate sources to get the yardage that Tate piled up so efficiently.

The names are varied. Some are more familiar — Greg Little, Shaun Draughn— than others — Cooter Arnold, Kendric Burney, Brooks Foster — but they will all be counted on to step up in Tate’s absence.

“Basically what we’re doing now is just utilizing more people, to make up for the yards,” Arnold said.

Tate’s biggest impact was in the return game as he made covering every return a challenge for opponents. Six times in his career, he took a kick all the way back for a touchdown.

Burney, who replaced Tate returning punts, said he never took back a punt for a touchdown in high school, the last time he handled the return duties.

His first stint was hardly a tour-de-force as he totalled five return yards on two attempts against Virginia.

“Nobody’s going to be like Brandon Tate. He’s a special player and he does special things,” Burney said.

“I’m just going to go out there and do the best I can, and hopefully that’s good enough for the team.”

The kick return duties will be shared by Nicks and Johnny White.

And the offense will turn to a few different faces in new places.

Having faltered as the running back, Little has been moved back to receiver, and the coaching staff is still looking for ways to get him the ball.

“It would be easy to say lets just  promote the next guy at the next position,” Davis said.

“But sometimes that doesn’t get your best eleven guys on the field, and certainly Greg is one of the best offensive weapons that we’ve got, and he can help alleviate some of the sting of losing Brandon Tate.”

Another method, one that showed some promise for the Tar Heels last week, was running the ball as Draughn manufactured 138 yards on the ground.

The Tar Heels could use the  added ground presence to draw defenses in closer to the line, which could pay dividends for Nicks, Arnold and Foster through the air.

Nicks figures to get more balls thrown his way, but even with the added workload, someone else has to step up.

With Tate’s cleats picking up dust in his locker, one has to wonder which of his teammates will try walking in his shoes.