With just 4:07 left in the third quarter and North Carolina in a dogfight with McNeese State on Saturday night a new jersey trotted out onto the field with the offense.
It wasn't the No. 8 of starting tailback Greg Little and it wasn't the hulking No. 32 of backup Ryan Houston.
Instead it was No. 20 Shaun Draughn a former safety who coach Butch Davis moved to running back before the start of the 2008 season.
Draughn wasted no time making his mark on the game. On his fifth carry with 9:02 remaining in the fourth quarter he cut back and found a seam in McNeese State's defense for a 13-yard scamper to hit paydirt.
Just like that 28-20" UNC.
""That's what we needed" that spark Little said.
And that's when we made that adjustment" when Shaun went into the game and we were able to cut back and get behind their fast flow.
""I felt like for Shaun to just get that game experience and that touch at running back"" that's huge for his confidence.""
Due in no small part to Draughn's contributions to the running game" UNC scored again and cruised to a 35-27 victory.
Though Little spent most of his time with a pack of Cowboy defenders on his back Draughn managed to find holes in the defense and flit through.
The evidence is in the box score. It took Little 14 carries to get 37 yards. Draughn rushed seven times for 30 yards an average of 4.3 yards per carry.
The secret was that Draughn's cut-back running style proved to be exactly what UNC needed to get the speedy McNeese State defense off-balance.
While the bigger Little pounded away running right at the smaller swarming McNeese defenders" Draughn provided the shiftiness to take advantage of the defenders overplaying the running lanes.
""That d-line" I mean they did awesome" Draughn said. We have to give praise where praise is due.""
The redshirt sophomore also managed to avoid any stage fright in his first ever game at running back.
""When I got in I felt like the game speed wasn't as fast as I thought it was going to be"" Draughn said.
I thought people were going to be zooming around like a big blur.""
Despite Draughn's fourth quarter success"" Davis was still less than pleased with the Tar Heel running game overall.
""We've got to do a better job at the point of attack"" Davis said.
We can't have the penetration that we had and not let (our running backs) get to the line of scrimmage.""
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