Tar Heels search for its identity after latest victory

Deunta Williams has seen North Carolina turn in performances complete with tough defense and solid offense in wins against East Carolina and Virginia Tech. The safety also has seen days when the Tar Heels’ offense did nothing, or the defense couldn’t protect a big second-half lead.

So which is the real North Carolina?

“I would hope that the real North Carolina is the team we’re playing as right now,” Williams said Monday, four days after the Tar Heels’ road upset of the Hokies.

Then again, the fact that he has to use the words “I would hope” illustrates the problem. The Tar Heels (5-3, 1-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) still are struggling to figure out what kind of team they are heading into the final month of the season, which begins with Saturday’s game against Duke in the first matchup between the nearby rivals in 15 years in which both teams have a winning record.

From there, North Carolina hosts No. 16 Miami, then travels to Boston College and rival N.C. State to close the regular season. It’s a demanding finish for a team still needing two victories to reach bowl eligibility for the second straight season under Butch Davis.

The Tar Heels started 3-0, including a fourth-quarter comeback win at Connecticut followed by a 31-17 victory against the defending Conference USA champion Pirates. That performance seemed to foretell the maturation of a young offense that needed to grow up quickly and help out a stout defense.

But then came a pair of clunkers, starting with a road loss against Georgia Tech followed by a home loss to a then-winless Virginia team that had the home fans booing and heading for the exits early. North Carolina managed a combined 10 points in those games.

Then, after an easy win against FCS team Georgia Southern, North Carolina blew a 24-6 lead in the third quarter against Florida State and lost 30-27 in a nationally televised game that was the first Thursday nighter in Kenan Stadium history.

But the Tar Heels bounced back with the 20-17 win against the Hokies on a last-second field goal, a balanced overall effort that was a lot closer to the East Carolina performance a month earlier. It coincided with the fact that starting center Lowell Dyer was back from a shoulder injury that had sidelined him for several weeks and that tight end Zack Pianalto fully looked recovered from a dislocated ankle suffered in Week 2.

making things easier on quarterback T.J. Yates and the oft-criticized offense.

“Obviously, I think the real team is the one we showed out there on Thursday night,” Yates said. “I think that’s more of us than what we’ve showed in some of these times when we’ve struggled offensively and defensively. We’ve got to be more consistent, especially coming off a big win like that. Come back and being consistent in back-to-back weeks is something we’re really trying to do.”

Davis is hoping his Tar Heels can carry that attitude through this weekend’s game — and maybe another defining performance, too.

“We as coaches always talk about lessons that you learn,” he said. “We got tested against Florida State. When that test comes back one week later (at Virginia Tech), here you’re in the same situation, and probably the one thing that we were able to do was to stay focused and stay in the moment and not look at the scoreboard whether we were up or down.

“Sometimes it’s not as hard to handle adversity as it is to handle success. As I talked to the team, I said ... ‘You’ve got about 10 hours to enjoy that victory, and then you’ve got to put it behind you and move on.’ This is a very critical and important stretch for the rest season, and this will be a big game.”