Associated Press
CHAPEL HILLó No one could have blamed Cameron Sexton for giving up on football.
His career began in disastrous fashion and made him look ill-suited for playing quarterback at North Carolina or anywhere else in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Then came a coaching change that seemed to have him permanently buried on the depth chart behind younger players, leaving him to watch games from the sideline and ponder whether to transfer.
“I feel like my dreams are kind of falling apart around me,” the junior told his father earlier this year.
Yet somehow, Sexton is still here. Even more surprisingly, the one-time third stringer is suddenly the center of attention after leading the Tar Heels to a fourth-quarter comeback win at Miami ó a performance that rewarded his resolve and made him the starter for this weekend’s game against No. 24 Connecticut.
“I never lost confidence,” he said Monday. “I always believed I’d be back out there.”
Sexton might have been the only one who felt that way. Before Saturday, he was known only as the overwhelmed freshman who lost four of five starts and threw four touchdowns with eight interceptions in 2006, a season that ended with the ouster of coach John Bunting. Once Butch Davis took over, Sexton found himself backing up redshirt freshman T.J. Yates in 2007, and both Yates and redshirt freshman Mike Paulus this year.
But things changed quickly. Yates went down with a broken left ankle in a loss to Virginia Tech, thrusting Paulus into the lineup in the second half against the Hokies and inching Sexton closer to game action.
This time, Sexton was ready when his chance arrived. Replacing an ineffective Paulus, Sexton completed 11 of 19 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns, including the winning 14-yard score to Brooks Foster with 46 seconds left, to cap a comeback from a 14-point deficit and beat the Hurricanes 28-24.
“He’s been extraordinarily humble,” Davis said during his weekly news conference. “Sometimes you have to be very, very careful about labeling any individual early in their career. You look at the situation in which he was trying to operate under (in 2006) and now obviously he’s grown and matured. … He never quit and never backed down on preparing and watching film and going to practice. Whatever reps he got, he took advantage of them. And when his number was called, he delivered.”
Afterward, Sexton stayed busy reading countless congratulatory text messages and enjoying the buzz from a performance that few could have imagined. It was the perfect reward for a player who, despite throwing just one pass last season, decided he “wanted to stay and fight” instead of leave the Tar Heels (3-1).
“I said if I played badly, it wouldn’t change the way anybody felt about me,” Sexton said. “That included my teammates for a completely different reason. If I went out there and played poorly, they’d still love me and they’d still support me. The confidence in me they had kind of carried me through, and I really appreciate that from them. But if I had went out there and stunk, nobody around here would be too worried about it and probably wouldn’t be surprised either.
“I just felt like this may be my last shot. I’m going to make the best out of it. I’m going to play loose and play confident.”
His teammates noticed.
“Just seeing him in the game, all the fun he was having ó he was just walking up and down the sideline (saying), ‘Just keep giving me the ball,”‘ said safety Trimane Goddard, whose end-zone interception in the final seconds sealed the win. “It was fun to see that out of him after what he went through.”
It remains to be seen whether Sexton is a one-hit wonder or has staying power. As with last week, Davis said both quarterbacks will have to be ready to play against the Huskies and need plenty of practice work due to their inexperience. Paulus has struggled in his two outings this year, throwing two interceptions against the Hokies and going 1-for-4 for 10 yards as the starter against the Hurricanes before Sexton took over.
Last week, Paulus and Sexton split the practice reps, with Paulus getting probably 60 percent of the work with the first-team offense compared to the 75 percent that Yates typically received as the full-time starter. Now it’s Sexton turn to get the majority of the work.
“I can’t wait to get out there Tuesday and I’m surely ready for Saturday,” Sexton said, “because I’m having fun playing football again.”