More than the words, the look on Mike O'Cain's face said it all.
O'Cain, North Carolina's offensive coordinator, is as calm and tactful a coach as you'll find in college football. He smiles when you ask him a question. He looks you straight in the eye and talks to you like you're an old high school friend. But when somebody asked O'Cain Saturday to judge the play of Ronald Curry, his starting quarterback, O'Cain didn't look up, didn't smile. He closed his eyes, rubbed his face with his hands and then twisted his expression like somebody who had just eaten a lemon, peel and all.
"Ronald didn't have one of his best games," he said.
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That is gross understatement, and you can be sure that O'Cain knows it. How do you lose a game where you out-gain the other team by over 150 yards? Where your time of possession in the first half is more than double the opponent's? Where you win every major statistical category by a healthy margin? How do you lose?
For North Carolina, you can point at one player. Curry put up respectable statistics - he completed 22 of 39 passes for 223 yards - but, for a man who does everything and anything for the Carolina offense, he played poorly. He was only 5-of-10 on third downs and couldn't find a deep receiver until the final drive of the game, when he hit Alge Crumpler for 26 yards on first down. Curry had two other completions over 20 yards, but one was a screen pass where Bosley Allen did all the work and the other was a short dump-off to Willie Parker that turned into a big gain.
Curry's decision-making was even more damaging. He is one of the fastest players - at any position - in the ACC, and he showed that on several scrambles down the sideline. But as elusive and effective a runner as he is, Curry still got Carolina in trouble. He ran when he didn't need to - as he did on a crucial third down in the third quarter when he was caught scrambling by Devon Simmons - and stayed in the pocket when he should have run. On a fourth-down play early in the fourth quarter, Curry didn't escape when he couldn't find an open man and was sacked by Ljubomir Stamenich. Virginia took possession on downs and seven plays later, put the game away with David Greene's 32-yard field goal.
O'Cain said it himself: "We can have 10 guys play really well on offense, but if Ronald Curry has a bad day, then we have a bad day."
Isn't that what the Virginia fans want to hear? We booed Curry remorselessly for the second time in three years, and, for the second time in three years, Curry had a bad day and North Carolina lost - to Virginia, where he's despised with a passion bordering on insanity.
But Curry will tell you it was "just an ordinary game." That he doesn't care that he once verbally committed here, that he grew up and played high school football with Cavs Donny Green and Ahmad Hawkins, that he will forever be known as the traitor Benedict Curry.
Green, who won two state championships with Curry at Hampton High School, does not feel the same way.
"We don't like Carolina," he said. "One of our teammates made a choice to go there, so we try to gang up on him as much as possible."
I, for one, don't hold the same resentment for Curry. He was the best athlete coming out of high school the year I graduated, and I adored him. I watched him in all-star basketball games in high school and was amazed by his quickness and agility. I wanted to attend Virginia when he committed, and, when he switched to Carolina, I regretted that I hadn't applied there. I've been a Curry apologist for three years, correcting anybody who even dared call him the t-word, but now I know better.
Virginia is better off without him.
Carolina's problems with Curry this season, the first when he's been the Heels' full-time starting quarterback, are partly O'Cain's. Yes, Curry is the type of quarterback you can build an offense around, but that doesn't mean you should. As Curry sinks, so does Carolina, and Saturday, Curry sank.
On the other side, however, Dan Ellis was equally ineffective. He was hobbled by a hamstring that prevented him from even running, much less scrambling. Ellis threw 14 passes and completed only seven for 100 yards, his lowest output of the year. But the Cavs did fine without him. Antwoine Womack, Tavon Mason and Tyree Foreman picked up the offense and, along with a tremendous effort by the defensive secondary, made Curry look the fool.
And you can be sure Donny Green, Ahmad Hawkins and the Virginia faithful reminded him of it. Up in the stands, as fans chanted "Cur-ry! Cur-ry!" somebody held up a sign that read, "Hey Curry, thanks for saving us a scholarship."
Thanks, indeed. On Saturday, he saved Virginia the game.
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