North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Lending a Hand to the Offense
11/19/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 19, 2005
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH -- The first time DaJuan Morgan went onto the field Saturday afternoon on the punt coverage team, he came within a few inches of blocking a Middle Tennessee State punt.
"Don't worry," special teams coach Manny Diaz told him, "it will be there again."
Sure enough, the next time Blue Raider kicker Colby Smith backed up for a punt, Morgan ran straight into the backfield, gave the punt protector a quick juke and dived for his attack point. The ball had barely left Smith's foot before it hit Morgan's hands, for his first career punt block, a key play in the Wolfpack's 24-3 victory over MTSU at Carter-Finley Stadium.
"It felt like Christmas, getting that favorite toy that you want," Morgan said. "It was all excitement, joy and happiness at being able to help my team make a big play. It felt real good."
The Wolfpack (5-5) recovered the ball on MTSU's 10-yard line and needed only one play, a toss sweep to the left side by freshman Andre Brown, to score the Wolfpack's first touchdown of the day.
From the moment the ball hit Morgan's hands, he knew it was a momentum-changing play for a Wolfpack team that barely got its hands on the ball at all in the first quarter and was unable to mount much of an offensive threat in the first half.
"Coach (Chuck) Amato always stresses that if we make a play that gives energy to the crowd, then they will give energy back to us. Once I blocked that punt, there was so much energy on the field. That helped give us a spark."
The Wolfpack right back after intermission to score again, with a little help from a big kickoff return by Brown. Sophomore quarterback Marcus Stone led the offense 50 yards in four plays, capping the drive off with a 6-yard scoring pass to tight end T.J. Williams to give the Wolfpack a 17-3 lead.
But the game wasn't over, and there was still an opportunity for someone to step up and make another big play, whether it was on offense, defense or special teams.
As it turns out, Wolfpack linebacker Stephen Tulloch, the 5-10 dynamo who was deemed too short to play at some bigger schools, found himself in the middle of the field in a solo zone coverage. MTSU quarterback Clint Marks lost Tulloch in a crowded seven-back secondary and hit him in the hands with a pass.
Tulloch took off with the ball, and easily out ran Raider wide receiver Taron Henry for a 51-yard return, the first defensive touchdown of the season for the Wolfpack.
"I don't know who was behind me," Tulloch said. "I didn't see anything but green in front of me. I felt him behind me at the end, but it was too late by then, I was already in the end zone.
"I thought back to the Clemson game when I dropped the interception for the touchdown. That could have changed the momentum of that game. It was a plus for our team."
Tulloch, the ACC's second-leading tackler at 11.9 stops per game, has been in the center of everything the Wolfpack defense has done this season, and it's no surprise to Amato.
"Stephen Tulloch is an outstanding football player," Amato said. "He has instincts. He knows where the football is and he goes and gets it. You know what, I'll take all the linebackers in the country that play like him that are that much too short for other schools to give a scholarship to. We have had quite a few of them around here. Levar Fisher was quite a linebacker. Dantonio Burnette is a pretty fair linebacker.
"I'll take them all."
The big plays by Morgan and Tulloch now gives the Wolfpack the opportunity next week in the season-finale game against Maryland to finish the regular-season with a winning record and to become bowl eligible.
"We have two teams coming in here who went to four straight bowl, but didn't go to a bowl game last year," Amato said. "It will be two teams that are going to fight their brains out to get bowl-eligible.
"We told our kids that the game against Middle Tennessee State was the most important game of their lives. After the game, I told them I lied to them, that this next one is."
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
