North Carolina State University Athletics
TIM PEELER: Dunlap Still Looking for 'Perfect' Game
11/2/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
BY TIM PEELER
Sophomore quarterback Daniel Evans, who threw game-winning passes to Dunlap on that spot against
But Dunlap, a junior from
“I am not satisfied, but I can’t complain,” said Dunlap, who ranks second for the Wolfpack with 21 receptions this season and has a team-high four touchdown catches. “I feel I am not close to where I should be. I have a long way to go and a lot to learn.
“I still don’t know how good I could be. I haven’t played my best yet. I am still looking for my perfect game. Maybe it will come against Georgia Tech.”
The Wolfpack (3-5 overall, 2-3 ACC) will face the Yellow Jackets at 7 p.m. Saturday at Carter-Finley Stadium, looking to end a three-game losing streak.
For Dunlap, it will be a chance to showcase his still-developing skills against a receiver that he respects tremendously, Georgia Tech junior Calvin Johnson.
“I watch a lot of offensive film, to see a lot of other receivers,” Dunlap said. “I am a huge fan of [Johnson]. If a ball is in the area, he is going to get it. I am my own player, but I love the way he goes and gets the football. He can jump and uses his size great.
“If you are big and you can jump and you can run, shouldn’t anybody be able to stop you.”
Those are some of the same reasons that Dunlap, after spending most of last year recovering from knee surgery, has had a breakout season this fall. At 6-2, 210 pounds, with a basketball player’s leaping ability, Dunlap has turned into a big-play receiver ever since Evans took over the starting quarterback position.
Maybe that’s because he and Evans share a hard-to-define bond, one that was forged three years ago when Dunlap was the only receiver and Evans was the only quarterback in the 2004 signing class.
“We got a lot of reps together then,” Evans said. “I don’t know how other to explain it except that we get along great outside of football. I just feel like we are on the same page on everything.”
Dunlap gives Evans much of the credit for his breakout year, because of his ability to put passes in just the right spot.
“He has been a huge part of my season,” Dunlap says of Evans. “He makes me look better, no question about it, because he always puts the ball in the right place. He puts the ball where if I don’t catch it, there is not going to be a play.”
The two have hooked up for touchdown passes against Southern Mississippi,
But even before then, Dunlap showed signs that he would be a big part of an offense that was thin on receivers when the season began. He had a terrific spring and was named the team’s most improved player.
Much of that had to do with his recovery from knee surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee, an injury he suffered playing pickup basketball on campus just after his freshman season.
Dunlap played in nine games last year, but caught just four passes and was barely a blip on the radar of the Wolfpack offense. His inability to make catches had as much to do with his mental recovery from his injury as any thing else. Sometime in January, just over a year after his surgery, Dunlap started to feel stronger and more confident in his repaired knee.
“I worked really hard over the summer and in the spring to be able to come out and make plays,” Dunlap said. “I ran track. After workouts in the evening, I went back to
“I prayed, I prayed, I prayed. I prayed on everything and thanked God that I am healthy now.”
And ever since Evans took over under center, Dunlap has excelled. He has caught four passes in each of the last two games, and had a career-high 80 yards and the lone touchdown in the Wolfpack’s 14-7 loss at
But Dunlap believes his best games are still ahead of him.
“A goal I have had all for a long time is to be all-ACC and I am not close to that yet,” he said. “If I keep working and praying, then next year I might be there.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
