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LOWERING THE BOOM: Rugged Houston proves too much for Duke
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Published: November 8, 2009
CHAPEL HILL -- Like many fans, Ryan Houston missed the first play of North Carolina's 19-6 homecoming win over Duke yesterday.
The fans had party excuses and parking excuses. Houston was behind the Carolina bench, adjusting his gear, when starting tailback Shaun Draughn hauled the ball 9 yards.
Houston suddenly heard assistant coaches and teammates calling his name, guiding him toward the huddle. He hurried onto the field, a bit disheveled and utterly unaware of Draughn's shoulder injury.
"I thought something was wrong with his shoe or something," Houston said.
He gained 4 yards on the next play, and for the next three hours Duke defenders wished they could hide Houston's shoes. He trampled the Blue Devils, rushing for a career-high 164 yards on 37 carries and becoming Carolina's 35th 100-yard rusher against Duke.
The Blue Devils ran 19 times for 12 yards. When the stat crew added Houston's 15 receiving yards, he delivered 179 yards in total offense, or 54 more than the entire Duke team.
The 245-pound block of iron from Charlotte's Butler High dipped a shoulder and lowered the boom, time after time. He ran a little left, a little right and a lot up the middle. Some tailbacks dart and sting. Houston is a body puncher. He rams into folks until they start wilting and lose interest in the persistent collisions.
"If you keep pounding and pounding," Houston reasoned, "the hole's going to get bigger."
He blew a crater in Duke's upset plan as the fourth quarter opened. Carolina coaches and quarterback T.J. Yates called Houston's number 10 times in 11 plays, the streak interrupted by a slant pass. He responded with productive dives and a churning 19-yard run, the exhausting body of work transporting the Tar Heels to the 3-yard line.
"He was sucking wind a little bit," Yates said.
Carolina called a timeout, which Houston appreciated. The Blue Devils identified the grass-stained No. 32 jersey before the next snap, but Carolina pulled a fast one. Jheranie Boyd circled all the way around from left end and used Houston's block to score the game's only touchdown, extending the lead to 16-6.
"I didn't get the touchdown," Houston said, "but that was the sweetest block I had."
Houston, a junior, has experienced other sweet moments as the occasional tailback. He buried Georgia Tech last season, gaining his previous high of 74 yards and scoring twice, but his real forte qualifies as a specialty. Houston regularly converts short-yardage situations into touchdowns, his total now at 16.
If you ask Carolina cornerback Deunta Williams, Houston's foremost specialty is beastly punishment. As the game progressed and Houston's hits progressively drained the Blue Devils, giddy Carolina defenders stood on the sideline and played another game. "We were over there trying to guess which guy was going to get run over first," Williams said.
Kyle Jolly, a 310-pound offensive tackle, helped clear the path for Carolina's human ram on a rampage.
"I wouldn't want to be on defense, and I outweigh him," Jolly said. "I think the offensive line wore Duke down, but I also think those kids having to hit him every play -- almost 40 times -- definitely wore them down.
"It's not easy to hit 245 pounds moving that fast."
Houston, comparing his workload to high-school glory days, finally got heavy legs near game's end. His body, unprepared for the most carries by any Tar Heel in 19 seasons, even got sore.
"Yeah," Houston said. "It's a great sore."
He grinned, perhaps imagining how Duke felt.
lrawlings@wsjournal.com.
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