CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – For three years, Johnnie Morant has been nothing but a question. Saturday, in Syracuse’s triple-overtime, 49-47 win at North Carolina, Morant finally provided an answer.

SU’s defense – doing a dead-on impersonation of last year’s unit – had just yielded its fourth touchdown pass, giving North Carolina a 34-17 lead with 4:58 left in the third quarter.

Morant took the ensuing kickoff back 52 yards before being corralled out of bounds. Seconds later, he hauled in a perfect pass from quarterback R.J. Anderson for a 48-yard touchdown. Twenty seconds. One hundred yards. One saved game.

‘It was huge,’ Morant said. ‘We were down, and we needed to answer back. It was a great play call.’

Said SU defensive tackle Louis Gachelin: ‘That was the turning point of the game. He finally came through for us.’

The sequence highlighted Morant’s best game as an Orangeman. Morant caught seven passes for 160 yards and a pair of touchdowns – all career highs – and retuned four kickoffs for 152 yards.

‘I haven’t done anything like that since high school,’ said Morant after the game, beaming and dressed in a sterling black suit.

It was the type of performance that’s been expected from him since he stepped foot in Syracuse. But until Saturday, Morant had been letting his immense talent go to waste. Before Saturday, Morant had two touchdowns in his entire career.

‘This was a great day for Johnnie Morant,’ SU head coach Paul Pasqualoni said. ‘What I was happy about is that he touched the ball a lot today.’

Even when he didn’t touch the ball, Morant made a difference. On SU’s last-minute drive, which set up overtime, the Orangemen faced a third-and-17 on their own 44-yard line. On the drive’s most pivotal play, Anderson looked for Morant, who drew a holding penalty on UNC’s Cedrick Holt to keep the march alive.

Morant abused the smaller Holt all game, his play too physical to be bumped at the line and too fast with his loping strides to be blanketed.

‘Once he gets going, you can’t stop him,’ Anderson said. ‘He’s unstoppable.’

Now that it seems Morant has unlocked his potential, maybe the only person who can stop him is himself. Twice, Morant dropped what appeared to be sure touchdowns. The first drop, he had two defenders in his face. The second seemed to be a sure score. Morant had broken behind the Tar Heel defense before Anderson laid a pass in his finger tips, which Morant dropped.

So, even after his finest hour as a collegiate football player, the story is still the same for Morant: There’s room for improvement. But at least now, there’s a glimpse of what’s possible.

Published on September 7, 2003 at 12:00 pm