CHAPEL HILL -- The first thing new North Carolina coach John Bunting did was take his players' car keys. Then he took them out of their mostly off-campus housing and put them into an empty dormitory for two weeks before the 2001 season. Then he made them walk everywhere together -- to practice, to the dining room, back to the dorm. The next day, the same thing. More walking, more bonding.

More chemistry.

"We've got to bring these guys together," said Bunting, a longtime assistant in the National Football League. "This is the way I know to do it."

	“	The most important thing is to have good chemistry. You can have all the talent in the world, but without good chemistry you're not going to survive. ”
		— Auburn's Tommy Tuberville

Somewhere along the way, something happened. Something unexpected, something merely magical. Somewhere along the way, on the path from the dorm to the dining hall to the football field, the Tar Heels melded together after two fractured seasons under the previous regime -- 3-8 and 6-5 seasons marked by distracting questions about coach Carl Torbush's job security.

"We came together," said receiver Kory Bailey, a senior on that team. "We got close as a group, and if you're close, you can do anything. You definitely won't quit on each other."

The Tar Heels had that chance after an 0-3 start -- losses to then (or future) Top 10 teams Oklahoma, Maryland and Texas. Add to that a quarterback controversy, with freshman Darian Durant nipping at the heels of senior captain Ronald Curry, and North Carolina could have folded like an empty bleacher seat.

Instead the Tar Heels won eight of their next 10 games, capped by a defeat of Auburn in the Peach Bowl. It happened on the field, but it started in August, in training camp, where Bunting introduced the Tar Heels to College Football Chemistry 101.

"I really believe," Bunting said, "that what we went through together, in August, set the tone for what happened the rest of the season."

All over the country, chemistry happens. Or chemistry doesn't happen. When it doesn't happen, it's an ugly thing. Ask Dick Tomey, the Arizona coach. Make that, the former Arizona coach.

It was Tomey who led the Wildcats to one of the greatest seasons in Arizona history in 1998, a 12-1 year that included a Holiday Bowl victory against Nebraska. That season, Tomey juggled a potential quarterback controversy like a giddy circus clown, successfully splitting playing time between Keith Smith and Ortege Jenkins.

"We're fortunate to have one of the best situations in the country," Tomey said after that season, then uttered words of caution, and prophecy. "But that's never the same. Even if you have the same players back, it's not the same. Chemistry changes."

	“	Sometimes chemistry takes care of itself, and sometimes you have to get that chemistry going yourself. That's what we did, and the players believed ”
		— Maryland's Ralph Friedgen

In 1999 Arizona returned 15 starters, including Smith and Jenkins. This time, the system didn't work. A couple of early-season losses caused the players to divide into two groups -- those who felt Smith should start, those who favored Jenkins. Tomey's juggling act smashed into a 6-6 record, followed by a 5-6 mark in 2000 that hastened his exit from Arizona.

"The team chemistry," he said of that 1999 team, "was certainly fractured."

That was the case at Maryland in 2000, where the best player on the team, tailback LaMont Jordan, was embroiled in his usual summer issues of academic and conditioning uncertainty. The 2000 Terps went into mid-August unsure if Jordan, touted as a Heisman candidate, would be eligible. As if that weren't enough, Maryland also was tormented by uncertainty at two other critical positions, head coach and quarterback, where Ron Vanderlinden and Calvin McCall, respectively, weren't exactly inspiring confidence. Jordan played that season, but not up to snuff. McCall eventually lost his job. So did Vanderlinden after the Terps went 5-6.

Enter Ralph Friedgen, the Maryland alumnus with a reputation for offensive architecture and -- even rarer still -- enthusiasm for Terp football. Jordan left for the NFL, and McCall, with eligibility remaining, left to join the Maryland basketball team. That left the team without any of its 2000 leadership, and Friedgen filled the void with booming confidence, demanding his players prepare to win.

"Sometimes chemistry takes care of itself, and sometimes you have to get that chemistry going yourself," Friedgen said. "That's what we did, and the players believed."

Maryland, a preseason pick to finish seventh in the ACC, won 10 games and unseated Florida State as league champion. It was similar to the galvanizing effect Tommy Tuberville, in his second season at Auburn, had on the Tigers in 2000 when they defied preseason expectation by winning nine games. Some people pointed to Auburn's efficiency at tailback. Tuberville pointed to, in a manner of speaking, test tubes.

"The most important thing is to have good chemistry," he said. "You can have all the talent in the world, but without good chemistry you're not going to survive."

Gregg Doyel covers college football for The Charlotte Observer.