Art’s Angle: Striped And Steamy

A festive night in Kenan Stadium turned frustrating before one of six seniors in the UNC lineup saved the day and, in the process, might have saved the season.

The opponent was San Diego State on a night when Carolina cleverly staged a stripe-out from alternating black-and-blue dressed sections of Kenan Stadium to the black-clad Tar Pit of students who came early and stayed to sing the alma mater with the team. Even the Tar Heels wore black jerseys and blue pants.

This was a no-win situation for the Heels who, frankly, won luckily when senior safety Tim Scott made an acrobatic interception in the corner of the end zone with only 00:12 to play. It was the second time San Diego State drove the length of the field only to be jilted at the altar.

The Aztecs from the Mountain West Conference were far better than advertised, and their 509 yards of total offense attest to that. But the 21^st-ranked Heels were plagued by missed tackles, blown coverages and a couple of costly penalties, and in the 90-degree heat were substituting 6 or 7 defensemen at a time.

Favored to win, a loss would have sent them reeling to Greenville (North Carolina) and Clemson (South Carolina) as underdogs in their next two games, facing the prospect of a second straight slow start to a season with such promise.

Carolina barely mustered 100 yards of total offense in the first half and would have trailed by more than 14-7 had Brian Walker (one of the suspended four) not picked off a pass pressured by Jeff Schoettmer and returned it from one goal line to the other. Including the yards in both end zones that Walker covered, it was more than a stilted Tar Heel attack could manage all half.

“First of all,” said Larry Fedora when asked about it on his way to the locker room, “we didn’t do a damn thing on offense. And we’ve got to fix that.”

They did, but not before the Aztecs went up by two touchdowns. Carolina, which had already missed a field goal (presumably costing Chapel Hill’s Thomas Moore his place-kicking job), drove 65 yards on five Marquise Williams completions, the last to Quinshad Davis to narrow the gap to seven points.

With the deficit back to 10 early in the fourth quarter, Williams reared back and lofted a 91-yard touchdown bomb to speedy sophomore Mack Hollins, who had blown by his defender at midfield. “Mack kept telling me to throw it up and he would catch it,” Williams said after the game. “So I did. That play was all Mack Hollins.”

The longest UNC TD pass in Kenan history kept Carolina in striking distance but did not keep a good portion of the crowd from leaving the steamy stadium. Those who walked out missed an amped-up two-minute scoring drive, a horribly botched third-down play that left the Aztecs some life in the final minutes, and Scott’s gem to snatch victory from what was certainly the jaws of defeat.

That last Tar Heel touchdown drive solidified the quarterback job for Williams, who seemed to struggle when alternating with red-shirt freshman Mitch Trubisky. Williams played all but one series in the game (that one ending with Trubisky’s tipped interception) and racked up impressive yardage, 63 by land and 255 by air, with no turnovers.

On their last scoring march, ‘Quise threw for 65 yards and ran for another 19 before freshman Elijah Hood notched his first college touchdown to give Carolina its first lead since Walker’s first quarter cross country jaunt.

And when Walker picked off his second pass and returned it 26 yards, the Tar Heels were back in the San Diego State red zone, ready to put this one on ice. On third and one from the five-yard line, with a bruising quarterback and a bruising tailback lined up to go first and goal, Williams instead threw a sideline screen pass to Bug Howard that fell incomplete.

Phones across Tar Heel Nation blew up with texts and tweets to FIRE FEDORA! Carolina settled for freshman Nick Weiler’s first college field goal and held a 31-27 lead, but was about to hold on for dear life.

Before anyone FIRES FEDORA, his quarterback fell on the sword after the game, saying he had the option to hand it to Hood or pull the ball out and throw it to Howard, which he did. “That one’s on me,” Williams said, “I got greedy. Should have given it to Elijah.”

So down the field went the visitors, racing the clock and churning up turf. Aztecs quarterback Quinn Kaehler, who threw for 341 yards, drove them into the UNC red zone in less than four minutes and faced a first-and-goal at the 3 with 14 seconds left and his team still having two timeouts. Clearly, it looked like the Tar Heels were toast and Fedora’s honeymoon period was about to end.

Then Kaehler’s end zone pass was swiped by a diving Scott, who managed to keep one foot in bounds. As he got up and ran the ball all the way to the Tar Pit, officials were reviewing – and upholding – the interception.

It was a close call, as was the game. The relieved Tar Heels rejoiced with the students and, after singing “Hark The Sound,” did their version of the Lambeau Leap by jumping over the wall to mug for their peers. Call it the Kenan Klimb.