The hype, which has been beneficial to recruiting in the long run, killed Carolina’s chances at Virginia Tech Friday night.
It unified the orange-clad, near capacity crowd at Lane Stadium, a place where Justin Fuente had been booed and treated so inhospitably that his athletic director held a press conference to announce that Fuente was still the Hokies head coach after they missed a bowl last year for the first time since 1992, ironically, the last time UNC won an opening game on the road against an ACC opponent (Wake Forest).
Remember when Carolina did the same thing after the (3-8) 1999 season with Carl Torbush, who HAD been fired but the school changed its mind? That press conference ended with the AP reporter who broke the original story challenging Torbush for not coming clean on UNC’s reversal.
Fortunately, Carolina football has come a long way since then – through the uneven John Bunting, Butch Davis and Larry Fedora eras, when the few good times all ended in firings like it eventually had with Torbush.
Mack Brown, who is still the active head coach with the best record in college football, attracts attention with his rap. He has a great story to tell and tends to drown out any competing noise. It results in more recruits saying yes than no and putting good products on the field.
It was a difficult week for the 70-year-old head coach, who looked his age on the sideline Friday night. He had lost his younger brother to cancer and, as the game approached, seemed to understand the hype he helped create might hurt his chances to win a critical game against a Coastal Division rival.
Instead of staying in the locker room until just before kickoff, the Tar Heels voted to come out early and soak in the atmosphere as the Hokies took the field to “Enter Sandman” and watch the football-thirsty fans from the COVID season get revved up and never really calm down.
More than 66,000 people, a mostly unmasked maze, rocked the stadium like they were completely oblivious to the possible dangers of their own proximity. Time will tell whether it turns out to be a super-spreader event.
You knew the Tar Heels needed a fast start to cool the crowd, and just the opposite happened. They won the coin toss and chose to defer, which was their first mistake. Virginia Tech has run the ball well the last two years against Carolina and continued by finding huge holes in UNC’s defensive front.
With seven different Hokies touching the ball, they went 75 yards in eight snaps for 7-0 lead, leaving Sam Howell under pressure the rest of the night. Had Carolina chosen to receive the kickoff, Howell might have driven his team to an early lead and put some heat on the Hokies.
As it was, Virginia Tech kept it from becoming another Florida State or Virginia like last year by fumbling after again driving into the red zone. Trey Morrison stripped the ball free and Ja’Qurious Conley, who added a later interception, recovered it. Conley’s six solo tackles led the defense, which tightened up and would hold the Hokies to 43 yards rushing over the last three periods.
The home team almost blew another scoring chance when Tré Turner dropped a pass in the end zone from uber-quick quarterback Braxton Burmeister, who two plays later connected with James Mitchell. Nicknamed The Governor, the All-ACC tight end who’ll be playing on Sundays next season pulled in a high throw that maybe was intended for someone else in the crowded space.
Even with barely nine minutes of possession in the first half, the 14-0 deficit actually seemed okay, since the Tar Heels were getting the ball to start the third quarter. They eventually scored their only touchdown on a 37-yard pass and run to slot speedster Josh Downs to make a comeback doable. The hook-up continued Howell’s streak of throwing at least one scoring pass in every game of his college career and set a new school record of 69.
After the Hokies’ new kicker hit a 48-yard field goal in the second half, he missed a chip shot that would again make it a one-score game when Grayson Atkins converted his only attempt. Carolina had benefitted from another huge fourth-quarter break when Burmeister’s called TD pass in the left corner of the endzone was reviewed and overturned.
It looked like the Tar Heels, who were lethal in most fourth quarters last season, might actually tie the game on their last drive, shades of the 6 overtimes these two teams played on the same field in 2019.
The head coach said he was already thinking about what two-points plays to run if tied after regulation. But Brown’s fears of not being able to replace two RBs and two WRs who were drafted by the NFL proved true.
While transfer Ty Chandler had his second-half moments, finishing with 75 total net yards, he does not look like a replacement for either Michael Carter and Javonte Williams. One performance that went under the radar that Phil Longo will have to consider more closely was the 43 yards from sophomore D.J. Jones, who had the longest run of the game (29) and looked like he has bullet speed.
And the fact that Downs caught eight of Howell’s 17 completions will mean double coverage for the sophomore until junior Emery Simmons (three receptions) and other receivers prove they can make more tough catches than they pulled down in Blacksburg.
Howell, harassed by a defense that out-schemed Longo’s offense much of the night, took more of the blame than was warranted despite his worst game in college (and maybe in high school) with three picks and some bad decisions.
“My team deserves better from me,” Howell said after the 17-10 loss. “I’ve got to give them more, and I will. We can’t let this game define us. It starts with me, and I didn’t play well enough to win. I got frustrated, tried to do too much to make a play. At least now we can relax, not worry about the pressure, go back to work, lock in and get ready for next week.”
Brown wouldn’t let his junior quarterback shoulder all the blame. “We’ve got to do a better job of protecting Sam,” he said of his veteran offensive line that is playing together into a third season but still allowed six sacks on Howell.
“The shine is off,” Mack allowed. “Obviously, the ratings don’t matter tonight. We were overrated with the way we played.”
Carolina will return to its familiar position as a good, but not great, football school, and will have 11 more games to again amend that narrative.
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The crowd at Lane Stadium as the Virginia Tech Hokies defeated the UNC Tar Heels 17-10 in the opening game of the 2021 season. (Photo via WDBJ Sports.)
Featured photo via Robert Willett/The News & Observer.
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