Carolina suffered another disappointing loss followed by a true tragedy reminding us that football is just a game.
Mack Brown was crying after the 41-34 shocker to Georgia Tech, but he wasn’t weeping about his teams’ fourth straight loss of the season and fourth consecutive defeat to the Yellow Jackets, which put their bowl prospects in further jeopardy.
Really, what does making another bowl matter to the Tar Heels compared to losing one of their own teammates to a disease he had been fighting valiantly for more than two years?
Brown said the death of 23-year-old Tylee Craft to lung cancer Saturday morning crushed his team far more than tying the score late in the game on a dramatic comeback that eventually fell short.
“J.J. Jones was crying,” the head coach said of his senior wide receiver, who had one of his best games with three catches for 64 yards and a touchdown. “There were kids crying when I walked back down there. I thought we were going to win the game, what a wonderful tribute that would be to Tylee although we didn’t know he had passed at that time.”
It was already Cancer Awareness and Healthcare Appreciation Day at Kenan Stadium, where more than football is celebrated for our cancer survivors, military veterans, local heroes and other deserving recipients.
Craft was apparently in hospice care and expected to die soon; the program held an emotional tribute to the former receiver, his family and friends on the field at the end of the first quarter. Brown, his wife Sally and most of the football staff wore shirts with Tylee’s No. 13 in a circle. Jones changed his No. 5 to wear Craft’s number for the game.
But having that news delivered after they trudged off the field with another loss gave Brown a higher duty than talking to his players and the press about football results.
“I usually hide my emotions the best I can, because I have to be somebody else,” the 73-year-old Brown said. “You kick into a mode of doing whatever you need to do at that time to make it.”
It may have happened since then, but the only player I remember dying while an active member of the football team was in 1971, when a lineman named Bill Arnold collapsed during a hot preseason practice, lapsed into a coma and died two weeks later.
That, too, devastated UNC athletics, and the controversy that ensued led to Carolina building one of the best sports medicine departments in the country, monitoring weather and practice conditions more closely. Fifty-plus years later, the reaction of players and coaches is the same in team sports when they all see one of their own lose his or her life.
“This young man fought so hard for his last two and a half years,” Brown said. “The doctors told us he outlived what he should have. And he did it with a smile on his face, he didn’t miss a meeting, he didn’t miss a practice, he coached these other young people.”
North Carolina wide receiver Tylee Craft (13) walks the bench during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Minnesota, Sept. 16, 2023, in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Photo via AP Photo/Reinhold Matay.)
Craft’s condition forced him to medically retire as a player and become a student coach. And his presence with the team and sometimes in public were signs of his fight to survive. Brown named the annual spring game last April in honor of him.
Who knows how long the hangover will get in the way of the last five games of the regular season. Fortunately, the 3-4 Heels have an off week before visiting Virginia (4-2) on October 26.
There was improvement for Carolina, and before Brown resurfaces in public next week the players will find out how well they can deal with losing one of their own.
“More than ever, I’ve got to step up and be stronger for them and make sure I can help manage and move forward with their lives,” added Brown, who lost a current and former player when he was at Texas. “I told them, I had one team win 13 games and they didn’t learn as many life lessons as this team will.”
The solemn reaction began after Carolina had scored 10 points in three minutes to forge a 34-34 tie on Criswell’s sneak across for his second touchdown and Noah Burnette’s second field goal with 44 seconds left in the game.
Georgia Tech (5-2) gained three yards on its first play and then running back Jamal Haynes found a gaping hole in the defense and raced 68 yards nearly untouched to snatch the victory.
Georgia Tech running back Jamal Haynes (11) outruns North Carolina defensive back Alijah Huzzie (28) to score the winning touchdown on a long run in the closing seconds of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024, in Chapel Hill, N.C. (Photo via AP Photo/Chris Seward.)
Carolina would have had the advantage in overtime since the Jackets lost their star quarterback Haynes King to a late injury and he never returned to the game. His back-up Zach Pyron is not a threat like King, who had 234 total yards and two rushing touchdowns before going out.
The Tar Heels had only three penalties — but two were drive-killers, which kept them from staying with Tech’s 505 yards of total offense, 371 on the ground in its run-pass-option. And UNC lost two fumbles while forcing no turnovers by Georgia Tech.
Carolina battled back behind 282 yards and three touchdowns (two running) by improving quarterback Jacolby Criswell and 137 yards from Omarion Hampton, including a collegiate career-long 71-yard scamper to the red zone in the first quarter that set up Criswell’s TD pass to Jones. That came after Burnette’s 50-yard field goal cut the deficit to three points before the visitors quickly drove down the field for a field goal with three seconds left in the half.
The second half was a mini shootout, with Carolina outscoring Tech 20-14 until Haynes’ unbelievable breakaway that left the Tar Heels and stadium stunned.
Soon it turned to sadness when we all found out about Tylee.
“What we all have to do is wake up and be happier and make sure that we reach out and help other people, and that’s what cancer awareness games are all about,” Brown said. “If we’d won the game, they would have been so high and celebrating; it was going to be a downer when we told them they had lost their friend. It’s a hard thing either way.”
Featured image via AP Photo/Chris Seward.
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
Sad news it was. It puts the game in perspective. It is a game, one we hold dear, but just a game.
RIP, Tylee, you gave it everything you could.