In a heart-pounding night at the Old Lady in the Pines, the Tar Heels almost beat themselves, beat App State in the end, and — perhaps most unbelievably — beat the lightning strikes that interrupted games all over the state.
Other happenings you may never see again: Sophomore Drake Maye did not throw a touchdown pass for only the third time in 16 games at Carolina (he threw 38 last season). Also, the team’s leading rusher as a red-shirt freshman did score the ultimate winning touchdown in the second overtime before being stopped in mid-air at the goal line on the required two-point conversion try; Maye was supposedly banned from attempting that dangerous, acrobatic move last season.
Luckily, the defense then stopped the Mounties in UNC’s 30-24 win.
The weather played havoc with the near-capacity crowd at Kenan Stadium after causing a two-hour delay of N.C. State’s eventual loss to Notre Dame in Raleigh. It also paused Wake Forest’s home win over Vanderbilt to demonstrate the storm’s scope. While radar had shown clearing by evening, ominous clouds moved in and hovered most of the second half but never burst.
The Tar Heel woes started early by using a timeout before a second had elapsed in the game. They failed on a fourth down deep in App’s territory, let the Mountaineers escape the shadow of their own goal line with a facemask penalty and TE Kamari Morales dropped a sure touchdown pass in the open field. Both teams were gaining yards but turned in a scoreless, mistake-prone first quarter.
Although Omarion Hampton scored two short touchdowns in the opener against South Carolina, they came after Maye and British Brooks had led drives down the field. This week, sophomore Hampton made like Forrest Gump by racing 68 yards for Carolina’s first touchdown and kept running until he had two more TDs, accumulating 234 yards on the ground. Brooks was a late scratch and did not play.
The Heels were trying to stay unbeaten while snapping a two-game home losing streak to teams playing unknown quarterbacks. The Mounties had the most anonymous of all: a transfer from Diablo Valley (CA) Community College who was as good as the ghosts from Georgia Tech and State that ghouled UNC last year.
For a while, Joey Aguilar was even outplaying Maye, which he’ll be able to tell his grandkids someday. He was making all the right reads and had better first-half stats than his glamour-puss competitor with 139 yards of total offense compared to Maye’s 60. Aguilar’s touchdown pass late in the second quarter gave App a 10-7 lead before Ryan Coe’s 47-yard field goal tied the game at halftime.
But after Aguilar threw for his second score to put the Mounties ahead 17-10, Maye pulled off the play that might have saved the game for his team whose bad tackling from 2022 had suddenly reappeared following 16 stops behind the line of scrimmage against South Carolina.
Facing a 3rd and 4 from his own 31-yard line, Maye avoided a sack and shoveled a first-down pass ahead to Hampton. Eight plays later, Caleb Hood had his first TD of the season subbing for Brooks and tied the game again at 17-all. Had Maye gone down and Carolina punted, App might have taken a decisive two-score lead in a game that neither team led by more than seven points all night.
They traded 10 points down the stretch, with Don Chapman’s key interception as App was driving led to Coe’s second field goal for a 20-17 lead. Maye hit his longest pass of the night, a 57-yarder down the seam to J.J. Jones to set up Hampton’s second touchdown and give Carolina its last lead in regulation.
That helped Maye, who finished with 208, eclipse 200 yards passing in every one of his 16 starts so far at UNC.
Jones and Kobe Paysour combined for 13 catches and 164 yards to pace a receiving corps still without highly publicized Tez Walker, whose No. 9 was labeled onto every UNC helmet in tribute to the ineligible receiver.
When the sackless defense (after nine in the opener) bowed up behind leading tackler Cedric Gray (11 solos) and held App to the tying field goal, it was time for overtime.
The Mounties scored first in OT and kicked the extra point, and Hampton had his third touchdown on a 17-yard run to the house. Grad transfer Coe came on the field to force a second overtime period and knocked the PAT through. He had missed a 39-yard field goal attempt on the last play of regulation. Kicking right into the ready-to-explode student section, he duck-hooked it.
Coe had to be nervous, but an unseemly 10-minute delay for two meaningless reviews and App using its last time out finished off icing the Carolina kicker. The overtime rules call for mandatory two-point try beyond the first extra period, and after Maye raced untouched across the goal line and literally fell a yard short on the conversion, the Tar Heels D stood tallest and forced Aguilar’s overthrow on fourth down to end the game at a now-exhausted Old Lady.
How do you spell R-E-L-I-E-F!
The Tar Heels are 2-0 for the second straight season after snapping six consecutive losses in overtime games dating back to 2015. Mack Brown said he is proud of his kids, but he always likes to say they and the coaches have some things to fix after every game, win or lose, especially with Big Ten bully Minnesota (also 2-0) coming to town Saturday.
The win over App State was more exciting than the Mayo Kickoff Classic, largely because Carolina did not play nearly as well in its second game. So the fix is on.
Photo via AP Photo/Reinhold Matay.
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Aguilar, not “Aguila”
Glorious! Beating an in state school always is.
I was granted a 150 year life span. The Heels have managed to remove 50+ from that, the actual amount yet to be determined…
Another nailbiter! I loved the effort. That being said, on at least 3 occasions App State kickoffs were very short. Each time, the UNC kick returner immediately signaled for a fair catch even though no one was within 25 or 30 yards of them. I thought we lost opportunities for big kickoff returns.Coach’s instruction?
I went to the game with Miss Hathaway while Uncle Jed and Granny watched it on our new color TV set in the billiard room.
Miss Hathaway knows nothing about football but she asked me some real good questions like why all other teams run kickoffs back, why we had to call a timeout before the game even began, and why we put our star quarterback way away from the play when we needed a few short yards twice. I told her that she was almost as smart as me, so I ciphered for her and did some long division and told her that only a Double Naught Spy could answer her questions. My answer: We aren’t very well coached!
She also asked if I’d like for her to put on a Carolina cheerleading outfit, and I said, “Miss Hathaway, please, not while I’m eating!”
Next time I go to a game, I’m gonna buy me some of that beer we shouldn’t be selling at games, instead of a Big Orange Drank, so I won’t see all the bad decisions we make each game!
Funny truth. Awesome. Thanks Jethro!