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Man, oh, man, Charlottesville is the perfect place to flip the script on the season.
The Tar Heels have lost four straight under Mack Brown for the first time in the regular season since 1989. And there would be no better place to break that string than Scott Stadium, which has not been accommodating to them over the years.
Ardent fans often remember the tough losses more than the glorious victories. And one of the biggest nightmares came in 1996 when Brown’s first tenure at Carolina had dreams of winning the national championship going to 7-3 Virginia on ABC national TV.
The 7-1 visitors were seeking their first victory there under Brown, and it looked like they had it in the bag midway through the fourth quarter when they led 17-3 after Dre Blye’s 11th career interception for a touchdown.
And then Brian Simmons picked off Virginia’s fourth pass of the game and returned it to the UVa 10, but it didn’t end there.
The students were so sure their team would lose they finished chugging their mini bottles and hurling them onto the field behind the Carolina bench. Brown said he spent more time trying to protect his players than watching Carolina’s last drive toward the end zone.
Quarterback Chris Keldorf and receiver Octavus Barnes got mixed up on the play call, with Barnes turning the wrong way on his pattern, as Antwan Harris of Raleigh picked off the pass and returned it 95 yards for a touchdown that reignited the Virginia crowd.
UNC got very conservative with its offense trying to run out the clock and instead allowed Virginia to score 10 more points and snatch an improbable 20-17 victory from the certain jaws of defeat.
The Heels finished 10-2 after beating Duke in Durham and West Virginia in the Gator Bowl, but felt like they left something much bigger on the field at UVa. Brown was disconsolate and had a very tough off-season.
They went 11-2 in 1997 before Brown departed for Texas and UNC has had only one 10-win season since under Larry Fedora in 2015.
Carolina, 3-4, and Virginia, 4-3, are out of contention for the ACC championship this season but can still snag bowl bids by getting to six wins overall.
The noon kickoff has been relegated to the CW network, which is fourth on the ACC TV totem poll and it certainly won’t draw an overflow crowd.
Instead of securing something meaningful, it feels more like a salvage job than anything else unless Carolina can use it as a springboard by playing its best game of the season and moving to 4-4.
With trips to Florida State and Boston College and home games against Wake Forest and N.C. State – all beatable foes – the season could still end on a much-needed and surprising uptick.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati
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.
One small modification to your text:
Change:”They went 11-2 in 1997 before Brown departed for Texas and UNC has had only one 10-win season since under Larry Fedora in 2015.”
Change to: before Brown departed for Texas, in the middle of the night, after promising his players two days earlier that he would never leave UNC
As Brown’s reward for disloyalty, Bubba gave him a no-cut $5 million per year contract, and says that Brown can coach at UNC as long as he wants.
The sad state of UNC football will not change until the Big Rams, sing, and Chantsky chants
Yes!!!!
“A Late Surprise, Please!”
Mack, surprise us and resign or retire!
Bubba, surprise us and …. Never mind! That won’t happen!
But why should it?
We’ve got a coach who has beaten Charlotte and NCCU, plus he beat Minnesota for his only real win in the last 10 games. Mack’s the perfect fit for UNC!
Ask any State or Clemson or Virginia, etc fan!
But Art is right. We could win every game remaining on our schedule, as their combined record atrocious.
But we could also lose every game.
I think it will be somewhere in the middle, maybe 3 & 2 (as long as Mack doesn’t have to make any game-deciding decisions!
But if we lose, Mack can blame it on Collins or Lindsey or NIL or injuries or the sun shining in his eyes.
Come on, Man!
That 1996 game has haunted me ever since!! Why in God’s name were we throwing the football at the 10 mid way through the 4th quarter?!?!?!?! I am 64 years old and will NEVER get over that game!! Love reading your articles. GO HEELS!!
Alan, I wasin the stadium that day, having a rollicking good time with all the Woo-Woo fans. When Harris ran it back, the very fine people in Charlottesville poured Jack Daniels on my head. I tried to open my mouth and drink as much of their whiskey as I could
Art’s comment that, “Carolina had dreams of winning the national championship going to 7-3 Virginia on ABC national TV,” is disingenuous. Even though the Tar Heels had but a single loss (UNC was shutout in Tallahassee by FSU) and were highly ranked (No. 6), the number of undefeated teams ahead of them (Florida, FSU, Ohio State and Arizona State, plus 1-loss Nebraska and Colorado) in the rankings (AP/Coaches/BCS) meant the best the Heels could achieve that season – had they won in Charlottesville – was a BCS bowl, not the BCS title game.