If you come at the king, you best not miss.
For years since their entry into the ACC in 1992, the Florida State Seminoles reigned supreme as the conference’s dominant football team. The Noles won three national titles as league members and regularly pummeled any potential upstarts who dared to challenge the throne.
That included Mack Brown’s Tar Heels of the mid- to late-1990s. Brown, a Florida State alumnus, had transformed Carolina into a contender, but could never quite get the better of his mentor Bobby Bowden’s Seminoles. Brown ended his first tenure in Chapel Hill winless against his alma mater.
Entering the 2016 season, Carolina’s record against Florida State stood at 2-15-1. The only wins came in Chapel Hill in 2001 and in Tallahassee in 2010.
“Everybody was chasing Florida State,” remembered Voice of the Tar Heels Jones Angell. “And that continued for a long time.”
The Tar Heels visited Tallahassee again in 2016 – their first trip down south since that 2010 victory – with a 3-1 record. Quarterback Mitch Trubisky led a high-powered offense, one which had engineered a thrilling comeback against Pittsburgh the weekend before. Despite a Week 1 defeat to Georgia, internal expectations were still high in Chapel Hill.
“Carolina’s intentions were to build off that outstanding 2015 season,” said UNC football historian Lee Pace. “They had two great running backs in T.J. Logan and Elijah Hood. They had great receivers: [Mack] Hollins, Bug Howard and Ryan Switzer. They had a veteran offensive line. They had been stabilized on the defensive side in the two years of [coordinator] Gene Chizik.”
But No. 12 Florida State was just three years removed from a national title and had NFL-bound running back Dalvin Cook toting the rock, not to mention a 22-game winning streak at home. Conventional wisdom said the Seminoles would win once again.
To prepare for the raucous environment in Tallahassee, UNC head coach Larry Fedora instituted a new soundtrack for his team’s practices that week.
“We listened to the Florida State fight song all week long on the loudspeaker,” UNC kicker Nick Weiler told Chapelboro. “Hearing that song over and over again. There’s gonna be swings throughout the game. Just to be prepared for those different momentum shifts.”
But once the ball was kicked off at Doak Campbell, the war chant died out quickly.
“Our entire team felt like we had control of the game the entire game,” Weiler said. “We felt like we were the much better team.”
Carolina erupted to a 21-0 lead within the game’s first 25 minutes, aided by a pair of Logan touchdowns and three missed Seminole field goals. But Florida State punched back, capitalizing on a UNC fumble inside the red zone and a missed field goal from Weiler to cut the lead to 14 points at halftime, seven in the third quarter and – finally – tie the game in the fourth.
Even amid the chaos and cacophony of a rejuvenated Doak Campbell, the UNC sideline wasn’t panicking.
“Watching the scoreboard get tighter and tighter, we felt like it didn’t reflect how we were playing that day,” said Weiler. “I don’t think we ever, as a group, felt like we were out of it.”
The Tar Heels answered, with Trubisky tossing a go-ahead touchdown pass to little-used reserve Thomas Jackson with less than three minutes to go.
But the celebration was short-lived: Weiler’s extra-point attempt was blocked, and Carolina’s lead sat at just six points: 34-28. As if it was scripted, the Seminoles drove down to score the go-ahead touchdown with less than 30 seconds left. It was 35-34 Florida State.
With two timeouts remaining, UNC had a slight heartbeat, but chances were slim. On the sideline, Weiler tried his best to lock back in. His team would need him before the clock struck zero.
“The blocked extra point really ate at me,” remembered Weiler. “I went through a big swing of emotions from that blocked kick being the low of lows to, ‘Alright, I have a chance for redemption.’”
That chance came as the Tar Heels capitalized on a pass interference penalty to move the ball into Seminole territory with four seconds left. It would all come down to a 54-yard field goal from Weiler.
After a timeout, during which he received words of encouragement from Fedora, Trubisky and others, Weiler stepped out onto the field.
“I did feel like when I got out there, I was floating outside of my body, watching it all happen,” he said. “And then the second you get into your routine, it’s all muscle memory at that point.”
Weiler stepped back, took a deep breath, and let it rip. From his vantage point up in the press box, Angell had to wait an agonizing few moments to confirm the outcome.
“I always try and wait to make sure that the officials’ arms go up, or read the body language of the crowd,” he said. “Because you can get fooled, when it’s a close kick, on whether or not that thing goes in or doesn’t go in.”
Even Weiler had to pause a moment to make sure.
“When it’s that long of a kick, your depth perception gets the best of you,” Weiler said. “And you’re wondering, ‘Could that be two yards short? Could it be 10 yards long?’ You’re not really sure. I knew, based on the ball flight, it was gonna go between the uprights. Just, did it have enough leg?”
The celebration was on. As soon as he confirmed the kick was good, Weiler took off straight toward the Seminole sideline. He soon realized he needed to change course.
“I do remember, as I was getting close to the Florida State sideline, thinking in my head, ‘One of these guys might come out and clothesline me if I get too close,’” he said.
Weiler looped toward the end zone, then made his way toward the UNC section. All along the way, he was showing the crowd of more than 77,000 inside Doak Campbell his own version of Florida State’s famous Tomahawk Chop.
“I was planning on jumping into the stands,” Weiler said. “And as I’m running the length of the end zone toward them, a cameraman jumps out in front of me to get a picture. I run him straight over. I fall, the team dogpiles me. I just sprinted 60-70 yards at full speed, adrenaline pumping. I remember thinking, ‘I can’t breathe, I’m literally gonna suffocate down here.’”
Fortunately for Weiler, he was removed from the bottom of the pile and then carried around the field by his jubilant teammates. It wasn’t until the next day, when Weiler finally had the time to scroll through his phone, that he realized he’d quickly become a Tar Heel icon.
“I remember guys showing me tweets from former UNC football players, some famous UNC alums tweeting about it, tweeting about me,” he said. “Some random famous people, whether it was famous athletes or just random pop culture figures, tweeting about the kick, the game and the tomahawk chop. That was all pretty surreal.”
Final score: Carolina 37, Florida State 35. In a bizarre twist of fate, it was the exact same scoreline from UNC’s 2010 win in Tallahassee. That game was also decided on a last-gasp field goal, one which the Seminoles missed.
The 2016 win, Carolina’s third ever against Florida State, is still the last win UNC can claim in the series. The programs have met twice since then, with the Seminoles winning once in Tallahassee and again in Chapel Hill, both times as the underdog.
This year’s edition of Florida State is mired in a miserable season, and would love nothing more than to get one more over on Mack Brown and the Tar Heels. A Carolina victory in Doak Campbell this Saturday wouldn’t be momentous enough to warrant a 54-yard sprinting chop, but it would signify a landmark win for Brown in his tenure in Chapel Hill.
Featured image via Associated Press/Mark Wallheiser
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Wonder why Wieler is not kicking in the NFL.