If a football game is played, but no fans are around to see it, did it really happen?
The record books show UNC did indeed host Syracuse in the opening game of the 2020 season and won 31-6, but if you ask the fanbases, no one will be able to say they were there. COVID was still raging around the country and the world, and college football programs were forced to take unprecedented actions: staging games with either minimal fan presence or no fans at all.
Carolina did eventually let small numbers of supporters into Kenan Stadium for its remaining home games that season – but in Week 1, the venue was completely empty. Despite well-worn jokes from rival fans, it was the first and – hopefully – last time such a game had ever been played inside the nearly century-old stadium.
Mack Brown has been coaching football longer than any of his current players have been alive, and even he admitted the 2020 game against the Orange was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
“It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen,” Brown said. “The doctors and trainers wouldn’t let us have our pregame in the locker room, or our postgame. Since there was nobody there, we had pregame out on the field and postgame out on the field. Even the parents couldn’t be there.”
One of the only remaining members of the Tar Heels who played meaningful snaps in that game is defensive back Gio Biggers, who snagged an interception late in the blowout win. Biggers recalled a bit of an awkward moment after the play.
“It was weird not having anybody in the stands,” he said. “I remember we had the Turnover Belt during that time, and I instinctively ran over to the stands, but there was nobody there. So I just started celebrating with my teammates.”
The Tar Heels run out of the tunnel before the opening game against Syracuse in 2020. (Image via UNC Athletic Communications/Grant Halverson)
On the sidelines, Brown was no doubt happy with the win, but he said he still found himself ill at ease trying to fire up his team when the roar of the crowd was absent.
“It was worse than a scrimmage,” he said. “There was no emotion. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. I was mad at everybody on the sideline, and they’re looking at me like I’m crazy. Because it was so quiet in that stadium.”
Biggers, whose high school football experience didn’t take him through the larger public schools in Charlotte but instead a private school in the suburbs of Baltimore, said even he was taken aback by the sound of silence inside Kenan.
“It was super different. It was like nothing I’ve experienced before,” he said. “I went to a small high school, and it was not super loud, but it was better than that [day]. Just a weird environment… but I think we made the most of it. I think the team had a lot of good vibes, so it was pretty fun at the same time.”
This Saturday’s tilt with the Orange is a sellout, so it’s safe to say Kenan will be a just bit noisier than it was three years ago. Brown has called upon Carolina fans to show up early, stay late and be loud all throughout the afternoon.
“I can’t wait. It’s gonna be a beautiful day,” Brown said. “I’ve already checked the weather, it’s 70 degrees. It’s gonna be a packed house. College football is fun. And it’s fun for this community and it’s fun for the students. I’ll email or video the students this week and say, ‘Get some rest. I need you to bring it on Saturday.’ And our fans need to do the same.”
Easy to see why Brown was so unsettled by the sights and sounds of an empty stadium three years ago. The only thing the Hall of Famer would like to replicate from that day? A comfortable Carolina victory.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Grant Halverson
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