The No. 10 UNC football team will take the field at Virginia Tech Friday night in front of a national television audience. With the opportunity to announce their team’s presence as a national contender, players like senior linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said they are eager to play their first game in more than eight months.
Gemmel told reporters Monday that the team’s excitement to get the season underway is palpable, even during daily activities.
“We had practice yesterday, on Sunday. We had a padded practice. And you could tell when we went out for practice that day, it felt like game week,” Gemmel said. “Everybody knew it was game week. Even though it was Sunday, the atmosphere around the stadium, even walking in the building before practice, you could tell it was game week.”
Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, one of the loudest stadiums in the ACC, is sold out for Friday night’s game. Gemmel says preparations are being made for the Tar Heels playing in front of their first full crowd in more than 18 months.
“Sometimes we play really loud music in the stadium. Sometimes we just play loud fan noise around Kenan, just to get a little feel to make it difficult for the offense and also for the defense,” the linebacker said. “I know even when we’re on the defensive side of the ball, sometimes the home crowd likes to get quiet for the offense. But playing up there at V-Tech, they don’t get quiet. They stay loud. So I think it’s helping both the offense and defense to get a little noise in the stadium and in the practice facility to help us on Friday.”
The Hokies will send out redshirt junior quarterback Braxton Burmeister as starter Friday night. In last year’s game between the two programs, Burmeister appeared in relief of quarterback Hendon Hooker, who is no longer with the program. Hooker and fellow quarterback Quincy Patterson played a big role in Virginia Tech’s six-overtime win against the Tar Heels in 2019, which was Carolina’s last trip to Lane Stadium.
The sold-out crowd in Blacksburg will likely not let Carolina forget about that memorable encounter, but offensive coordinator Phil Longo said that’s still preferable to empty stadiums.
“After the Syracuse game [in Week 1 of the 2020 season], it was the most eerie feeling I’ve ever had,” Longo told reporters. “We had players run down to the end zone and sing the fight song to nobody. And there was absolutely no noise after the game. It was surreal. I looked at [tight ends coach John] Lilly, I’m like, ‘This feels like a scrimmage or something.’”
Head coach Mack Brown is no stranger to playing in front of sold-out crowds. And like Longo, he said he’s eager to get back out there, even if most of the fans are clad in Hokies apparel.
“I love a great atmosphere. I think it’s a lot harder to prepare a team to go play in front of a half-full stadium,” Brown said. “But to me, that’s a motivator for us. It should be fun. You want to be at a place where they don’t like us. And they’re gonna be mad at us. That’s good. That should be motivation within itself.”
Carolina’s game against Virginia Tech is just the first step in a long journey, which Brown and thousands of Tar Heel fans hope ends in historic accomplishments.
