WINSTON-SALEM – Mack Brown said a lot of things to his Tar Heels at halftime, but had only one question. “Will you fight your guts out in the second half?”
By then, perhaps the most-hyped college football team in America had gone to the dark side, trailing the black-clad Deacons of Wake Forest 21-0 in a half that wasn’t even that close.
To Brown, the most-hyped coach in America since he returned to North Carolina, winning and losing seemed secondary. If his team continued to get humiliated on national television, all the good that had been achieved with wins over South Carolina and Miami might be erased by a dismal performance in its first true road game of the season.
If the Tar Heels laid down in the second half as they had in the first, there would be more to fix than missed blocks and tackles that left Carolina almost impotent in the first 30 minutes at a sold-out BB&T Field. After what would have been another miracle rally fell just short, Brown said, almost relieved, “We can fix what we did wrong in the first half.”
Wrong was not getting a first down in the first quarter, one being earned and lost on Javonte Williams’ fumble after a 17-yard gain. When the Heels finally moved the chains early in the second period, their once-giddy fans, who chanted “Mack is Back” walking into the stadium, gave them a sarcastic standing ovation.
Those who had gotten drunk over unexpected success were now drowning their new reality with beer they could buy from concession stands in lieu of sneaking flasks into the game. One older fan from Mr. Airy left his seat at halftime and seemed to be on his way back up the mountain; but he returned for the third quarter. “No, I’ve seen a lot worse than this over the years,” he said.
UNC doesn’t play Wake Forest in football much these days, and this was the first of a non-conference home-and-home series. Still, several losses to the Deacs this century remained in Carolina’s collective craw – blowing a 24-0 lead to Wake in Kenan Stadium in 2001 and the 31-0 drubbing suffered on this same field in 2002. UNC had also endured a 37-10 loss here in 2007.
Wake coach Dave Clawson seems to be using the same playbook as the revered Jim Grobe, who took Deacons to their last ACC championship and the Orange Bowl. Sign up the best recruits possible and fill the class with 2- and 3-star players he automatically red-shirts into the weight room. If it works, Clawson winds up with a succession of experienced, talented teams. The 2019 edition looks like his best to date, at least in the first half when the Deacs scored three times in about six minutes, beginning with the short field afforded by Williams’ fumble.
The halftime stats were an abomination, two first downs to Wake’s 14 and 71 total yards to the Deacs’ 304. But the defense that had critical stops and stands in the first two games apparently decided to fight its guts out in the second half, holding the hosts to a measly field goal that made the Tar Heels’ odds longer after mounting what can only be called a gallant comeback.
Finally getting on the scoreboard with Noah Ruggles’ 49-yard field goal late in the third quarter, Carolina sprung to life with consecutive 80-yard drives after Wake Forest punts into the end zone.
Key plays on the first were Dyami Brown’s secondary-splitting 55-yard reception and Michael Carter’s relentless 11-yard run to the house. Carter got the second scoring drive started with 50 yards on a draw play up the middle and Brown’s bullet-speed reception for a 17-yard touchdown catch from Sam Howell capped it.
Howell, who at this moment might be sitting in a tub of ice, recovered from hard hits trying to make something happen that forced him to the sideline in favor of Jace Ruder’s first appearance of the season late in the first half.
Ruder got Carolina’s second first down of the game with an athletic bootleg left down the sideline for 22 yards. Would this be the start of the two-quarterback system Mack has talked about and used occasionally in his career? Not after Ruder took a seven-yard sack to kill his second stint and caught offensive coordinator Phil Longo’s ire coming to the sideline.
While the 21-zip score at halftime was daunting based on how the team dressed in all-white played, and a 50-0 final looked likely, the Tar Heels answered Brown’s question affirmatively: fought their guts out.
The two touchdowns and eight-yard two-point conversion pass from a rejuvenated Howell to tight end Garrett Walston (after Mack chewed out the officials for a bogus delay-of game penalty) left Carolina a remarkable three points behind the once-dominant Deacons.
Had Wake’s elusive quarterback Jamie Newman, a hesitating, stutter-stepping version of Le’veon Bell, not eluded a sure sack back at the UNC 40 after getting the decisive drive started with a 27-yard second-down strike, the Tar Heels might have had the ball back with plenty of time and without having to burn all three timeouts. But what is it that they say about “ifs and buts?”
“We didn’t lose; we ran out of time,” was how Brown put it after the emotional second half, when his halftime question was answered affirmatively and just might have saved the season.
If Carolina can defend its home field this Saturday against App State and win at Georgia Tech on October 5, Brown’s boys will have at worst four victories and only two away from an improbable bowl bid in what most thought would be a patchwork season.
The injuries to a thin offensive line keep coming, and opponents now have three game tapes to scout how to defend Howell, so it is clear nothing will be easy from here on out. But because they answered the question and “fought their guts out,” Tar Heel nation still has a lot to cheer about and hope for.
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