“Wait till next year” was a slogan first used by long-suffering Brooklyn Dodgers fans, as their baseball team struck out to the New York Yankees during the 1940s and ‘50s.
It’s not nearly as oversentimental or apropos for a fan base that has enjoyed 53 assorted
national championships, but Friday’s Military Bowl blitzkrieg of Temple must make the Carolina
faithful want to shout “wait till next year” from the rooftops to the mountain tops.
The Tar Heels’ 55-13 dismantling of an 8-4 team that beat 12-1 Cotton Bowl-attendee Memphis
is the game Mack Brown has desired for the second half of an uneven season. Now that he
got it, his first team of the new decade is sure to be a favorite to win the ACC Coast Division.
Almost everyone is back on a UNC offense that nearly tripled the Owls in total yardage and more
than quadrupled them on the scoreboard. By my calculation, tackle Charlie Heck is the only full-
time starter graduating. Nick Polino, the one-time regular center who returned from a multi-
game injury, is also done. Yes, Antonio Williams leaves a space among the tailback-lets, but
there are plenty of candidates to join the football firm of Javonte and Carter.
And, I guess it’s not too early to seriously say record-smashing quarterback Sam Howell will
begin the 2020 season as a serious candidate for the Heisman Trophy, an award never won by a
UNC player (Choo Choo Justice was runner-up to Doak Walker in 1948, and Don McCauley
finished behind Jim Plunkett, Joe Theismann and Archie Manning in the 1970 voting). Howell’s
freshman season, along with the nationally known Brown, has made Carolina “the cool football
school” that its 68-year-old head coach wants his return to signify.
Add a little serendipity. When UNC decided to replace ugly silver benches in Kenan Stadium
(that gleamed when unoccupied) with light blue chairs, it reduced the capacity from about
63,000 to 50,500. Just as rivals were scoffing about Carolina “downsizing” its football program
came the predictions from marketing gurus that with the rising cost of taking a family to the
game and the startling clarity of UKHD TVs, building smaller venues will become the trend.
The Tar Heels sold out all six home games in Brown’s encore, although a cold rain and small-
college opponent (Mercer) cut the Senior Day crowd at least in half. However, fans who were
there will remember the Miami, App State, Clemson, Duke and Virginia thrillers in a sold-out
house as privileged experiences even though the home team lost three of those games. The
supply-and-demand will make Carolina football tickets an even hotter item moving forward.
Michael Carter crossed the 1,000-yard rushing plateau with 84 against Temple, as did Dazz
Newsome and Dyami Brown on the receiving end of some spectacular catches. Lefty Rontavius
Groves, who completed the “Carolina Special” double-reverse pass to Howell, Beau Corrales,
Antoine Green and Emery Simmons are also back, not to mention red-shirts and recruits we
don’t even know lurking somewhere.
With that kind of offense, who needs a defense? Ask Larry Fedora, but the almost-crippling
injuries that decimated Jay Bateman’s secondary gave green reserves playing time before their
time. Freshmen cornerback Storm Duck took a “Quack 6” home against Temple and safety Don
Chapman led the team in tackles with 10.
And among the eight returning bowl-game starters on defense, should we mention the Surratt
kid, who became one of the top stories in all of football, also has another season to Chazz it up
as the best dadgum linebacker in the ACC? No. 21 made five tackles against Temple, forced an
interception and led the Gatorade bath for Brown in the closing seconds.
The first time Brown was the coaching here, he had dominant Florida State in his way, and he
left top 10 teams behind when he went where he could actually win a national championship.
When he did over Southern Cal in that Game of the Century to end the 2005 college season,
Mack raised the crystal oblong ball above his head and thanked, among others, the Texas high
school coaches for providing him with a majority of his roster.
Who knows, Brown may get his chance to knock new conference-king Clemson of its perch. But
for now, and upon his return, Mack has begun by repeatedly lauding Tar Heel fans for helping
him cure the apathy that drove Fedora out and create a new excitement that may make “wait
till next year” a football slogan in Chapel Hill, one of anticipation more than resignation.
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