The back story behind UNC’s famous upset of Miami.

Tonight on 97.9 The Hill, the Miami-Carolina game of October 30, 2004, will be re-aired with Woody Durham and Mick Mixon making the call from Kenan Stadium. I’m sure you remember that game.

The Hurricanes were ranked No. 4 in the country, and the Tar Heels were struggling for the third straight season under John Bunting. After going 8-5, including a win over Auburn in the Peach Bowl his first season, Bunting’s Tar Heels went 2-9 and 3-9 the next two years. And they were 3-4 when Miami came to town.

It was one of the more dramatic games in the history of the old lady in the pines, and Carolina hung in there behind quarterback Darian Durant and running back Chad Scott. The Heels led by a touchdown three times before moving the ball to the U’s 25 with four seconds left and the score tied 28-28.

Connor Barth came on to boot a 42-yard field goal for the win, one of the most memorable kicks in UNC history. Bunting’s team went on to finish 6-6 and go that bowl game in Charlotte. He was fired two seasons later and eventually replaced by Butch Davis.

Had Barth not made that kick and Carolina lost, Bunting would have been fired after the season. UNC reportedly had tentatively offered the job to Steve Spurrier, who had won a national championship at Florida but flamed out in the NFL with the Redskins and wanted back in college ball.

Three days after the Tar Heels drubbed Duke for bowl eligibility, Spurrier accepted the head coaching job at the other Carolina in Columbia, where he remained until his retirement. So, we can ruminate how Barth’s boot might have written a different history.

Spurrier was cocky and incorrigible, but he always believed North Carolina was a gridiron sleeping giant. He would have been successful in Chapel Hill and kept the job long enough for UNC to escape the Davis era that began with so much promise but ended with scandal and an NCAA probation.

As you listen, certainly, some football food for thought.

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