This Time Around, Carolina Really Gets to Celebrate

The Tar Heels are bowl eligible for the first time since 2016

Rob Kinnan | USA TODAY Sports

RALEIGH — This time around, North Carolina was actually celebrating.

That’s the difference one year made for the Tar Heels, who after suffering an embarrassing ending to a disappointing season in 2018, completed their turnaround with a 41-10 victory over N.C. State to reach bowl eligibility on Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium.

It’s a long way from last season, when after losing a third straight game to the Wolfpack, former coach Larry Fedora said his team was “celebrating” in the end zone rather than addressing the fracas the Tar Heels had been involved in.

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This time around, there was no need for misdirection about what did or didn’t happen after time expired.

It was a full-on party in front of Finley Fieldhouse, with defensive line coach Tim Cross losing himself in the emotion of the moment as he fired up the section of fans that hung around cheering.

The offensive line posed for group photos with coach Stacy Searels while Mack Brown received a thunderous send-off as he headed for the tunnel, now the savior of Carolina football for the second time in his career.

After five wins over the past two seasons, Brown’s group went out and got six in the first season of his rebuild to send Carolina to its first bowl game since 2016.

“It means everything,” Brown said. “Last spring, we were selling hope.”

Now, the Tar Heels have something more tangible to sell, whether it be to boosters, fans, recruits or the ACC’s television partners.

“I’m just glad that we put the nation on notice of just how hard we’ve been working, how much we’ve become close together,” running back Javonte Williams said. “Coming off two losing seasons and now we’re going to a bowl game. I mean, that just shows how hard we’ve been working over the summer, how much closer we came together and how hard the coaches are working also.”

Coaches certainly had their work cut out for them at halftime on Saturday as the Tar Heels had stumbled through the first two quarters, unable to get the running game going and trailing State 10-6.

“I just felt like when coach got on us in the locker room, he challenged the O-Line and they just came out harder,” Williams said. “When they did, they opened holes; I just ran through them.”

It was a blitzkrieg unlike anything Carolina has put together this season, forcing three turnovers in the third quarter that quickly became Williams touchdowns — one receiving, two rushing — as a close game became a blowout in an eight-minute stretch.

Williams felt the game shift when he ran for his first score at the 10:07 mark.

“I just feel like it gave us confidence,” he said. “It just let us know, ‘All right, we came to play; we can win this game.’ Really, the thing we were talking about the whole game was getting to a bowl game … I really think the touchdown, it kind of killed N.C. State’s pride and that’s when we woke up.”

When it was all said and done, Carolina was able to pull Sam Howell in the fourth quarter, ending his day with 401 yards and three touchdowns and an interception after completing 23 of 33 pass attempts.

For only the third time this season, there was no drama in the final minutes as the Carolina starters prepared to begin their celebration on the sideline.

In the seconds after time expired, Myles Dorn zoomed off the field to the locker room, unable to contain his energy while senior Nick Polino used his helmet as a bowling ball to knock down his fellow linemen.

There was no celebration that Brown enjoyed more than watching the veterans finally basking in the afterglow of a game vs. State.

“It’s really rewarding for me and the coaches because those seniors are so happy,” he said. “They’ve hung in there with us; we’ve had some really tough losses where they could have laid down and quit.”

Polino could have easily laid down after suffering a serious lower-body injury in the second game of the season. Instead, he fought to come back late in the season and give the Tar Heels anything he could.

“Being able to just see how hard everyone has worked the past couple of years, young guys buying in so much this year, it’s been great,” he said. “We’ve got a bowl game to go to and it feels great, getting to go bowling in December; there’s nothing better.”

Now, the priority is making sure those same seniors who suffered through some of the darkest days in the last 30 years of Carolina football go out on a high note.

“We need to go win it,” linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said. “I’m really happy for the seniors, getting them to a bowl game and everybody else on the team.

“I’m so happy for the seniors and I want to send them out 7-6, with a winning record.”