Remembering the Good Times: UNC 31, SDSU 27
By John Bauman
Remembering the good times is a series Keeping It Heel will run leading up to the 2015 football season recalling last year’s six wins, or, the good times of the season. Today, KIH remembers the win against San Diego State University.
Monday: Win over Liberty
Today: Win over SDSU
The day? September 7th, 2014.
The time? 8 o’clock at Kenan. Yes, a home night game for the Tar Heels.
The stakes? UNC came in ranked 21st in the country, playing against a good but not great San Diego State team.
The atmosphere? Everything Coach Fedora could have asked for. It was The Stripeout Game, one of the coolest scenes at Kenan in recent memory, right up there with The White Out Game against Va. Tech in 2012 and The Blackout Game against Miami in 2013.
Sep 6, 2014; Chapel Hill, NC, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels fans cheer prior to a game against the San Diego State Aztecs at Kenan Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports
The final score? UNC 31, SDSU 27.
That score doesn’t really do the game justice. This four point win felt like a win by a millionth of a point, the smallest of margins. If you’ve forgotten, watching the highlights should help jog your memory of the narrow, narrow escape.
North Carolina Tar Heels
The Tar Heels played poorly and only took the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter. SDSU went up 21-7 early and the Tar Heels stormed back behind a 91 yard bomb from the golden arm of Marquise Williams into the waiting hands of Mack Hollins. The score was 24-21 after that beauty of a TD and 27-21 after a 40 yard field goal with 10:30 left by Aztec kicker Donny Hageman.
UNC countered that field goal with one of its best drives of the season, an eight play, 80 yard march that culminated in a two yard Elijah Hood exclamation point. UNC added on three more points after a Brian Walker interception, his second of the night. His first was a 100 yard return that sent the crowd into a terror.
The problem with the Tar Heels scoring all those points in the fourth quarter is that they scored too quickly. San Diego State got the ball back with plenty of time left in the fourth quarter, four minutes to be exact, and started a march to the end zone of their own.
However, on first and goal, with San Diego State knocking on upset’s door, often maligned safety Tim Scott made perhaps the biggest play of his career, picking off Quinn Kaehler’s pass in the end zone and securing a victory for the Tar Heels.
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It may not be a play that goes down in the Carolina lore, but when it happened, it was awesome. Scott made a nice break on the ball and sent the crowd, already on edge from the last week’s narrow victory over Liberty, into a part exhale induced, part ecstasy induced frenzy.
Tim Scott ran the ball all the way back to the end zone, and he was cradling not just the ball in his left arm but also the hopes and dreams of the 2014 Carolina football season.
For one more week, Tar Heel fans could celebrate and dream without a care. The dreams of ACC championships and marquee bowl games and even perfect seasons were still alive.
Did those hopes and dreams last or come true?
Shh, today we are just remembering the good times.