Five Greatest Moments of the UNC Football Season

Oct 25, 2014; Charlottesville, VA, USA; The North Carolina Tar Heels bench celebrates after a penalty against the Virginia Cavaliers clinched victory in the fourth quarter at Scott Stadium. The Tar Heels won 28-27. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

3. The onside kick recovery against Virginia

Background: Carolina was leading the Cavaliers by one point with a little more than four minutes remaining.  They had just scored a go-ahead touchdown, and it appeared that Virginia was going to have a chance to win the game in the last seconds.  However, Larry Fedora had other ideas:

Greatness Score: 8.5/10

This play likely won the game for the Tar Heels.  In case you missed this football season, UNC’s defense was bad.  And this game, they were exceptionally bad.  The Heels defense could not tackle to save their lives, giving up two touchdowns because of missed tackles.  If Virginia had gotten the ball back, it is very likely they would at least have gotten within field goal range and won the game.  Furthermore, recovering an onside kick is very difficult.  Depending on which statistics you believe, onside kicks are successful somewhere in the ballpark of 15-20 percent of the time.  For the Heels to recover this kick was huge: if Virginia had recovered then they would have had the ball around midfield and their chances of scoring would have been even higher.  But Mack Hollins recovered the ball, giving the Heels a much-needed win.