UNC football finds new way to lose in final game of season

The UNC football program’s disappointing 2021 season has come to an end following a stunning but fitting loss to the NC State Wolfpack.

The Tar Heels found a new way to break fans’ hearts against rival NC State in Raleigh on Friday night. And even though anyone who’s watched at least two UNC games this season should have seen it coming, we all thought that the Tar Heels had the game under control with a nine-point lead and just over two minutes remaining.

Alas, that simply wasn’t the case, as North Carolina did the unthinkable, and lost a game that was probably statistically tougher to lose than to win at that point.

They took a seemingly insurmountable lead in the game’s waning minutes and then allowed the Wolfpack to score two touchdowns in just 26 seconds. No, seriously, they really did. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the unbelievable collapse I just saw, but it honestly shouldn’t be all that shocking after what we’ve seen from the Tar Heels over the past three months.

A team that won consecutive games just once all season and didn’t come away with a single road victory in four tries, North Carolina allowed a wide-open Emeka Emezie to catch a deep ball that went for 64 yards and a touchdown cutting the Tar Heels’ lead to two with 1:35 left in the game. Then, they allowed the Wolfpack to recover an onside kick and get another touchdown all within 26 seconds of the previous score. Even as I’m typing the words, it still doesn’t seem believable.

This was likely Sam Howell’s final game in a North Carolina uniform, and it ended with an interception on his final pass attempt — a pass attempt that never should have happened. Six wins and six losses for a team with that much talent on both sides of the ball begs the question of whose fault it is.

The defense was absolute garbage for much of the season, but it certainly wasn’t all on them. The offense had its share of struggles, too, and the coaching staff should be shouldering plenty of the blame as well. The special teams unit was particularly awful during the first half of Friday night’s game. Honestly, which part of this program — other than the recruiting — shouldn’t be headed back to the drawing board in the offseason?

The interception that wasn’t his fault notwithstanding, Howell had a nice final game in a college uniform. So did senior running back British Brooks, who ran for 124 yards on just 15 carries in the breakout game of his collegiate career. And sophomore wide receiver Josh Downs broke a pair of school records against the Wolfpack, as he became the Tar Heels’ record-holder for receptions and receiving yards in a single season.

I’m not one to call for people’s jobs often, and it’s certainly not something I take lightly. Short of staffing changes this offseason, though, I’m not sure how much better the results on the field will be even with the Tar Heels’ terrific recruiting haul.

We’re just as discouraged as you are, and right now, the most agonizing factor in all of this is that we really have no reason to believe that anything is going to change. Somebody needs to be held accountable for this loss and this season, but will they? If not, then we need to seriously scale back expectations in Chapel Hill, and be okay with Meineke Car Care Bowls for the foreseeable future.

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