UNC Football suffers through a season to forget but it will be difficult to accomplish

The North Carolina Tarheels knew that 2024 was going to be a season that would be a challenge to replicate the successes of 2023. They posted a 6-1 home record. They were 4-4 in ACC Conference play. They defeated West Virginia 30-10 in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl in Charlotte. The good feelings reached a crescendo when their star quarterback, Drake Maye, was selected third overall by the New England Patriots. North Carolina wasn’t among the elite of college football, but they were more than respectable.

The good vibes continued in the offseason. The Tarheels watched their compatriots in men’s basketball and baseball make deep runs in their respective national championships. Head Coach Mack Brown had successfully recruited quarterback Max Johnson from Texas A&M to replace Maye. Brown had a stud running back returning in the presence of Omarion Hampton. ACC beat writers predicted the Tarheels to finish eight in the newly expanded conference. For a team that lost its quarterback, top defensive player, and top wide receiver to the NFL Draft, it was a reasonable prognostication. A bowl appearance was attainable.

When the team kicked off in August, optimism was in the air. The Tarheels defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers, 19-17 but the season had immediately gone off the rails. New signal caller Johnson broke his leg during the game and would be lost for the season. He barely had time to learn his teammates’ names before being shelved due to his injury. Sophomore Conner Harrell entered after Johnson’s injury and secured the win. Brown decided going forward to alternate between Harrell and senior Jacolby Criswell. The pair have been effective producing 12 touchdowns against four interceptions and completing 57.1% of their passes. However, the old football adage that when you have two quarterbacks, you have none, proved true. Neither player has stepped up and made the job their own.

Physical injuries can be overcome with therapy or a player stepping up to fill a void. Emotional trauma is much harder to overcome and the Tarheels were about to be served more than their fair share. They defeated a pair of instate, lesser caliber, programs Charlotte and NC Central by a combined 83-30. UNC was 3-0 and feeling good about themselves. Then the ceiling fell. The Tarheels fell victim to the most shocking upset of the college football season. Not just in 2024, but perhaps since Appalachian State beat Michigan. They weren’t beaten by the Sun Belt Conference’s James Madison, the Tarheels got embarrassed, 70-50. This was a football upset, not basketball. Brown had little words to describe the team’s effort afterwards.

Losses like the one to JMU happen on occasion and the best way to deal with it is to have a short memory and prepare for the next contest. Unfortunately for the Tarheels, another cruel fate awaited them in their most hated rival. Duke came into the game with new Head Coach Manny Diaz having lost his star quarterback Riley Leonard to Notre Dame via the transfer portal. The game started off well and thoughts of James Madison were quickly evaporating. North Carolina scored the first 20 points and looked to have the game in hand in the third quarter. The Blue Devils has other plans. Duke blitzed North Carolina by scoring 21 unanswered points with the final score occurring on a 20 yard touchdown run by Payton Jones with 5:42 remaining in the game. It wasn’t a buzzer beater at Cameron Indoor Arena, but the teams hate losing anything to their rival even if it is a race across the street. It was a gut punch to an already reeling group. It left Brown wondering if he was the right man to coach this team any longer.

Despite the two crushing losses, the Tarheels kept their composure and gave the resurgent Pitt Panthers all they could ask for the following week, falling 34-24. Any positive momentum gained from the Pitt contested was destroyed in the cruelest fashion at home when they hosted Georgia Tech for the school’s Cancer Awareness game. Hours before kickoff the team learned that wide receiver Tylee Craft had succumbed to a rare form of lung cancer after courageously battling the hideous disease since March 2022. Craft had turned 23 just 11 days earlier. His mother was comforted by Brown during the school’s recognition ceremony. It would be understandable if the Tarheels played distracted and were non-competitive. These were 18-22 year old young men dealing with the loss of a beloved teammate. They played their heart out to honor Craft. They tied the game at 34-34 with a Noah Burnette 26 yard field goal. But life finds a way to pile on in our darkest moments and North Carolina surrendered a 68 yard rushing touchdown to Tech’s Jamal Haynes with 16 seconds remaining. The unfairness of the day and season was too cruel to express.

People deal with grief differently. For a portion of the North Carolina players, it was their first time going through the process. Trying to navigate complex emotions is a daunting task. Having to do so in a public forum such as playing football at a major American college, in the midst of a season of body blows after body blows, is virtually impossible. The team leaned upon themselves and did their best to cope. They had to band together and honor their friend. Despite playing with heavy hearts, North Carolina put forth their best effort of the season and defeated Virginia, 41-14. It was a statement win not in what it meant for the standings but what it meant in the healing process. For the first time in weeks, players were able to smile among the tears.

What to expect the rest of the season will hold is difficult to guess. The next three games for the Tarheels, at Florida State, hosting Wake Forest, and at Boston College, are all winnable. Capturing those three games will bring a measure of comfort to the heartbroken team and help stabilize an unprecedented season. Their final game will be at home against another long time foe, NC State. It will be Senior Day. Senor Days tend to be emotional events. For the Tarheels, a range of raw emotion will be on display. It will be one final chance to make Craft proud. A victory will go a long way to exorcising the demons that have possessed the football program since August.

Hampton will be drafted on day two of the NFL Draft next April and likely enjoy a productive professional career. Johnson has said he is coming back, and his return will stabilize the most important position in football. Younger players who were forced into early playing time will benefit from the experience. 2024 will be remembered as the season of Murphy’s Law. Odds are long that North Carolina will not face this level of adversity next season and the meatgrinder they endured will have them well prepared to cope with whatever is thrown at them. The biggest takeaway from this autumn of misery in Chapel Hill is that young men grew up in a hurry and discovered an inner strength they did not know existed. That is the biggest victory of all.