University of North Carolina Athletics
Walston: That Was Strange
December 26, 2011 | Football, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
Dec. 26, 2011
By Turner Walston
That was strange. The 2011 Advocare V-100 Independence Bowl didn't go well for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Spurred by a streak of 31 straight points, Missouri rolled over Carolina for a 41-24 win. But the game itself was just the capper on a set of unusual circumstances.
It was only a fluke that Carolina landed in Shreveport to begin with. When the Allstate Sugar Bowl reached for Virginia Tech, that shifted the entire ACC slate of bowl-eligible teams up a slot. The Tar Heels had been pencilled in at No. 8, in Washington, D.C. for the Military Bowl. But with the Hokies hitting New Orleans, Shreveport it was.
Shreveport, Louisiana bills itself as 'The Other Side of Louisiana,' and indeed it is. On Texas Avenue, just a block from Herby K's, the home of the Shrimp Buster, there is a sign in front of a row of run-down buildings. Visitors are asked to pardon the street's look, as this is a movie set, and such films as Soul Town and Battle of Los Angeles have filmed here.
The Tar Heels, a group of college football players, many of them under the legal gambling age, made the Sam's Town Casino their team hotel, their home away from home. The players left Kenan Football Center on Thursday, December 22 and for the next five days, they'd spend the Christmas holiday together in Shreveport.
On Christmas Eve, while children around the world were nestled all snug in their beds, the Tar Heels participated in the week's marquee activity: 'The Bowl Before the Bowl,' a team bowling outing at, of all places, Holiday Lanes.
Before Christmas dinner the next evening, the team watched Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, about a team of operatives tasked with accomplishing something very unlikely.
And then there was the game itself. The Tar Heels were coached by an outgoing staff. Many, if not all, of their coaches, will not return next season. Interim head coach Everett Withers will move to Columbus to become associate head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State. Incoming head coach Larry Fedora, whose Southern Miss team played on Christmas Eve, in the bowl game immediately preceding this one, promises to revamp the Tar Heel offense.
Shreveport was experiencing 47-degree temperatures, steady rain and 100 percent humidity at kickoff. Spectators in suites adjacent to the press box wiped their windows to simply see the field. The announced paid attendance was 41,728. Actual attendance was much smaller.
After an efficient Carolina opening drive, the flood gates opened for the Tigers, who reeled off 31 straight points to seize the game's momentum as well as the Independence Bowl trophy (which, incidentally, was shattered hours before the game itself).
The Tar Heels opened the second-half scoring with a 44-yard pass from Bryn Renner to Jheranie Boyd. But the Tigers responded with a 49-yard return on the ensuing kickoff and another touchdown drive.
The 2011 Advocare Independence Bowl was a moment in time, a strange snapshot of the end of an era. It was the culmination of the strangest two years in Carolina football history. Years from now, it will be but a distant memory, the answer to a trivia question. "Oh yeah," we'll say. "That was strange, wasn't it?"
