Extra Points: Gio, The Oral History

By Lee Pace

Larry Fedora was introduced at a press conference on Dec. 9, 2011, as the Tar Heels' new head football coach. After thanking and acknowledging those who'd helped in his career, after talking about recruiting and the Carolina brand, the first words from his mouth specifically about the game of football were these: "On special teams, and I'm not just starting there by chance, we will be very aggressive. You can count on game-changing plays on special teams."

And so it came to pass.

Nine games into the Fedora era, Gio Bernard and 10 teammates on the punt return squad engineered a 74-yard return known as "The Wall" with Swiss-timepiece precision. The resulting touchdown turned Kenan Stadium into a cauldron of noise and emotion as the Tar Heels collected a 43-35 win over N.C. State.

Carolina had lost five straight games to the Wolfpack when State came to Chapel Hill on Oct. 27, 2012, the last two of the losses with some extra salt in the wound from the evolving off-the-field issues that would result in sanctions against the Tar Heels. It took no time for Fedora to buy into the rivalry and throughout his tenure at Carolina would only refer to the Wolfpack as "the team in red." Carolina was 5-3 and had just dropped a three-point decision at Duke. The Tar Heels arrived at Kenan Football Center Sunday after losing in Durham the night before to find their locker room festooned with red streamers and balloons. The managers also printed off State logos and put one in every locker.

"I had red streamers in my practice shoes," says Bryn Renner, the starting quarterback that year. "No one said a word on Sunday when we went to lift. You talk about being mad. That set the tone for the week."

Thirty seconds remained on the scoreboard clock in Kenan Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Thirty-five points for Carolina, thirty-five for N.C. State.

The emotional juice from the Tar Heels' just-unveiled chrome helmets, the new navy socks and silver-and-navy shoes had worn off. The razzle-dazzle of a double-pass, reverse and flea-flicker so well executed in the first quarter had settled into a focus of trying to get Bernard, Eric Ebron and Sean Tapley into mismatches against N.C. State's linebackers and safeties. The Tar Heels burst to 25 first-quarter points, morphed into a somnambulant mid-game and ignited again with a fourth-quarter touchdown and field goal.

One decade later, a handful of those at Ground Zero reflect on what happened next.

***

Renner and Casey Barth were readying themselves as the Carolina defense was on the field for a potential final drive. Trailing 35-32 midway through the fourth quarter, Renner had just engineered a nine-play, 60-yard drive that took the Tar Heels down for a 34-yard Barth field goal to tie the game. If Carolina's defense could now force a Wolfpack punt, the offense would have less than minute for a quick thrust some 40 yards into field goal position.

RENNER: "To tell you the truth, Gio should never have happened. We had Eric Ebron open on a tunnel screen the previous drive and it was a walk-in. Easy six points. But he dropped the ball. I remind him of that to this day. That said, offensively, we felt good. We had two good drives in the fourth quarter—one for a touchdown and one for a field goal. We were moving the ball. I was on the phone with Blake (Anderson, the offensive coordinator). We had four plays we called 'game-winners.' We liked two of them especially. We were going to attack and get in position for a field goal."

BARTH: "I felt good. I'd had a couple of good kicks that game. It's like golf, you hit a few good ones and you're ready to hit another. To be honest, I was hoping for the chance at a game-winning kick."

Bart Bishop was sitting nervously with the parents of the Wolfpack players on the northeast side of Kenan Stadium. At the time a banker from Boca Raton, Bishop in the early 2000s spent his leisure time serving as league president and a coach of the Boca Jets, a club football organization in South Florida that fielded seven football teams at various age and weight levels to compete against other clubs. His son, Brandan, was one year older than Bernard, and Bernard often spent Friday nights before games with the Bishops as Bernard's mother had died of cancer when Gio was seven and his father worked long hours running his laundromat and dry-cleaning business. Bishop happened to be coaching Bernard's team when Gio was in the seventh grade.

BISHOP: "You only had to look at his brother, Yvenson, to know Gio probably had some running back in him. Yvenson was playing at Oregon State. He was bigger and faster than Gio and was a great college player. He had three 1,000-yard seasons. If not for knee injuries, he probably would have played in the NFL. He had a phenomenal career. Gio was playing linebacker and I said, 'This kid needs to play running back.' So he played both ways.

"Gio was the best kid on my team but also the youngest. He was thick and stocky, had strong legs, but he always had to play up a division because as a young kid, he was a little heavier than the average kid his age. He was a heat-seeking missile. He would run through people. He was like a man among boys. They couldn't tackle him one-on-one. They'd have to gang-tackle him to get him down."

Gio Punt Return — Romar Morris (21) looks for someone to block as Gio Bernard turns the corner and sets sail on his 74-yard punt return.

The Tar Heel punt return team that week against the Wolfpack was comprised of either Roy Smith or Bernard as the return man and Pete Mangum, T.J. Jiles, Damien Washington, A.J. Blue, Romar Morris, Norkeithus Otis, Kendrick Singleton, Mark McNeill, Alex Dixon and Tre Boston rushing the punter and then setting the blocking scheme. Fedora called for "Wall Right," a configuration that called for half the players to set up a blocking wall to the right of the return man and give him an avenue between the defenders and the sideline, the other half to loop around and clean up any defenders following downfield.

FEDORA: "State was very basic on their punt team, they didn't do a whole lot. We felt we could try to get double teams and set up the wall. I didn't use the Wall return at any other point in the game. It happened to be on the hash we want for that call. I contemplated going for the block and trying to make something happen. In the end, my gut said to go with the return. I said all week and I kept saying through the entire game, no matter what the score is right now, it's still going to come down to the last possession."

Roy Smith came to Carolina in 2010 on the Carolina Covenant Scholarship with plans to run track (he was a champion hurdler in Miami high school circles), but he also had the dream of playing football. He was given the green light by Butch Davis, the Tar Heel head coach from 2007-10, but Smith got lost and waylaid amid the coaching transition to Everett Withers and then Fedora. He sold Fedora in the spring of 2012 on his potential as a kick returner and receiver and was given preferred walk-on status for the 2012 season. Smith shot out of a cannon against Elon in the 2012 season opener with six returns for 127 yards, then shared punt return duties with Bernard the rest of the year, Smith returning 12 kicks for a 13.7 average that would have ranked him on the cusp of the top 10 nationally if he'd had enough attempts to qualify. With Bernard's ankle tender in the State game, Smith had returned one earlier kick, made three fair catches and then took the field with 30 seconds to play to return yet another.

SMITH: "We called a time out. Gio ran out and said, 'Do you mind if I take the punt return?' I think he knew he would be leaving for the NFL and he didn't have many games left in Kenan Stadium. I was cool with that. Gio and I went way back. He played for St. Thomas Aquinas High and I played for Miami Northwestern. We had some great battles and were always razzing each other about who had the best football program. We had a friendly rivalry."

RENNER: "Gio and I were sitting together on the bench. I nudged him on the leg. 'Dude, you gotta go. Even if you fair catch it, we gotta have possession.' He got this look on his face like, 'Okay, I gotta do this thing.'"

BERNARD: "I heard the play call. 'The Wall' was my favorite return. My eyes lit up. I told myself, 'Big-time players make big-time plays. I told myself to get out there.'"

Gio Bernard — T.J. Thorpe (5) and Bryn Renner (2) celebrate with Bernard on the sidelines after game-winning punt return.

A.J. Blue was at the center of the formation as State punter Wil Baumann cracked a 49-yard punt downfield, the ball forcing Bernard back to the 26 yard-line and about eight yards further outside the hash. It was, State Coach Tom O'Brien would say later, Baumann's best kick of the day but one that didn't have the height he would have liked. When Bernard fielded the ball, he had six to eight yards of air between him and the first five Wolfpack players downfield. Jiles threw the first block that gave Bernard the cushion to start working against the grain toward the right. Boston drove his man fifteen yards across Bernard's path and into a second Wolfpack defender. Morris provided an escort at midfield down the sideline. Mangum looped from behind and was the last man to throw a block at around the Wolfpack forty.

BLUE: "Our job was to hold your guy up, create the wall, then let Gio follow it. It was the perfect wall. He didn't have to make any cuts once he got around it. Everybody did their job. You had 10 guys committed to getting their hats on somebody. And then you had a one-of-a-kind guy with the ball in his hands. Certain people are just built for this type of stuff. If Gio had not torn his ACL his freshman year (in 2010), we would have heard about him that much sooner. He was just one of those guys who knew how to play football, understood it, the physicality of it, everything. To be that size and still be in the NFL 10 years later, it's unreal. Wow. Coach Fedora used to kill that saying, 'Special teams will be where we make a game-changing play.' If it wasn't Gio that year, it was Ryan Switzer the next."

SMITH: "I went to the sideline and watched the play develop. I wasn't looking at Gio. I was watching the wall. Tre Boston comes around the corner and gets a hit. Romar Morris gets a hit. All Gio does is turn the corner. It was almost like poetry. Everything just aligned the way it needed to. Coach Fedora was a mastermind in special teams. That play was designed and executed so perfectly. Honestly, if I'd been out there, I think it would have been the same result."

Bart Bishop's son Brandan signed to play football at N.C. State out of Boca Raton High School in 2009 and started 50 games over four years at free safety. He was a senior in 2012 and on the unit that punted to his old pal Gio Bernard. Bishop was lined up to the right of the Wolfpack center, sprinted downfield and was to flank Bernard to Bernard's left and contain him on that side. That was a moot point as The Wall was set up to flow in the opposite direction. Bishop pivoted and started on a dead sprint at an angle, dove at Bernard at the 15 yard-line but grasped only air.

BISHOP: "Brandan was the last guy. The truth is, he really didn't have a legitimate shot, but he hustled and was able to get close enough and took a dive. Sometimes you dive and can get one arm on one foot and kind of trip the guy. But Gio turned on the afterburners. He was a lot faster than people realized. He was not a track star, but he was as quick as he was fast. He had a knack of getting to top speed very quickly.

"I understand there's photo of Brandan diving like Superman, that it's hanging in the football facility in Chapel Hill. Mixed emotions? Yes, a lot of them. I was as happy for Gio as I was unhappy for N.C. State's team and Brandan. I have the utmost admiration for Gio, he was just a great kid. Such a humble, wonderful person. If anybody on that field deserved that, it was him. I was happy and mopey at the same time."

When it was over, State fans stood in stunned silence. Bernard cried sitting on the bench. Barth sought out Baumann, both of them alumni of Wilmington's Hoggard High School.

BARTH: "I felt for him. He's a buddy and a good guy. We hugged it out and I told him to keep his head up. Sometimes you just hit it so well, you outkick your coverage. Those five yards make all the difference."

RENNER: "I had my helmet on, ready to go out on offense. Gio does that and I launch my helmet into the air. It was the best win I've ever been a part of. We got a five-year monkey off our back and we get a walk-off punt return after an electric game with both teams fighting and scrapping."

FEDORA: "The fans were pretty beat down at this point at Carolina with everything that was going on. There was so much negative publicity, it was constant. That one play gave them all hope. It was pretty special. The stadium the whole day was electric. It started with the new helmets. There was a buzz the whole time. In my 38 years coaching, there were not many times I could tell you how loud the crowd was, you are so locked in and so focused. But I can tell you that day I heard it. It was deafening. That has to be in the top five plays ever in that stadium."

Fans NC State 2012 — Carolina students go crazy in the Tar Pit during the final moments of Carolina's win over N.C. State in 2012.

Offensive guard Jonathan Cooper was the anchor of a veteran offensive line, first-team All-America and would be drafted in the first round of the 2013 NFL Draft by the Arizona Cardinals. Friday night at the team dinner in the Blue Zone on the east end of Kenan Stadium, he delivered an impassioned speech to his teammates. Cooper had started and played three games against State. He had lost all three.

COOPER: "I told the guys how much this game meant to me, how difficult it had been putting up with losing all those games and to hear about it constantly from everybody. I just told them it was bigger than hate—this game was about pride. I told them: 'Losing to State stops NOW.' I had had enough. Someway, we would find a way to win. It was such an exciting feeling in the locker room. There was a lot of joy, some tears too. I don't think I ever saw Coach Fedora with as few words."

Postgame NC State 2012 — It was a delirious Tar Heel dressing room after Gio Bernard took it to the house in 2012.

Ron Cherry officiated college football for 33 years and was added to the ACC staff in 1993. He worked more than 300 Division I games, including the 2009 national championship game, before retiring after the 2017 season. He had perhaps the best seat in the house to watch Gio Bernard—on the field, just behind Baumann with a wide view of the action.

CHERRY: "I had that rivalry game numerous occasions over the years. It was always a delight to draw that one on your schedule. You can see that side of the state bouncing with the energy associated with that ballgame. That game see-sawed back and forth, back and forth, finally it was tied 35-all. I'm thinking, 'Oh man, we're going to overtime, this is going to be nasty at the end.' The ball was punted, I didn't see anything on my side, the punter cleared, I drifted down and looked at the backside. I saw this wall forming. Lord have mercy, Bernard had his hammer down when he turned the corner. I could see the wall and I'm thinking of all the block potentials. Where are the fouls? Will there be any? I saw him cross the goal and signaled touchdown. I looked back downfield. I scanned the field. There was nothing."

Gio Bernard left Chapel Hill after the 2012 season for the NFL and remains on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' roster, this year on injured reserve with an ankle injury. He has rushed for 3,755 yards and caught passes for 2,990 yards and a total of 36 touchdowns over his decade in the NFL with Cincinnati and Tampa Bay. He's married and has one daughter, has developed a business interest in real estate and is generous with his wealth, one endeavor being the establishment of the RUN GIO Foundation in honor of his mother that aims to provide children of his native Haiti with educational opportunities.

BERNARD: "That play is very close to my heart, it's something I know is in the history books. When you're a kid, you don't really think about history, you're just thinking about making the play. It's like, 'Hey, I just want to go out and play football.' It was that way for me until a few years ago when I realized the impact that play had for Carolina football and what it meant. I always want to respect that. Respect the people involved in that play. The punt return people, the coaches. Yes, I was the guy who caught the punt and took it back, but there were a lot of guys who made it happen."

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace is in his 33rd year writing features on the Carolina football program under the "Extra Points" banner. He is the author of "Football in a Forest" and reports from the sidelines of Tar Heel Sports Network broadcasts. Follow him at @LeePaceTweet and write him at leepace7@gmail.com

Related Videos