Lucas: Scoreboard

By Adam Lucas

We've reached the point in the 2023 football season when the North Carolina football team is doing things that have very, very rarely been done before.

The Tar Heels thumped Miami, 41-31, on Saturday night at Kenan Stadium. It was a glorious night. It was the kind of night when you'd want to take someone who didn't understand your passion for college football and could feel completely confident that they'd walk away saying, "I get it." The weather was great (save for a brief monsoon at halftime) and there were big plays and the crowd was raucous and the new lights were very cool and the good guys won. I told you it was glorious.

When the ACC goes to a new football scheduling model for next season, it's likely the Tar Heels won't see the Hurricanes as often anymore. I will miss them. This is five straight wins over the 'Canes, each a delight in its own way. The highlight that is etched forever from Saturday night's win—even more than Tez Walker's three touchdowns, even more than Cedric Gray roaming all over the field defensively—happened early in the third quarter.

After a play near the UNC bench, Miami safety James Williams exchanged some words with the Carolina sideline. In response, he pointed to the scoreboard on the press box sideline. Then he pointed to the scoreboard in the Blue Zone end zone. He was right. It read Miami 17, Carolina 14.

It was the kind of bravado that had been shown by Miami throughout the game, as when offensive lineman Anez Cooper waved his arms to encourage the Kenan Stadium crowd to get even louder on third down on the Canes' first drive.

The crowd did indeed get louder. And that scoreboard to which Williams was so attentive did indeed change. In the 15 minutes after he pointed it out, the Tar Heels ran off 24 straight points, eventually building a 38-17 lead on the way to the victory. As a consolation prize, Williams received a nice rear view of Walker's third touchdown reception.

It didn't have quite the immediate satisfaction of Brandon Tate's 54-yard touchdown in 2007 on a reverse following a Miami dance party. But it was the same type of cold turnaround, against the same opponent.

So, yes, it was a satisfying win. But don't let that overshadow how historic it was. Miami is a good team. The Hurricanes were ranked 25^th in this week's Associated Press poll and would be higher were it not for a brain lock last week. Carolina, of course, is also ranked (and could soon find a place in the national top ten for just the fourth week in the last 25 years).

That means the win over Miami is just the 15^th time in the history of the program—123 years—that a top-25 Carolina team defeated a team also ranked in the top-25. If you were one of the 50,500 in the sellout crowd, you just saw the seventh time ever that the Tar Heels have gotten a top-25 matchup win at Kenan Stadium, and three of those came with limited capacity during the Covid season of 2020.

Think about that for a second. It was the fourth time ever in a full capacity Kenan Stadium that Carolina has won a top-25 matchup.

Half the season still remains. There are no trophies in October. But we know this for certain: led by a transcendent quarterback but not entirely dependent on Drake Maye, it's mid October and Carolina is in position to be in all the college football discussions that matter. That's extremely rare territory if you're a Tar Heel fan. We don't get to do this very often.

And when it happens, it's usually under the direction of Mack Brown. Remember those 15 top-25 wins? Brown was the head coach for ten of them. The seven top-25 wins at Kenan? Brown was the head coach for five of them.

There will be time after the season to fully appreciate what Brown has done; right now, as he would be the first to tell you, there's still too much to play for. There's a home date with Virginia—don't get anyone over the age of 40 started about what the Cavaliers can do to a special season—and a road trip to the current Carolina kryptonite of Georgia Tech and a devilish close to the season…

But, you know what? Worry about that tomorrow. Tonight, we saw something very few of us have ever seen before. There will be plenty of time to think and dream and prognosticate. Right now, this is happening. Brown promised most of these players when he was recruiting them that they could come to Carolina and play in big games in front of big crowds in outcomes that matter on a national stage. He's doing it. Right now, Kenan Stadium is one of the best places to watch football in the country, with a pinball machine offense (Carolina has started ACC play with three straight 40+ point games for the first time in history) and an improving, physical defense and a crowd that, if it wasn't quite the 1997 Judgment Day mob, wasn't that far away, either.

"It was," Mack Brown said, "a big time atmosphere."

For a big time team. The scoreboard proves it.

Players Mentioned

Cedric Gray

Drake Maye

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