CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – There was joy in the land of Thomas Jefferson on Saturday.
Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Scott Stadium and the University of Virginia set the scene for not only North Carolina’s most joyous outing of the season, but a cathartic release from the shackles of pain, heartache, illness, losses, and death.
It came in the form of a thorough 41-14 beating of the Cavaliers in what, for all intent and purposes, was the first game of the Tar Heels’ second season this fall.
And the booming sounds of music, with a near-press conference-shaking bass, players talking/yelling over each other, and sheer happiness that still emanated for the Tar Heels’ locker room some 25 minutes after the game was the audible evidence illustrating an elation that had eluded this team for way too long.
They have been through a ton. But Saturday, the Heels let it all out.
"This team has dealt with more than any team I've ever dealt with in 36 years, with injuries and change and losing a player, watching a player die over time,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said after the victory, which ended a four-game losing streak. “I've never seen a group of young people and staff handle this much. You worry about mental health with all of them, and with everybody. It's just a load.
“And in this business, I feel like we've got the best program in the country off the field, and we lost four games in a row, and you can't do that. And so winning makes that locker room unbelievable. I don't think I've ever seen them that happy.”
Happy as if the Heels did more than win a game to even their record to 4-4 on the season while picking up ACC win number one in four tries. They did do more than win a game.
The reward for the hard work 46 weeks a year cannot be understated, and that’s without their offensive line coach starting fall camp in the hospital for more than a week perilously close to something awful. It’s with original starting quarterback Max Johnson suffering a horrific broken leg in the opener that required numerous surgeries and a hospital stay of two weeks before returning from Minnesota.
And that’s with the players watching the slow-and-then-fast demise of Tylee Craft, who passed two weeks earlier to the day.
The effect of Craft’s life, how he handled the illness, and death has deeply impacted many Tar Heels, and to a degree everyone on the roster. The timing, as the team lost a fourth straight and heading into a bye week gave the entire program a chance to weep, process, and remember Craft, all the while gaining some life perspective that found its way to the football field Saturday.
Brown said his team had gotten quite stressed about losing games. They’d lost confidence and weren’t having much fun. And one can only imagine the individual battles each player navigated in addition to the team stuff.
Social media warriors blasted the team and called for the Hall of Fame coach’s head. It was ugly, actually uglier than the play on the field, which wasn’t very becoming.
But the players sat back, exhaled, and gained perspective. Saturday, they were loose. Super loose. As loose as they’ve been probably since high school. And they played like it.
So when positive things started happening, the Heels hoisted up each sequence one on top of the other, a layering process that was a mile high after 6-foot-5, 290-pound defensive lineman Jahvaree Ritzie intercepted a pass he initially tipped and rumbled 84 yards the other way for a touchdown that put an exclamation mark on the entire afternoon.
The domino effect of bad leading to bad was flipped on its head.
With it, the Heels got a desperately needed win. They did so in a dominant fashion. And they did it honoring whom they’ve lost and what they’ve gained.
