By Doc Kennedy

This is why UNC football can’t have nice things.

Mack Brown tried to warn us. He tried to warn his team. He told the famous Bill Parcells poison cheese story. He put cheese in the team’s lockers. And his team responded with an absolute stinker of a game, leading to perhaps one of the most disappointing losses in Carolina football history.

Virginia came into Chapel Hill with a 1–5 record, ranked last or next to last in the ACC in most offensive and defensive categories, but were the better football team for most of the game and put an end to the possibility of a special season for the Tar Heels with a 31–27 victory in front of a stunned Kenan Stadium.

The Cavaliers’ running game was negligible entering the game, averaging less than 100 yards per game on the ground. But UVa rushed for 226 yards and controlled the clock, racking up a 14-plus minute advantage in time of possession. They were the better football team all night. They did not play like a 1-5 team, and they did not fold up when they went down 10 in the third quarter.

Were it not for two turnovers in the end zone, Virginia would likely have beaten UNC by double digits. The Heels came out flat, stayed flat and, to paraphrase a saying, Carolina fooled around and found out, derailing a potential special season.

With that in mind, here is a disappointing edition of the Good, Bad, and Ugly Report:

Good

Tez Walker

Another great night for Tez, who is making the most of his time in Chapel Hill. Walker caught 10 balls for 132 yards and a touchdown.

Omarion Hampton

The ACC’s leading rusher was right on his season average with 112 yards and another reception for 18 yards. But with the game in the balance in the second half, Hampton disappeared from the offensive game plan. Hampton had five carries and one reception out of 36 snaps in the final 30 minutes, and only three carries after UNC scored to go up 24–14.

Noah Burnette

Burnette has been perfect in both field goals and extra points since coming back into the lineup after losing his starting job in the preseason.

Bad

Drake Maye

It seems odd to put a 347-yard, two-passing-TD performance in the bad category, but Maye had one of his worst passing games as a Tar Heel. He consistently missed receivers, overthrew a couple of wide-open routes that would likely have been touchdowns, and was just generally off all night.

UNC receivers not named Tez Walker

Not like Maye being off helped things, but his receivers did him no favors. Nate McCollum had at least three key drops, J.J. Jones dropped a potential touchdown and a phantom holding call on Bryson Nesbitt took a UNC touchdown off the board. When it rained, it poured.

Ugly

Defensive front

As already mentioned, the Carolina defense gave up 228 yards to a team that was averaging only 99.5 yards per game coming in. This unit was manhandled by the Virginia offensive line all night and while they did record two sacks and five tackles for loss, the Heels couldn’t stop the Hoos when it mattered.

Punting

Poor Tom McGinnis, the Carolina backup punter pressed into service after Ben Kiernan was injured, did not acquit himself well, punting five times for a 32.6-yard average, including an 18-yard punt, before being replaced by Cole Maynard for UNC’s final punt. The lack of punting did not allow UNC to flip the field and gave UVA short fields on their first two scoring drives.

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UNC fans are used to this, in that the Tar Heels simply cannot handle success. This question was asked a lot last week as people were saying the game against Miami was the kind of game Carolina often lost when enjoying success, but it seems like this Virginia game is just as likely to be the kind of game it loses in those situations. UNC is 1-5 as a Top-10 team since 1998, and this is the sixth time since 2020(!) that UNC has lost outright as a double-digit favorite. And now Carolina gets to go to its version of the Bermuda Triangle in Atlanta against one of its demons, Georgia Tech. Is this loss a one-off, or is it the beginning of a spiral, as last year’s loss to Georgia Tech was? The Tar Heels can still get to Charlotte but it is likely going to require them to win out, and with a difficult stretch to end the season vs. Duke and at Clemson and at NC State, it will be a tall order.

Doc Kennedy is an alum and longtime UNC fan, and a former high school and college basketball coach who wrote this report for years on Tar Heel Blog.

Photo via @UNCFootball