Wolfpack waits on ACC Atlantic title hopes, but is already celebrating after UNC win
In other circumstances, in other times, the dancing at midfield, surrounded by swarming fans, might have been for a championship N.C. State has yet to win. It still might be.
For that, the Wolfpack will have to wait.
Still, there was more than enough immediate gratification Friday night. This was a celebration of not only that promise and possibility, but a victory worth almost as much to savor. Not merely a rival vanquished in unlikely fashion, but what would have been an inexcusable loss turned into an incredible victory.
This 34-30 win, the furious two minutes that turned everything around, N.C. State’s first win over North Carolina in three years — all of that was worth celebrating on its own, regardless of what it meant.
“We don’t have to listen to all the people in blue talk for another year,” N.C. State coach Dave Doeren said. “It’s a good night for us. We can just enjoy that. We can talk about the ACC later.”
Later is not too much later. If Boston College beats Wake Forest on Saturday, a game that was a mere 13 hours away when this one ended, N.C. State will go to Charlotte as the Atlantic Division champion — a possibility that seemed lost and gone forever before this improbable finish.
How improbable? The many fans who left for the parking lots when the Wolfpack was down two scores to North Carolina with a mere 132 seconds to play, oh they of little faith, missed all of it.
But honestly, could you blame them?
There had been very little to that point to suggest that N.C. State could score, recover an onside kick and score again, not just Friday night but in the long and tortured history of Wolfpack football. Of Wolfpack athletics. N.C. State has been a part of many endings like this, but painfully often on the receiving end.
But after North Carolina kicked a 50-yard field goal to go up nine with 2:12 to go, the Wolfpack bent time and space. Emeka Emezie somehow got behind the entire North Carolina defense for a 64-yard touchdown, Christopher Dunn recovered his own onside kick and Emezie, again, wrestled the ball away from a defender in the end zone.
“I don’t know why they leave me wide open,” Emezie said, “but I’ll take the touchdown every single day.”
In 63 seconds, N.C. State went from down nine to up four.
“Two minutes left, no timeouts, most people would think the game is over,” N.C. State lineman Corey Durden said. “My teammates didn’t do that.”
Sam Howell’s final heave into a crowd of bodies in the end zone ended up with Derrek Pitts, who ran away with the ball and the victory, dodging fans as they tumbled out of the stands and onto the field.
It was a chance to celebrate not only a huge win, but what it means. With help from Boston College, N.C. State will become the last of the 12 teams from the first expansion still in the ACC to play in the championship game. Maryland never made it before fleeing to the Big Ten. The other 10 all have. The Wolfpack kept its hopes alive.
There was no division title hanging out there for the Tar Heels. The Tar Heels’ season had come down to this, interrupting N.C. State’s path to Charlotte as much a potential reward as going 7-5 instead of 6-6. Their offense sputtered, they had two punts blocked, Sam Howell took a hundred hits, and yet still, there they were with what looked like an insurmountable lead.
Of all the bad memories from a promising season gone awry, this collapse may linger the longest.
“We did everything you could possibly do wrong with two minutes left to not finish the game,” UNC coach Mack Brown said.
This will not enter the annals of the rivalry as one of the better-played games between the two; on this evening, any enmity among fans seemed directed at their own teams as much as the opponent. Neither team converted a third down in the first half. North Carolina had two punts blocked — one for an N.C. State touchdown and one for a UNC first down, somehow. Howell and Devin Leary were sacked 11 times.
But for drama, for the incredible finish, this one will be tough to beat. According to ESPN, 452 teams have been down by nine or more points with 2 ½ minutes to go this season. Four hundred and fifty-one lost.
“That’s why you play until the last second runs off the clock,” Doeren said, at the end of a night it wasn’t a cliche.
This story was originally published November 26, 2021 at 11:44 PM with the headline "Wolfpack waits on ACC Atlantic title hopes, but is already celebrating after UNC win."
