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Chansky’s Notebook: A Late Surprise, Please!

Madoc Meredith October 26, 2024

Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub grub paired with local beer. Choose from 35 rotating taps and over 200 beers in the cooler.

Man, oh man, Charlottesville is the perfect place to flip the season’s script.

The Tar Heels have lost four straight regular season seasons under Mack Brown for the first time since 1989. And there’s no better place to break that string than Scott Stadium, which hasn’t accommodated them over the years.

Devoted fans often remember the tough defeats more than the glorious victories. And one of the biggest nightmares came in 1996, when Brown, in his first tenure at Carolina, was on ABC national television dreaming of winning the national championship against Virginia, 7-3.

The 7-1 visitors were seeking their first win there under Brown, and it looked like they had it in the bag midway through the fourth quarter when Dre Blye’s 11th career interception led them 17-1. 3 led.

And then Brian Simmons intercepted Virginia’s fourth pass of the game and returned it to the UVa 10, but that wasn’t the end of it.

The students were so sure their team would lose that they downed their mini bottles and hurled them onto the field behind the Carolina bench. Brown said he spent more time protecting his players than watching Carolina’s final drive toward the end zone.

Quarterback Chris Keldorf and receiver Octavus Barnes got mixed up on the play call, with Barnes turning the wrong way in his pattern, so Raleigh’s Antwan Harris intercepted the pass and returned it 95 yards for a touchdown that brought the Virginia crowd back in brought momentum.

UNC was very conservative with its offense and tried to run out the clock, instead allowing Virginia to score 10 more points and secure an improbable 20-17 victory despite certain defeat.

The Heels finished 10-2 after beating Duke in Durham and West Virginia in the Gator Bowl, but felt like they left something much bigger on the field at UVa. Brown was heartbroken and had a very difficult offseason.

They went 11-2 in 1997 before Brown left for Texas, and UNC has had just one 10-win season since 2015 under Larry Fedora.

Carolina (3-4) and Virginia (4-3) are no longer in the running for the ACC Championship this season, but can still secure bowl bids with a combined six wins.

The midday opener was relegated to the CW network, which is ranked fourth in the ACC TV Totem poll and is sure to draw uncrowded crowds.

Rather than securing anything meaningful, it feels more like a bailout than anything else, unless Carolina can use it as a springboard by playing its best game of the season and moving to 4-4.

With trips to Florida State and Boston College and home games against Wake Forest and NC State – all beatable opponents – the season could still end with a much-needed and surprising boost.

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Jeffrey A. Camarati

Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including bestsellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has been a contributor to the WCHL for decades, making his first appearance as a student in 1971 The “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his opinion column “Art’s Angle” appears weekly on Chapelboro.

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