CarolinaBlue.com - Heels get 1st ACC win

October 29, 2009

Evan Markfield
CarolinaBlue.com Senior Writer

BLACKSBURG, Va. - North Carolina quarterback T.J. Yates exhaled as if sitting down in the chair for post-game interviews had knocked the wind clean out of him.

But the big smile across his face and the hand-slapping of teammates as they went by proved it was more than a big breath that Yates had let loose - it was the tension of being previously winless in conference play and being the one who had to shoulder the blame.

The Tar Heels' 20-17 win against No. 14 Virginia Tech fixed both of those problems.

UNC let a second-half lead slip away before coming back to tie the game and then win on a 21-yard field goal from sophomore Casey Barth as time expired.

"This feels so good," Yates said. "I've never really had this feeling before. It sends chills down your spine when your whole team is rushing the field after a big win."

Relief and jubilation were plentiful for Carolina (5-3, 1-3 in the ACC), which was desperate after letting a win slip through their fingers a week earlier at home against Florida State.

That was the Thursday night game that was supposed to make a statement for the Tar Heels on national television. Instead it threatened to completely demoralize them.

But a week later, fighting the odds in a stadium where Virginia Tech had a 9-2 record on Thursday nights, they were finally able to prove themselves on a similar stage.

"Life's funny," North Carolina coach Butch Davis said. "It gives you the same test again somewhere down the line. Our kids today, I thought they rose up."

For a while, it looked like the Tar Heels were doomed to fail again.

Yates, who was unspectacular but threw for a pair of touchdowns, made a critical mistake in the fourth quarter, the kind that had lately resulted in fans calling for his head.

He tried to force a pass while under pressure and threw it right into the arms of cornerback Rashad Carmichael inside the UNC 5-yard line. Three plays later, Tech quarterback Tyrod Taylor ran in for a score and the Hokies (5-3, 3-2) went from trailing by a touchdown to leading 17-14 in a span of 95 seconds.

"That interception, I don't know what I was doing," Yates said. "Smoking some drugs or something."

Only a week removed from blowing a fourth-quarter lead in the loss to FSU, the similarities easily could have produced a here-we-go-again feeling for the Tar Heels.

But instead, they were determined not to spend another week kicking themselves.

"That bad feeling in our stomach turned to hunger," defensive end E.J. Wilson said.

On a night of redemption for Yates, it was only appropriate that he made up for his big mistake by completing a 19-yard pass on fourth down on UNC's next possession, keeping alive a drive that would end with a 19-yard Barth field goal to tie the game.

Then it was the defense's turn to show off their hunger.

Instead of letting the Hokies drive for a game-winning touchdown, Carolina took the ball back when Tydreke Powell forced a Ryan Williams fumble and Deunta Williams recovered at the Tech 24-yard line.

That set up what Barth said was the first last-second game-winner of his life - nearly five years to the day that his older brother Connor kicked a 42-yarder at the gun to push UNC past No. 4 Miami.

"The thing about it was it was a total team win," Wilson said. "I feel like we made a couple of huge statements this game."

It was not the statement the Tar Heels might have thought they'd be making a few months ago by coming into Lane Stadium and getting a win.

Back then, their expectation was that this would be a game that could eventually determine who would win the ACC's Coastal Division crown, not one they would desperately need just to keep their season from descending into a complete disaster.

But they were aware of their present reality.

"If we had lost, this game would have completely broken us," Yates said.

Instead, Yates and the rest of the Tar Heels looked like a bunch who believed - in themselves and in the idea that their season wasn't lost despite the unexpected 0-3 start to ACC play.

"The whole game we were reaching out on faith," Williams said. "We didn't think about records. We just wanted to win the game."

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