CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina’s first open date in its football schedule simply couldn’t have come at a better time.
To say the Tar Heels were reeling would be an understatement. So, not having to spend last week preparing for an opponent and then having a game over the weekend gave the program a needed respite from football and to navigate through real life and, sadly, the death of wide receiver Tylee Craft.
“The open week came at a perfect time,” UNC Coach Mack Brown said during his weekly press conference Monday.
Craft passed away during UNC’s 41-34 home loss to Georgia Tech on October 12. The players knew it was coming, as Craft went into Hospice two days earlier, which meant his passing was imminent.
Yet even though Craft had been diagnosed in March 2022, and the team saw his fast deterioration the prior three weeks, it was still a kick in the soul to a program that had so fully embraced Craft and been there every step of the way.
On the field, the loss to the Yellow Jackets was Carolina’s fourth consecutive, three of which have come at home, and a seemingly emotionally and physically beleaguered team simply needed to step back, grab perspective, and exhale. So they did.
“Obviously, you don’t know timing,” Brown said, referring to knowing Craft would soon pass, but not exactly when. “I’ve been worried about Tylee leaving us for the last three weeks because we knew it wasn’t going to be long… And then from a football standpoint, we were so banged up it gave us a chance to get healthy.
“I don’t know that clear your mind is the right term, but at least grief and talk to your family about loss and loss of life and then start over.”
The Tar Heels (3-4 overall, 0-3 ACC) practiced three times last week, Tuesday-Thursday. School was on fall break, so the team was dismissed for the weekend following practice last Thursday morning. Sunday was Craft’s memorial service in Sumter, SC. Approximately two-thirds of the roster attended, as did almost all of the coaches.
The service was all about Craft and Carolina. His mother, September Craft, requested everyone wear Carolina blue, UNC gear, and then had the Sumter High School gym decked out in all things UNC. She also held off having a service until she knew the team could make it.
“Mom was a superstar,” Brown said. “She knew what was best and she set the funeral for Sunday where we could all go. So, the guys jumped on a bus, guys that weren’t home for fall break.”
As they are each week, the Heels were off Monday so they begin preparation for Virginia on Tuesday. That’s Friday-Monday with no practice.
They will be rested. They will be healed. And they will have gone through the emotional grind of Craft’s death, service, and the personal processing associated with the tragedy.
Brown acknowledged the weeks leading to Craft’s passing made game prep and coaching a great challenge. And now that the formalities associated with Craft’s passing are in the rearview mirror, he still must lead a potentially fragile group of young men who haven’t won a game in six weeks with the losses either highly embarrassing (James Madison), or games that UNC led or was tied in the fourth quarter, like the last three.
“My job is to lead, and usually you need leadership with things are tough,” Brown said. “Things have been tough for us off the field for four weeks, so I need to step up and be a better leader.”
Add the dangerous illness Offensive Line Coach Randy Clements has faced since the start of fall camp, when he was in the hospital for eight days, and the gruesome injury to quarterback Max Johnson in the opener, and there was a lot for the team to sort through over the last week.
Nobody knows how the Tar Heels will react moving forward. Issues on both lines of scrimmage aren’t fueling much optimism outside of the Kenan Football Center. But how a team handles, and possibly grows from what has transpired could galvanize or not.
One thing is abundantly clear, however; the Heels needed this open date exactly when it arrived. Period.
