From comeback to epic collapse: UNC football takeaways on shocking loss to rival NC State

RALEIGH — Having overseen more than 400 games across his 33 years as a college football head coach, Mack Brown wasn’t sure he ever had encountered a debacle on the level of what befell North Carolina on Friday night.

North Carolina State finished in supersonic fashion, as the Tar Heels went from completing a comeback victory to suffering an epic collapse.

The 24th-ranked Wolfpack stormed back from the brink of near-certain defeat, using two Emeka Emezie touchdown catches and a successful onside kick during the final 95 seconds to pull off a 34-30 stunner in a wild Atlantic Coast Conference football regular-season finale at Carter-Finley Stadium.

“We did everything you could possibly do wrong with two minutes left to not finish the game,” Brown said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Add another surreal chapter to the pages of this rivalry that rarely disappoints.

The meltdown left visiting North Carolina attempting to digest how the ending could’ve veered sideways and gone so horrendously, while the home fans here rushed the field in celebration of the improbable victory, which kept alive N.C. State’s chances of claiming the league’s Atlantic Division title.

If Boston College defeats Wake Forest on Saturday, the Wolfpack (9-3 overall, 6-2 ACC) wins the division and will play in the ACC championship game for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Tar Heels (6-6, 3-5) will await their bowl destination, an assignment that could’ve been higher in the league’s pecking order had this night after Thanksgiving not taken such brutal turns.

North Carolina, after climbing out of an early 14-0 deficit, led 24-14 in the second half and went ahead 30-21 with 2:12 remaining on Grayson Atkins’ 50-yard field goal – a moment that sent some N.C. State supporters here streaming into the aisles and exiting the stadium.

“I think guys got too excited too early,” Tar Heels linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said of Atkins’ long-distance field goal. “He knocked it through and guys on the sideline just got too eager. I think guys got too excited, thought the game was won, thought the game was over. I think that’s what really got us.”

N.C. State became the first team to win a college football game this season after trailing by nine with less than 2½ minutes left. Teams had been 0-451 in that scenario, according to ESPN research.

Leading 30-21, North Carolina defensive lineman Ray Vohasek sacked Wolfpack quarterback Devin Leary on the first down of the possession that followed Atkins’ 50-yarder, furthering the feeling that the Tar Heels had victory all but secured.

Then, disaster descended. Emezie got deep on North Carolina’s defensive secondary, the result of a miscommunication and busted coverage between cornerback Tony Grimes and safety Cam’Ron Kelly. Leary hit Emezie for a 64-yard touchdown pass, pulling N.C. State within 30-28 with 1:35 to go.

N.C. State’s Christopher Dunn successfully executed the ensuing onside kick and recovered the bouncing ball himself. A roughing the passer penalty on Vohasek and pass interference penalty on Storm Duck gained 40 yards for the Wolfpack, before Leary found Emezie for the winning score, a 24-yard touchdown pass Emezie hauled in while freeing up enough room against Kelly in coverage.

Two Leary-to-Emezie touchdowns for N.C. State in a matter of 26 seconds of game time made North Carolina’s unraveling all the more dizzying.

“Yeah, it’s crazy,” North Carolina quarterback Sam Howell said. “You’ve just got to stay locked in. Anything can happen in the sport of football. Especially college football, anything can happen. So you’ve just got to stay locked in until there’s zero seconds on the clock.”

Here are more Tar Heels takeaways from a shocking Friday night in Raleigh:

Perks go poof in a flash

North Carolina had a number of incentives seemingly firm in its grasp.

The Tar Heels were on the verge of securing their elusive first win on the road this season, delivering a sweep of their in-state opponents, defeating their fiercest rival and knocking N.C. State out of the race for the Atlantic Division title, picking up another victory over a Top 25 team, clinching a third straight winning season under Brown, and bettering their positioning in the ACC’s bowl lineup.

And then they vanished in a flash, wasting a career night from former walk-on British Brooks (124 rushing yards) and six sacks as part of a resilient effort by North Carolina’s defense, which settled in after a shaky start and hounded Leary at times.

“I’ve got to do a better job,” Brown said. “I’m really disappointed in me that our team doesn’t win that game. The same at Pittsburgh (two weeks ago). We had an opportunity to beat a really good team on the road at Pittsburgh, one of the best in our league, and we didn’t finish it. We had a better opportunity (Friday) night, and we still didn’t finish it. So we’ve still got work to do, and that comes back to me.”

Special teams kick UNC in the gut

N.C. State jumped ahead 7-0 during the game’s first 83 seconds when Jordan Houston blocked North Carolina punter Ben Kiernan’s offering, after a three-and-out to open the night by Howell and the Tar Heels offense.

C.J. Riley pounced to recover the blocked punt and score the special teams touchdown, a roaring start for the Wolfpack.

At the end, had North Carolina been able to recover Dunn’s onside kick, the game effectively would’ve been over. N.C. State had only one timeout remaining with 1:35 left on the clock. Earlier this month, the Tar Heels handled a late onside kick situation to seal their remarkable rally past Wake Forest. But not on this night.

“What lost us the game was the onside kick,” Gemmel said, “and it’s weird because I feel like we work onsides kicks more than most teams do. Recovering them and receiving them, both ways. I mean, it got us. They got a perfect kick on the onside and they were able to get the ball back.”

British Brooks bursts on the scene

The senior Brooks, a North Carolina special teams ace through the years, had totaled just 10 rushing yards for the season entering last weekend’s home finale at Kenan Stadium.

He ran for 89 yards and two touchdowns on Wofford that day, then erupted here Friday night against N.C. State. Behind starter Ty Chandler, Brooks supplied a career-high 124 yards on 15 carries and ripped off gains of 40, 16, 23 and 21 yards.

His surprising production helped the Tar Heels pick up 297 rushing yards on an N.C. State defense that arrived ranked No. 17 nationally against the run.

“He’s the best special teams guy we’ve got,” Howell said of Brooks, “and that’s just a credit to how much he puts into it. He loves the game and he just stays ready. He had to play some (Friday) night just because of injury to some other guys, and he just kind of took that opportunity and ran with it.

“We all know what British is capable of, so it’s just a matter of him getting an opportunity. He got that opportunity (Friday) night, he definitely made the most of it. So I’m super proud of British. I love that guy to death.”

Health check on Sam Howell

Fourteen days had passed since Howell, returning from the upper-body injury that caused him to miss the first start of his college career, had played in a game.

The junior went 14 of 26 passing for 147 yards against N.C. State, and carried 18 times for 98 yards while accounting for three touchdowns. He endured his typical share of punishment with his battering ram running style and also was dropped for five sacks by the Wolfpack, increasing the number of times he has been sacked on the season to 44, the worst mark in the ACC.

Howell acknowledged earlier in the week that he was undergoing daily treatment sessions and rehab work on the upper-body injury.

“I felt pretty good coming in,” he said Friday night. “The training staff did a really good job kind of getting me ready for the game. I felt pretty good throughout the game. There were a couple of hits that bothered me a little bit, but I felt all right. Probably get some more evaluation (Saturday) or Monday or so, but I feel all right.”

Howell threw for a season-low output Friday night, but became the eighth quarterback in ACC history to reach the 10,000 passing yards threshold. He’s currently seventh all-time in the league with 10,078 passing yards, 20 yards behind former Clemson star Trevor Lawrence for sixth place.

Howell’s 17-yard throw to Justin Olson that gave the Tar Heels a 24-14 lead against N.C. State marked his 91st career touchdown pass, moving him ahead of Lawrence and Deshaun Watson for third place in ACC history in that category.

Mack Brown’s mastery of the Wolfpack fizzles

Brown’s run of success against N.C. State fizzled here Friday night, as North Carolina melted down in the stunning loss to the Wolfpack.

The dramatic turn of events and whirlwind ending that went awry left the 70-year-old Brown processing his first loss in this rivalry since 1992.

His Tar Heels teams had owned N.C. State, winning seven straight meetings in this series. Brown won five straight games against N.C. State as North Carolina’s coach from 1993-97, before leaving for the Texas job. Since his return in 2019, the Tar Heels had rolled 41-10 (in Raleigh) and 48-21 (in Chapel Hill) against the Wolfpack — until Friday night unraveled and North Carolina coughed up its 30-21 lead late.

“Just absolutely let one go at the end,” Brown said. “Credit N.C. State, they didn’t give up, they didn’t quit. And we’ve got to learn how to finish games. This one was so much like Pittsburgh. And it goes back to the head coach, because they’ve got to believe in themselves enough and be disciplined enough that they finish games like this.

“So it’s on me. Those kids really played hard, and I feel bad for them. They played their absolute guts out like they did at Pittsburgh.”

Brown forever has preached the importance of defeating in-state opponents. As Tar Heels coach, he had been 23-1 across his previous 24 games against N.C. State, Duke and Wake Forest prior to Friday night.

Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC football takeaways: Ending unravels in epic collapse at NC State