North Carolina: One Second Left, 45 Minutes Late

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Down 21-0, with zero first downs and only 34 total yards, that was North Carolina’s reality with 11:46 left in the second quarter of Friday’s football game at Wake Forest.

It didn’t look much better to start the fourth quarter, as the Tar Heels trailed 21-3. But, much like their opening two wins, Carolina mounted another fourth-quarter comeback and was within striking distance trailing 24-18 with 1:09 left.

On the game’s final play, North Carolina running back Michael Carter ran out-of-bounds with what appeared to be one second left at Wake Forest’s 42-yard line. But the referee ended the game, and the Deacons (3-0) held off the Tar Heels (2-1) to remain unbeaten.

“The official on my side,” Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown said. ” he held up one second, and ran up and told the other referee(s). And next thing I know, they’re running off the ball. I sure would’ve liked the chance at a hail mary.”

Either way, this game was lost or won, depending on your perspective, in the first 45 minutes of the game. Here’s how some Carolina players felt after the game.

Sophomore Linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel

“We didn’t come out with the energy we were supposed to. And you can see in the second half. We only gave up three points. The first half, we gave up 21.”

“I think we needed it coming off highs. We beat South Carolina, beat Miami: both good athletic teams. Miami and South Carolina were the more talented teams we were he gonna face this year. And coming in here facing Wake Forest, we thought we were gonna have an easy one – and we didn’t

Junior running back Michael Carter

“Although playing catchup is more exciting for the fans, I got high blood pressure, it runs in the family, I rather just start fast and finish fast, because obviously we’re gonna finish fast.”

“Honestly, I kind of slowed down to set the blocks up, and if I would’ve just run straight out of bounds, we probably would’ve had three seconds left, but I thought it was gonna be the last play of the game, and that was a mental error by me.”

“Personally, I just feel like we ran out of time.”

Senior safety Myles Dorn

“We always preach first quarter, but we have to play first and third. So I think tonight we really saw that we have to come out with energy. It’s only 15 minutes in a quarter. We gotta play the whole game.”

Freshman quarterback Sam Howell

“We’re not happy with being 2-1, we expect to win every game that we play, it’s on to the next game now. App St. is the most important game of the year, because it’s the next one. So we have to go 1-0 next week.”