[Gallery] UNC vs. Temple 2019 Military Bowl
Annapolis, Md. – In Mack Brown’s first season back as the North Carolina Tar Heels head coach, UNC conquered more than many expected.
But yesterday’s, Dec. 27, 2019, 55-13 run-away victory over the Temple Owls signifies more than UNC’s first bowl victory in more than ending a 5-year drought while posting the most points scored in Carolina-bowl game history, but a culture shift that the players – UNC faithful – haven’t seen in a long time.
A genuine care about Carolina Football.
“I ain’t never had a team that was a family like this,” said UNC junior wide receiver. “It makes everything better. It makes practice better. You don’t mind coming to practice. You don’t mind being in the stadium. After the past years, you get a bad mood when you come into the stadium but now when you get there, everybody is excited to be there.”
Gallery (Images courtesy of Landon Bost)
“It’s a special moment because I know I set goals,” Newsome said. “I put goals up and wrote them on my wall and I set it for a 1,000 plus and 10 touchdowns plus and I got them. So it’s a huge accomplishment.”
UNC sophomore wide receiver Dymai Brown also surpassed 1,000 yards receiving today to finish the season with 1,034 yards receiving and 12 touchdown receptions. Brown and Newsome are the only UNC teammates to have 1,000 yards receiving.
North Carolina freshman quarterback Sam Howell won the Military Bowl MVP. He finished with
UNC junior running back Michael Carter had 84 yards rushing to push his season total to 1,003 yards and become the first running back since 2015 to have 1,000 rushing yards in a season.
UNC finished the season 7-6, 4-4 ACC are poised for a great 2020 campaign as they return multiple key players on both sides of the ball as well as a coaching staff in their second season together.
“Sally and I wanted to come back and influence young people’s lives,” said UNC head coach Mack Brown. “And we wanted to help them do things that weren’t as easy for them to do, and be an extension of their parents and you can’t do that unless you win. And we started out with a blast. We won two quick games; and then we lost two; and we had some injuries; and didn’t play as well; then lost a third one I thnk to Clemson; and then came back kind of up and down; and we didn’t really know who we were.
“And then the last three weeks, we’ve been a really good football team. So it’s fun knowing these guys coming back have something to build on. Seven is not enough anymore. You want to go to a bowl and win every year. And get a streak of wins. And for the rest of Myles’(Dorn) lives and those seniors’ lives, they can say they started North Carolina football in the right direction. And Myles and these seniors have got this thing headed back in the right direction.”
(Feature image courtesy of Landon Bost)