By Eddy Landreth
Staff Writer
The 2010 Music City Bowl between North Carolina and Tennessee was not just another bowl game – not by a long shot.
This football game so far exceeded what we ordinarily call exciting on an ordinary day as to exist within a different realm.
A fifth-year senior quarterback saved the day by throwing the ball onto the ground to preserve one precious second, a singular second Carolina then used to force overtime and eventually stage the most improbable victory in this bowl season and in UNC history. This one will live alongside eight points in 17 seconds in basketball.
One has to weave through all the games played since the Stanford band took the field and aided and abetted a win against California to find a similarly amazing moment in college football.
No victory could better epitomize a team, from every coach to the last walk-on, and the way it overcame a punishing number of injuries and offenses by players who shamed a school known for conducting its sports programs in the so-called right way. The manner in which Carolina defeated Tennessee in double-overtime should make it all the sweeter for the players, coaches and fans, who know that card-carrying members of the ABC (Anybody But Carolina) Club were probably vomiting in the nearest toilet after the game.
This is the year in which Carolina haters expected to see the school and its football program ruined and in a disgraceful heap. Instead, the coaches and players showed how deeply the talent runs and how fierce the determination now exists in Carolina football.
This game led to individual redemption as well. Shaun Draughn found himself watching from the sideline as Johnny White and Anthony Elzy took his job and ran with it throughout the regular season. He bounced back to gain a career-high 160 yards, score a touchdown and earn the MVP award in his final game as a Tar Heel.
Yet no one showed his experience and resiliency more than quarterback T.J. Yates. He did not have his finest game overall; that would be one of the two games this season in which he threw for more than 400 yards. What he did do was respond to a Volunteer touchdown by marching UNC down the field just moments before halftime to hit Erik Highsmith with a 39-yard TD pass to retake the lead, 17-14.
But Yates’ biggest play of the day lay ahead. With time running out in regulation and the field-goal team racing prematurely onto the field, Yates maintained his composure and spiked the ball, reserving one golden second for Casey Barth to kick the game-tying field goal and send the game into overtime.
And finally there was Quan Sturdivant, a linebacker who spent much of his senior season injured, picking off a Tennessee freshman quarterback in the second overtime and then making the smart play by just going to the ground so the UNC offense could finish the victory.
The whole evening was so remarkable that it is still hard to fathom that it actually occurred. But there it was, Butch Davis yelling “How ’bout them Tar Heels†as bottles, cans, cups and who knows what else came flying from the Tennessee fans in the stands.
If there was any doubt how sweet this was for Carolina, that bitter rain cemented it.
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So now you know, if you didn’t already, why UNC is called the Tar Heels. They truly stick in there until the very end, just as if they had tar on their heels.