This hasn’t been a historically grim football season in the Triangle. It just feels like it.
When North Carolina lost at Pittsburgh late, late Thursday night (in overtime, naturally, UNC being UNC), it brought the Triangle to the brink of its worst collective college football season in more than a decade.
While there’s a little room left to salvage something, and the Triangle is unlikely to go bowl-free for the first time since the dark, dismal days of 2007, it’s been a bad fall.
First, the Tar Heels, who have made so much progress in Mack Brown’s first-slash-11th season and have actually improved their record in close games. Unfortunately, there was a lot of room to grow. After going 2-8 in games decided by a touchdown or less over the previous two seasons, they’re 3-6 this year, with some truly excruciating losses mixed in, from the failed two-point conversion against Clemson to the six overtimes at Virginia Tech.
That’s been the difference between what has been a solid step forward and what could have been a magical season. Flip just the two overtime results and the Tar Heels probably get another shot at Clemson in Charlotte. Alas, they’re going to need to beat N.C. State just to get to a bowl game (assuming a win over Mercer next week, which should be a safe assumption). That would be a curious turn of events since the Wolfpack will be in the same position if it can beat either Louisville or Georgia Tech.
Under normal circumstances, you’d say yes, the Wolfpack can at least beat Georgia Tech, which is in the first year of the transition out of the triple option and into a regular offense, a team that lost to The Citadel and got run off the field by what is not exactly a powerhouse Duke team, among other losses. But the Yellow Jackets did beat Miami, even if that probably says more about Miami than anything else.
But these are not normal circumstances at N.C. State, which has followed up a run of five straight bowls and back-to-back nine-win seasons with what would be unflattering to rebuilders to call a rebuilding year. The revolving door at quarterback and a relentless wave of injuries on both sides of the ball have left the Wolfpack way off the pace, with just the one ACC win -- over Syracuse.
And while there are reasons next year could be better -- the explosiveness of Bam Knight, for one -- it’s hard to imagine the quarterback position improving enough to matter barring the miraculous arrival of a grad transfer. All of which may give finishing this season with a pair of wins to keep the bowl streak alive even more urgency.
Then there’s Duke, which has swung between great (Virginia Tech) and baffling (Virginia) this season, and that’s within the commonwealth alone. Tight losses against Pittsburgh and North Carolina have left the Blue Devils up against a wall, needing to win two of their final three to get to a bowl game for the third straight season and seventh in eight years. If there was ever a team that deserved to finish 6-6, this is the one, but Duke’s going to have to beat either Miami or Wake Forest to get there.
So how bad is it? The worst year of Triangle football in modern human history was 2006, when the three teams combined for four ACC wins and six wins in all. They’re assured of a collective finish better than 2007 as well, with the six ACC wins in hand to match that season and more overall wins (12 to 11).
This season is not historically bad, even as Wake Forest and Appalachian State rub it in. So the Triangle has that going for it. Which is nice.
But those two seasons are the last two seasons when the Triangle didn’t send a single team to a bowl, and that’s still in play. If N.C. State loses to Louisville and Georgia Tech and beats North Carolina, and Duke can only beat one of Syracuse, Wake Forest and Miami, then the Triangle lands on the big zero again.
Either way, it’s going to take everyone winning out (except the loser of the UNC-N.C. State game, obviously) to avoid being the fewest total wins since 2007. That scenario would also get all three teams to bowl games. Not great bowl games -- someone’s probably making a return trip to Shreveport -- but bowl games nonetheless.
Unlikely as that may be, it would go a long way toward salvaging a very frustrating football season in the Triangle.
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 4:23 PM with the headline "This hasn’t been a historically grim football season in the Triangle. It just feels like it.."
