I tried to share THF’s optimism in the game preview that UNC would want to finish this trying season on a strong note for interim coach Everett Withers and perform well in a de facto tryout for new coach Larry Fedora. Instead, Tar Heel Nation’s worst fears were realized when, after the first drive, Carolina put forth an uninspired effort and pretty much mailed it in during a 41-24 loss to the Tigers.

If you had been stranded on a desert island since August 1 and had missed UNC’s 12 regular season games, the Independence Bowl was an encapsulation of much of what UNC did, both good and bad this season. There was the opening drive, where the Heels mixed up the run and pass and Dwight Jones looked like an all-American; there were some solid hits by the linebackers; and Bryn Renner showed flashes of being a fabulous quarterback. Then again, there was the horrific offensive line play; head-scratching offensive play calling; poor tackling; inexplicable drops by the receivers; and a defensive secondary that constantly blew coverages and couldn’t guard Garner High School’s receivers. About the only things from the regular season that we did not see in the bowl game, thankfully, were the special teams foibles and the mind-boggling stupid penalties. But when those are the highlights, there’s not much else to say.

With that said, here is the bowl game edition of the GBU Report:

GOOD

Bryn Renner: At least someone looked like they wanted to impress the new boss. Renner threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns and was basically all the Heels could count on for the offense. Renner set the UNC single-season record for touchdown passes as well. Then again, Renner’s game was not without its warts, as he grossly underthrew at least two balls that could have been big gains and possibly touchdowns.

Erik Highsmith: Highsmith had 8 catches for 77 yards and a touchdown and became Renner’s go-to receiver when Jones vanished after the first quarter. It was nice to see Highsmith and Jheranie Boyd get involved in the offense since that will be the QB-receiver combination of the future.

Thomas Hibbard: I guess it doesn’t say much for your team’s effort when the punter makes the “good” list, but the oft-maligned freshman had a career punting day, averaging nearly 50 yards per kick and placing three inside the 20. If this is a glimpse of what the future holds for Hibbard, then hopefully punting can become a strength of this team going forward instead of the liability it has been most of the season.

BAD

Dwight Jones: If you didn’t actually watch the game, you might look at Jones’ stat line of 6 catches for 77 yards and a SportsCenter-worthy TD grab and think it was just another day at the office. But Jones apparently needed to check out of Shreveport early to get back to his New Year’s Eve party because he only had two catches after the first quarter, dropped a number of catchable balls, and was a non-factor the rest of the way. Sadly, it won’t be his TD catch that makes the highlight film – it will be the bobbled-off-his-back blooper-reel worthy turnover (that is amazingly charged to Renner as an interception) that is the lasting image of his UNC career.

Gio Bernard: Missouri made mincemeat of the nation’s leading freshman runner, as Bernard only had 31 yards on 13 rushing attempts. Since 17 of those came on one play, the rest of the day he had 14 yards on 12 carries. I have harped all season on the fact that Bernard’s rushing totals have come in spite of his offensive line, not because of it. Since UNC is incapable of opening holes between the tackles, the Tigers covered the edges well and did not let Gio work his magic to squirt through for yardage on second effort.

UGLY

Offensive Line: The usual suspects make a final appearance in the GBU for this season. I could just copy and paste the “ugly” reports from this season I suppose, but for most of 13 games it has been the same – inability to open holes between the tackles, being a step slow and missing blocks on the pulls, getting blown up by smaller defensive linemen, on and on and on.

Defensive Backs: Again a fixture in the “ugly” section, the performance of this group on Monday night bordered on the comical. Fans are used to seeing the backs being torched, but the blown coverages and apathy shown against Missouri were probably the worst of the season.

Everett Withers: For all of the praise rightfully given to Withers and his staff for keeping the season in the road in 2011, he failed his final test as UNC’s head coach miserably. The Heels looked disinterested and were woefully unprepared for the Tigers. Under Withers, Carolina at least had a reputation for continuing to compete even when the team got down, but that never really came to fruition against Missouri. Ultimately the team wasn’t ready to win the games they needed to win, namely NCSU and the bowl game. I think it is funny how so many message board fans wanted Withers to remain as defensive coordinator under Fedora. Still think so now?

The end of the season brings an end to the Butch Davis/Everett Withers era of UNC football. Unfortunately, this era will be known more for what might have been than for what actually was, given the NCAA unpleasantness and the abrupt coaching change before this season. Rob Stone and Danny Kannell of ESPN kept referencing the NFL talent on UNC’s roster and that is Davis’ legacy at Carolina: lots of talent and not much to show for it. On the other hand, the program is in the best shape at a coaching transition since Bill Dooley gave way to Dick Crum over 30 years ago. The Hat is now on the clock.

The official end of the Butch Davis era.

The question facing UNC heading into this game is not so much how the Heels match-up with Missouri but one of focus and preparation. It is a legitimate concern when you consider all that has gone on in the past month. UNC has named a new head coach effectively ending the tenure of the current staff. The whirlwind surrounding that the fact the current staff have had an eye on where they will land next is bound to raise a question or two on just how focused the preparation has been for this bowl game. Not to mention the game is in Shreveport, LA which is hardly a destination you dream of playing at when the season begins.

On the flip side, you have the players who know they are returning next year undoubtedly thinking about playing for Larry Fedora next season. Fedora, who led Southern Miss to a 24-17 win over Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve will likely be watching this game just to see what kind of hand he’s been dealt. Players like Dwight Jones and Quinton Coples are thinking about the NFL Draft and turning in a solid performance in this game. There is plenty of motivation to go around in sending the seniors and the coaches off in a blaze of victorious glory.

Such is the pitfall of bowl games. Due to the long layoff and circumstances surrounding the game,  you never know which team will show up. This goes for Missouri too, except the Tigers are not dealing with the same issues of staff and program upheaval. In UNC’s case, you hope a motivated, well prepared team comes out and takes care of business.

Regarding the actual match-up of these two teams on football terms, it strikes me as a fairly even one. Missouri has a strong run game which can be countered by UNC’s front seven. Missouri’s defense is average at best which should give Gio Bernard, Bryn Renner and Dwight Jones a shot at putting some points on the board. The real concern from UNC’s perspective is Missiouri QB James Franklin who passed for over 2700 yards and threw 20 TDs vs 10 INTs. In fact Renner and Franklin are 41st and 42nd nationally in passing. Given how poorly UNC’s pass defense has played this season, facing a competent QB is not a recipe for winning. In essence, UNC probably need to get the offense cooking and hope for some opportunistic takeaways to balance the scales.

UNC is playing for a fourth straight eight win season which is the perfect end to an era which had so much promise but ended up being fairly average.

UNC 28 Missouri 25

After a much speculation that UNC would end up in the Military Bowl in Washington, DC some last minute selection surprises up the food chain moved UNC from the D.C. bowl to the Independence Bowl in Shreveport, LA to play Missouri.

Apparently what happened is Virginia Tech was taken to play in the Sugar Bowl putting two ACC teams into the Bowl Championship Series for the first time in history. Clemson was already slated for the Orange Bowl by virtue of their 28 point win over the Hokies to take the ACC Championship. The original assumption was Virginia Tech would then go to the Chick-fila Bowl and the ACC teams would fall into order from there with UNC in the ACC’s 8th bowl tie-in, the Military Bowl. With Virginia Tech moving up the East Side, everyone else slid up one spot including the Heels who go to Shreveport instead of D.C.

All things considered UNC would be better off in the Military Bowl. D.C. is an easy trek from Chapel Hill and coming three days after Christmas it would be much easier to attend. The Independence Bowl is the day after Christmas in a place no one wants to go on a normal day much less right after Christmas. It is too far from Chapel Hill to drive and airline tickets are a tad expensive. In other words, not many UNC fans are going to this game. I have no idea how much Missouri fans travel but chances are this is not going to be a well attended game.

Then again it really doesn’t matter. When you operate in the 7-8 win range, like UNC has for the past four years the bowl choices are going to be pretty thin. The only benefit UNC gleans from this game is the extra month of practice for the underclassmen which actually may not be as beneficial as normal considering there will be a new coaching staff next season.

For what its worth, UNC will be going for a fourth straight eight win season on December 26th, which is still better than the Bunting-Torbush years regardless of what anyone else says.

** The UNC coaching search is in full swing. The list of reported serious candidates includes head coaches James Franklin of Vanderbilt, Kevin Sumlin of Houston, Larry Fedora of Southern Mississippi, Butch Jones of Cincinnati, and Skip Holtz of South Florida; Auburn offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn has reportedly interviewed as well. Of course, new AD Bubba Cunningham’s home run dream would appear to be Boise State’s Chris Petersen, and the message boards have been hard at work parsing his non-denial of interest in UNC when Petersen has publicly refuted interest in other jobs, like Arizona.  With the official end of the regular season this weekend, expect the coaching carousel to really get cranked up.

** Speaking of coaching openings, earlier this week ESPN’s Brock Huard ranked the available coaching openings and has UNC as the most desirable opening out there as of now. Huard sought the input of “a handful of current and former collegiate coaches and ESPN analysts to get their opinions, accounting for eight factors: facilities, tradition, committed administration and boosters, coaching staff budget, captive local population, livability, centralized recruiting base and current talent level.” You may remember Huard’s brother Luke played QB for the Tar Heels in the late 90s and early 2000s.

** Speaking of former UNC quarterbacks, history will be made Sunday as T.J. Yates will start at QB for the Houston Texans against the Atlanta Falcons. No former Carolina player has ever started a game at quarterback in the NFL, but Yates has been pressed into service after season-ending injuries to starter Matt Schaub and backup Matt Leinart. Yates came on in relief last week and led the Texans to a victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars.

** The UNC football team was recognized for the 7th time in the last 8 years by the American Football Coaches Association for having an NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR) of over 75%. UNC was one of 46 schools nationwide, and one of six in the ACC, to receive the honor. Other ACC schools recognized were Boston College, Clemson, Duke, Miami, and Wake Forest.

** This weekend’s games may bring the postseason bowl picture into clearer focus. The ACC produced eight bowl-eligible teams (actually nine, but Miami decided not to go bowling in light of impending NCAA sanctions), but only UNC has a sub-.500 record in the league. ACC rules prohibit bowls from selecting schools with more than one fewer win than any available school, which means that a bowl could not pick UNC at 3-5 in the league over, say, Wake Forest who was 5-3.

What all this means is that, with the worst ACC record of any of the bowl-eligible teams, Carolina is really only in line for either the Independence Bowl in Shreveport or the Military Bowl in Washington, DC.  One intriguing storyline is if the Heels end up in Washington, they could be matched up with Air Force, whose coach Troy Calhoun has been mentioned as a candidate for the UNC job.

Bowl selections will be made official on Sunday.

UNC was dead in the water after blowing a second-half lead against Tennessee and having Dwight Jones drop a pass in the hands on 4th-and-20. The Heels forced a 3-and-out but had the ball at their own 20 with just 31 seconds to play and no time outs. Then the fun began.

T.J. Yates completed a pass for 30 yards to Todd Harrelson, and Tennessee was flagged for a leading-with-the-helmet hit for 15 more yards. Yates then hit Jones for a first down, again getting hit late helmet-to-helmet, but this time there was no call. The Heels next inexplicably called a running play for Shaun Draughn, and then as T.J. Yates was trying to spike the ball, the field goal team was trying to rush onto the field. As a result, UNC had 14 or 15 players as the ball was snapped and spiked and the clock ran to zero. Referee Dennis Lipski of the Big Ten officiating crew called the game over, but replays showed there was in fact one second remaining. UNC was assessed a five-yard penalty for too many men on the field, and Casey Barth calmly drilled a 37-yard field goal to send the game to overtime. (The irony, of course, is that Tennessee lost a game against LSU this season for having too many men on the field, whereas in this case it may have saved the Tar Heels)

After trading touchdowns in the first overtime, senior linebacker Quan Sturdivant intercepted a pass from UT freshman phenom quarterback Tyler Bray, and Barth punched through the game-winner from 23 yards out to give Carolina its first bowl win under Butch Davis and its first overall since 2001.

UNC won the sloppy, penalty-filled game in spite of itself and the atrocious clock management at the end. Yates did not have a stellar final performance, but he was money when it counted. Draughn also capped his career with a fine night, and Ryan Taylor made key catch after key catch. It was simply nice to see the Heels win this sort of game after the heartbreaks particularly in the early season.

Given the injuries, suspensions, and general drama of this season, it is pretty impressive that Carolina ground out eight wins for the third consecutive year. Between a bowl win and two nice basketball wins here at the end of December, maybe we can bid goodbye to the year of hell that was 2010.

Alternate title: The So You Thought You Could Duck Us Bowl

And so the book will close on a trying 2010 for Carolina football with a bit of karma and good humor the college football gods have to love. The Tar Heels will face Tennessee, who raised eyebrows this year because they bought out their home-and-home series with UNC in order to lighten up their schedule. In what can be described either as irony or serendipity, the Volunteers won their last four games to become bowl eligible and earn a bowl date with Carolina anyway.

But karma’s sense of humor only goes so far, and the turmoil of injuries and suspensions that has followed UNC all season made the trip to Nashville as well. Senior linebacker Bruce Carter and senior offensive lineman Alan Pelc will not play due to injury, and it was announced this week that senior running back Anthony Elzy, who had performed so admirably after the season-ending injury to Johnny White, is suspended for the bowl game for academic issues. Carolina is down to two healthy running backs, Shaun Draughn and Hunter Chuck Norris Furr.

Senior quarterback T. J. Yates will try to close out a record-setting senior season with a bowl win for the first time since 2001. With the running backs depleted yet again, it may be up to Yates to carry his team offensively once more.

Tennessee got off to a slow start under first-year coach Derek Dooley but won its last four games to become bowl eligible, although the Vols only beat one team with a winning record, and that was a 6-5 FCS team.  UT helped turn their season in November on the arm of freshman quarterback Tyler Bray, who threw for almost 250 yards per game.

Bowl officials in Nashville have to be thrilled as the game is “sold out” (for what this really means in bowl terms, you should really read Death to the BCS, but I digress) as it is a relatively short drive for UNC fans and will be a de facto home game for Tennessee. Carolina is 0-2 under Butch Davis in bowls, but this should be the year he breaks through as even a depleted UNC team should be enough to handle the Vols.

UNC 27, Tennessee 17

The game will be played on December 30th at 6:40 PM and be broadcast on ESPN. Overall, this is a good bowl for Tar Heel fans with designs on attending. Nashville is a nice destination which the only negative for the Heels being the unavoidable probability this will be a de facto home game for the Volunteers. Still, it’s a better place to visit than say Shreveport or El Paso. With UNC sitting at 7-5 and in the middle of the ACC pecking order, this was as good as it was going to get without making a 3rd straight trip to Charlotte. Regardless this is a good opportunity to make it a third straight eight win season and knock off an SEC team in their home state. Butch Davis has also never won a bowl game at UNC going 0-2 in the previous appearances in Charlotte.

The real value in going to a bowl for UNC is really the extra practice time. UNC was forced to burn a few redshirts because of the NCAA investigation and injuries so giving the young players on the team extra reps is beneficial for next season. Also, I am not sure how Butch Davis plans to handle the first team reps with the QBs, but I would think giving Bryn Renner some of them would be smart move. Not that Renner is going to take T.J. Yates starting job but as we look to the next season, as much work as you can give him the better. Speaking of Yates, whatever he does will be adding to records he already owns and I don’t think he is going to catch the single season TD mark of 23. Yates has 18 TD passes now so unless UT plans on laying down on pass defense, that record will stand.

Notes on Tennessee: UT finished the regular season 6-6 overall, 3-5 in the SEC. The Vols lost six games by an average of 20.5 points but is presently riding a four game winning streak with wins over Memphis, Mississippi, Vanderbilt and Kentucky. UNC and UT shared one common opponent, LSU and like the Heels, the Vols lost on the final play of the game when LSU scored to take the game 16-14 in Baton Rouge. UT head coach Derek Dooley is in his first year with the program.

Take your pick of the boneheaded mistakes in this one. It is fairly amazing that this team has found ways to make the worst mistakes it could possibly make at the most inconvenient time. T.J. Yates interceptions on the opponent’s goal line. Getting the exact same penalty called two straight plays. Passes hitting receivers in the hands and dropped. And the cherry on top: jumping offsides on 4th and 2 with less than two minutes left and Pitt attempting a 47 yard FG.  Who knows, maybe Pitt still hits the FG but I would rather take that gamble and nearly two mins of clock to move the football rather than 52 seconds.  Speaking of which: Why did Butch Davis allow 40 seconds of game time to slip away on the play that followed the UNC offsides penalty? I understand having a timeout in the pocket but I would have felt better had Yates been operating with forty more seconds.

This was a frustrating end to the season that fittingly concluded with a Yates pass thrown over the receivers head and landing nowhere near anyone in blue. A game like this you at least want to see the FG attempted.  If Casey Barth misses a decent FG or even a long one, the blow of the loss is cushioned to some extent by the fact the effort to win the game was made.  No such comfort here.

Thus ends the third season of Butch Davis.  It was a head scratcher.. At times this team was inept and the coaching suspect.  During the four game winning streak that took the Heels to the eight win mark the defense did a lot of things right and the offense was serviceable. However, the offensive line was always an issue and Yates was still Yates. Maybe fewer OL injuries and Shaun Draughan and A.J. Blue being healthy changes some things, especially versus NCSU and Pitt.  The record says the program stood still but the wins over Miami and Virginia Tech say something else. Hopefully most of the defense returns and Bryn Renner turns out to be the real deal so next season can be a true push forward.

UNC heads back to Charlotte for a second straight year, the by-product of bowl officials jockeying for a profit and the Heels’ complete inability to take care of business in three different games.  Change just on of those results, particularly the Thursday night game versus FSU, then UNC is playing somewhere else.  What’s done is done and while the location might be the same, the opportunity is as well.  The Heels will be facing a very good Pitt team on national television, can registered the first nine win season in Chapel Hill since the Mack Brown years and collect the first bowl win since the beginning of the decade.

How are the Heels going to accomplish that? Defense baby. Pitt is a running team and UNC has shown they can shutdown a good running game.  Just ask Ryan Williams. Pitt has a 1600-plus yards rusher in Dion Lewis who averages 5.5 yards per carry and has scored 16 TDs.  Stopping Lewis puts the pressure on the passing game to deliver offense for the Panthers.  That is not necessarily a negative for Pitt however.  Panther QB Bill Stull has done an effective job all season limiting mistakes(only 8 INTs) and balances out the run game.  Stopping the Panther run game won’t necessarily derail the Pitt offense but it can put it out of balance and if the UNC defensive line can do to Stull what alumni Julius Peppers did to Brett Favre on this same field six days ago it will put the Heels at an advantage.

The question is whether the Heels can muster any kind of offense to back up the defense. Pitt sports a fairly decent defense on paper. The passing defense is the weaker aspect which probably does not work as well for UNC given the trouble T.J. Yates has finding receivers.  Who knows, maybe Santa Clause brought Yates some mobility and passing accuracy for Christmas.  Given the amount of time UNC has had to prepare for this game I would expect to see plenty of those deceptive plays such as putting Greg Little in motion and then handing off or maybe a pass or two from Bobby Rome. The more UNC is able to use plays that keep opposing defenses off balanced the easier it seems to be for them to get away with their glaring weaknesses.

Concerning the intangibles, Pitt is coming off two losses and the last one cost them a trip to a BCS bowl as the Big East champion. You always wonder in a situation like that if the Panthers will have the proper interest level.  The same could be said for UNC since this is the 2nd time they have played in this bowl. One caveat for the Heels, especially on defense is this game could be a nice highlight reel for NFL scouts.  That certainly was the case for Hakeem Nicks last season.  The juniors on defense currently considering a jump to the NFL could help themselves with a huge game here. Also, the game is not sold out.  Less than 50,000 is expected for a stadium seating over 73,000. I expect most of them will be wearing blue making this a de facto home game for the Heels.

UNC has enough riding on this one that showing up and not winning will be hugely disappointing.

UNC 28 Pitt 19

“No, we are pretty pissed at the fact we got shafted.”

Of course Kendric Burney, for his part, understands they sort of did this to themselves:

Junior cornerback Kendric Burney said the Heels don’t have anyone to blame but themselves after losing to N.C. State, 28-27 on Nov. 28 to finish 8-4, instead of 9-3.

“We can’t point the finger and say we should be in a better bowl,” Burney said. “We did that to ourselves.”

Other tidbits from the media availability:

• It is possible Shaughn Draughn and Jamal Womble will be available for the bowl game. Butch Davis has told them to get into a “football mentality.” I would be very surprised if Draughan played given the nature of his injury which was a fractured shoulder blade.
• Butch Davis has met with the juniors who might to jump to the NFL to explain how the process works and to make sure they understand the pertinent NCAA rules.
• Marvin Austin, who is rated the #3 junior defensive tackle by draft guru Mel Kiper, is a likely 1st round pick. Austin says he has no idea what he is doing and for the love of Dick Crum stop asking him!
• Butch Davis says he has no idea if he will lose anyone but does have a “pretty good feeling” about what they are going to do.  Go ahead and parse that seeming contradiction if you’d like.
• And yes, Marvin Austin did say this about the Gator Bowl picking FSU: “I was like freakin’ Bobby Bowden, what the freak?” What the freak, indeed.