2014 UNC Football Season in Review: GIF Edition

What a difference a year makes.

As the calendar flipped to 2014, optimism around the UNC football program was running high. Carolina shook off a disastrous start to the 2013 season by winning six of its last seven games, including a 39-17 thumping of Cincinnati in the Belk Bowl. There was excitement and buzz in spring practice with cool Blue Dawn videos and the core of the 2013 team returning. Year three of the Larry Fedora era was looking bright indeed. As August rolled around and fall practice opened, things started happening quickly.

First, although the ACC media only picked the Heels to finish 4th in the Coastal Division, the national types gave UNC a preseason top-25 ranking:

Then the week before the season opener against Liberty details emerged about the Aloft Hotel incident that resulted in the suspension of four players and, over four months later, still hasn't been fully explained:

Carolina struggled against both Liberty and San Diego State before pulling out wins at home to start 2-0:

Then came the disaster in Greenville, as UNC gave up a school-record 70 points and almost 800 yards of offense in an embarrassing showing:

Then there was the loss at Clemson and a complete no-show against a weak Virginia Tech team as the Heels were limping to a four-game losing streak:

But a competitive showing at Notre Dame give a glimmer of improvement and hope for a second-half turnaround like last season:

Carolina responded with a win over long-time nemesis and eventual Coastal champion Georgia Tech:

And followed that by stealing a win at Virginia on some horrible coaching decisions by Mike London:

Meanwhile the Wainstein Report came out, casting UNC in a horrible light and making for yet another distraction:

And then UNC went a laid a big ol' stinking egg at Miami:

But after an open week, UNC righted the ship and raced past Pitt:

And then blew up Duke on national TV to win back the Victory Bell and become bowl eligible after their 4th win in 5 games:

And UNCFan was all like:

And of course it was because the team vandalized the locker room with spray paint after the game:

Carolina had a chance to stick it to State one last time and finish the season with two big ACC wins over its Triangle rivals but apparently the team was like:

And UNCFan was left like this:

So UNC was left to sweat a little bit come bowl selection time, as the ACC had more bowl teams than guaranteed spots, plus was a Christmas visit to Shreveport in the cards. In the end, the Heels were picked to head to Detroit. In December.

Before the bowl game, in the wake of a record-setting horrendously bad season, defensive coordinator Vic Koenning was sacked:

With a chance to redeem themselves from the State game and end the season with a winning record, the Heels once again looked disinterested and flat against Rutgers:

Once again leaving UNCFan like:

And UNC's mascot like:

So whereas last year there was a real positive vibe headed into the off-season, 2015 is opening like this, with a whole lot of questions:

UNC will certainly face some challenges heading into the spring, coming off the program's first losing season since 2007 and Larry Fedora's first-ever sub-.500 season as a head coach. Expect a lot of this coming soon: