'I'm not going to sit around and feel bad': UNC football turns focus to ACC Championship
CHAPEL HILL — The task of regrouping and restoring confidence for the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship game is facing coach Mack Brown and his North Carolina Tar Heels this week.
The Tar Heels (9-3) will travel to Charlotte to face Clemson (10-2) for the ACC championship at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday (8 p.m., ABC). They'll enter the game with hopes of reversing a late-season spiral highlighted by a gut-wrenching 30-27 double-overtime loss Friday against arch-rival N.C. State.
UNC was flying high three weeks ago after beating Wake Forest to clinch the ACC Coastal Division title and rising to 13th in the College Football Playoff rankings. But narrow losses against the Wolfpack and two weeks ago to Georgia Tech (21-17) derailed the Tar Heels' momentum.
"I'm very disappointed with how we ended the regular season,'' UNC's junior linebacker Cedric Gray said after Friday's loss to N.C. State. "Obviously, we had a pretty good season leading up to these last two games, so I'm disappointed we lost these last two weeks, particularly this week to a rivalry team. I'm just very upset about that.''
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N.C. State (8-4), not UNC, was supposed to be a contender for the ACC title this season. But injuries, especially one to quarterback Devin Leary, led to the Wolfpack underachieving. With a national television audience watching Friday, however, N.C. State prevailed in double overtime when Christopher Dunn converted a 21-yard field goal and UNC's Noah Burnette missed his attempt in the second extra period.
The Tar Heels were already working through the frustration of the defeat late Friday evening.
"We have to put this behind us and learn from it,'' quarterback Drake Maye said. "We've got a big one next week against Clemson. Our dream was to go to the ACC Championship, and we're playing there in my home stadium. So we're looking forward to that, but this one hurts.''
The ACC Championship game will be a homecoming for Maye, Gray and many other Tar Heels, who played their high school football in and around the city of Charlotte. Maye graduated from Charlotte's Myers Park High School, while Gray Ardrey Kell.
"My motor never stops,'' Gray said. "I'm sad right now. But tomorrow I'm looking forward to it and I'm trying to get my guys motivated because we have a big, big opportunity next week.
"It (playing for ACC title) means everything to me — the ACC Championship, in my hometown, versus a team like Clemson — that's something you can only dream about when you are a kid. So I'll be excited next week.''
Brown, too, tried to dwell on the positives after Friday's loss to the Wolfpack.
"They're still the champions of the Coastal for the second time in school history,'' he said. "So I'm not going to sit around and feel bad. I'm not going to feel embarrassed for nine wins. I'll give two teams credit who beat us at home at the end, which I'm disappointed in, and they (players) are disappointed in. But when your team plays as hard as they can play, that's all you can ask them to do.''
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: UNC football turns focus to ACC Championship after tough loss
