A day many are expecting to be one of the most eventful in the history of the University of Louisville football annals almost turns into one of the most shamefaced. An opportunity for a Big East team to make a good showing on an ABC-TV regional telecast, hopefully offsetting some the news plaguing the conference the past week.
A crowd conservatively announced as 53,334 but with empty seats almost impossible to find. fiercely-intense fans armed with thunder sticks, into every play, boisterous when North Carolina has the ball, knowing to tone it down when UofL is on offense.
What fun it is, how easy it seems, UofL rolling to a 34-7 lead over the first half. With Teddy Bridgewater tossing for three touchdowns and Jeremy Wright and Senorise Perry averaging nine yards per carry, North Carolina doesn’t have a prayer. The game is over as UofL heads for the dressing room, the crowd to the concourses.
This one already in the win column, the only questions whether Charlie Strong will have mercy on another friend and how soon Will Stein will start calling signals.
North Carolina, however, is not buying, finding a way to finally stop Perry at its own 20, discovering an offense, marching 80 yards for a touchdown. UofL players still not too concerned, people still socializing in the Brown & Williamson and PNC clubs. The “complacency,” as Teddy Bridgewater described it, continuing deep into the fourth quarter.
But the Tar Heels will score again. And again. The surprising realization that UofL could be in the process of coughing up a sure win would occur at about the 6:08 mark as North Carolina began a 97-yard march for another one, cutting the lead to 39-34. Adrian Bushell fumbles on the kickoff, giving NC the ball at UofL’s 20. This is starting to look ugly.
Only an Andrew Johnson deflection of the ball in a North Carolina receiver’s hand in the end zone at the 1:49 mark will preserve the win. The receiver has it firmly in his grasp, but Johnson flips the ball out before a foot hits the ground.
Charlie Strong will say afterwards that the crowd won this game. But fans were as guilty as the players, knowing, thinking the game was over at half time. They were there at the end, true, but Andrew Johnson preserved this 39-34 cliffhanger.
Saves our face, preserves our dignity, ensures a happy ending instead of nightmare, a day we will choose to remember instead of forgetting.
Why?
The fans did their job! Its on the coaches and players and npbody else. They played the game! The team continues to play poorly at home. And the buck stops on Charlie Strongs Desk! Charlie is going yo have considerer some staff changes.