Flag Bunting, 30 years later
And, while I'm picking on referees, I'll let John Bunting vent a little at your neighborhood blog about what he considers a bit of overzealousness on the part of game officials to keep on-field celebrations tasteful.
After Saturday's 33-30 OT loss, which moved the Heels to the edge of bowl elimination, Bunting had this to say about Kareen Taylor holding the ball off to the side before he crossed the goal line on a 4th-quarter interception return:
"If there's one thing that bothers me about this game of football, it starts with the NFL ... They've gotten away from stopping all the absolutely foolish and unnecessary attention-drawing shenanigans and stuff that when I was playing they didn't allow. And now it's the thing to do in that league, every individual trying to outdo another.
"It's unfortunate that it happens in that league. But at the college level they say you're not supposed to celebrate excessively, and you're not supposed to taunt. The referees told me that Kareen Taylor taunted by holding that ball with one hand as he crossed the goal line."
Is that a taunt?
"I'll tell you this," Bunting said, "when I scored a touchdown against Maryland my senior year, I know that I held the ball up over my head as I crossed the goal line. I guess I should've been called for taunting."
Bunting was a tad upset at the officials for not calling the clip on which Hilee Taylor was injured, and for a holding call on Nick Starcevic at the line of scrimmage on a punt, which gave Maryland a first down and led to a field goal ("I have never seen that in my life," he said, trying not to cross the line into fine/rebuke-from-the-league-office territory).
As for the game's outcome, I told a fellow reporter before last week's game against Boston College that I suspected the Heels would beat BC but lose to Maryland. I didn't blog it in great deal, as Jimbo would have, so I'm not looking for credit.
But I will say this: It didn't go down at all as I would've expected. The Heels' offense had been struggling to get in the end zone and UNC managed to beat BC with a long kick return and solid defense. So I figured offensive problems would be their undoing against the Terps. Not at all. Matt Baker played his best career game at QB. It was the Heels' risk-taking defense that got burned twice on long balls as the Terps rallied. Looking at those one-on-one situations gone bad, I'd say this team misses injured CB Jacoby Watkins more than I'd realized.