The ACC's botched offsides call on North Carolina's first onside kick try in Saturday night's ACC Championship Game ended what had been a furious 17-point rally from the Tar Heels. Larry Fedora believed that given the time (1:08) and the recent play of his team, North Carolina might have had a good shot to score one more time and get a shot to force overtime.
"I don't know if we would have gone down and scored, but it was like a minute and eight seconds left on the clock and we should have had the ball at about midfield, and the way we had moved it the last couple series I would have felt pretty good about that," Fedora said.
"It isn't going to change. It doesn't matter one way or the other, so I'm going to have to swallow it like a man and just take it, and that's just the way it is. We came up short."
But there was one other thing that could have prevented the Tar Heels from getting the ball back: if the officials had seen this possible targeting call.
The funny thing here? It really doesn't matter. We spent days, even weeks, discussing the end of Miami-Duke and even identifying the officials' errors and suspending the crew didn't change the outcome of the game. When the clock hits zeroes and the game is over, the game is over. It's in the past, and if your favorite team got screwed or helped by a missed call then maybe you should spend that energy on something more productive than screaming at each other.
Clemson's players and North Carolina's players handled the call, which Larry Fedora and athletic director Bubba Cunningham blatantly said was "wrong," better than anyone else involved in the situation. Zac Brooks got absolutely crushed on the play, and you didn't hear him coming out trying to argue for a right and balanced conclusion. If anyone has a right to complain it's him, but instead he focused his energy on celebrating a great moment with his teammates and the imminent pizza party, set to be the largest in South Carolina state history.
