CHARLOTTE -- Somewhere between bitter and sweet, North Carolina's 2009 football season ended Saturday evening with a 19-17 loss to Pittsburgh in the Meineke Car Care Bowl.
The Tar Heels finished the season at 8-5, and that feels about right. They were often good and occasionally very good, considering some of the injury issues they faced.
But they were also their own worst enemy at times, especially Saturday, which explains how a team that can beat Virginia Tech and Miami could also lose to Virginia and N.C. State.
Greg Little made a brilliant touchdown catch in the first quarter, then made the dumb decision to punt the ball into the stands, something he had hinted at before the game. He may soon be well acquainted with the Kenan Stadium steps.
Quarterback T.J. Yates threw a goal-line interception in the second quarter after the Tar Heels had gutted the Pitt defense by running Ryan Houston.
Just before halftime, Casey Barth squib-kicked the ball out of bounds, setting up a Pittsburgh field goal.
"Almost unforgivable," Davis said.
On fourth-and-2 with the game riding on the far edge of Pitt kicker Dan Hutchins' range with 1:55 remaining, what looked like half of the North Carolina defensive front jumped offside, giving the Panthers a first down and, ultimately, a shorter field goal to win the game.
Pile it all together and it was a 19-17 loss to a good Pittsburgh team.
Shifting his focus from what happened in Bank of America Stadium to take in a broader view, Davis was optimistic.
"The mileage we've made in three years, we've covered an awful lot of ground," Davis said. "But we haven't scratched the surface of where we want to go."
The Panthers weren't perfect, but after losing consecutive heartbreakers to West Virginia and Cincinnati - and a probable spot in the Orange Bowl - they ground out a 17-play drive behind future Heisman Trophy candidate Dion Lewis to win a close game.
The victory gave Pittsburgh 10 wins this season, the first time in 27 years the Panthers have won that many games. It's one of the next steps for North Carolina's program.
This was the Tar Heels' second straight December in Charlotte, and that played a part in the bowl game drawing its smallest crowd (50,389) ever.
Boston College and Navy sold more tickets three years ago. Wake Forest and Connecticut had a bigger audience in 2005.
The upper-deck end zone sections at both ends of the stadium were empty. During the various television timeouts and official reviews, it was easy to count 12 adjoining sections without a fan in any seat at one end and 11 lonesome sections at the other end.
It looked like a Jacksonville Jaguars game.
What kept people away?
It was the day after Christmas, and there was all that wrapping paper to clean up. North Carolina fans could use the "been there, done that" excuse for not filling the place. Pittsburgh wasn't expected to bring more than a few thousand fans.
Bowl organizers liked the 4:30 p.m. television slot, figuring it would help ratings (it may) and allow people from across the state to drive in game day. Apparently, many opted to stay on their couches instead, perhaps watching it on their new flat-screens.
"It's about what we were expecting," said Will Webb, executive director of the bowl. "I'm sure the ratings on this game are going to be what we were really wanted, and that's why we went with the Saturday afternoon game.
"I've got to do a balance between ratings and crowd, and this worked out very, very well."
It fell somewhere between bitter and sweet.
