UNC gets it done on national stage in 26-19 victory at Pitt

The program that couldn’t win the marquee game on the national stage finally did. The secondary that a year ago was allowing one long pass play after another was now breaking up pass after pass.

About the only thing the same for North Carolina now is that Ryan Switzer still has his way against Pittsburgh. Everything else has for the Tar Heels, whose 26-19 victory at No. 23 Pitt Thursday night might have been the most important of coach Larry Fedora’s tenure.

Or was UNC’s Oct. 3 win at Georgia Tech – where it came back from a 21-point deficit – its most important in Fedora’s four years? Or would a victory on Nov. 7 against Duke soon trump them both?

No matter. That’s what happens when teams start to win: those wins become magnified. The stakes become higher. Each game becomes more important than the last. As was the case for UNC Thursday at Heinz Field.

The Tar Heels arrived in Pittsburgh seeking a victory on a national stage against a nationally ranked opponent. They left as the winners in a game that looked closer than it was after Pitt scored a touchdown in the final minute. And they left in first place in the ACC’s Coastal Division.

How many times had UNC stumbled on this kind of stage against this kind of opponent? At South Carolina to start the 2013 season. At home against Miami later that season. Against South Carolina in Charlotte on Sept. 3.

But now? Now, “here’s what we did,” Fedora said.

“I mean, it was a short week, we come to Pitt, a team that’s ranked and leading the Coastal, and we pull out a victory,” he said. “And we get it done. Not as pretty as anybody wanted it to happen. But we won. And that’s what matters.”

Fedora was right. Nobody will remember that UNC’s offense was sluggish in the second half, or that the Tar Heels made it more interesting than it had to be after allowing the Panthers a touchdown with 46 seconds to play.

They might remember that UNC led 20-3 at some point. And they could very well remember Switzer’s 71-yard touchdown reception in the second quarter, one he caught on a well-thrown pass from quarterback Marquise Williams, who escaped a sack on the play and heaved the throw down the field.

Most of all, though, they’ll remember UNC 26, Pitt 19: The night UNC got it done, to use Fedora’s expression. All season Fedora has insisted that this team is different than the Tar Heels teams of the past that have disappointed and failed to seize the moment.

Fedora has said that these are “the 2015 Tar Heels.” And he again he made the point Thursday night, comparing the jubilation his team felt after this victory to the frustration it had experienced after defeats in these kinds of games.

“All I can tell you is that this is a different football team,” Fedora said. “And I go back to the leadership, the chemistry, the locker room, the love they have for each other – all those things – that are making it happen.”

Improved execution helps, too. The game against Pitt wasn’t always pretty, as Fedora said, but the highlights included that 71-yard pass to Switzer and then, on defense, eight pass break-ups.

Junior cornerback Des Lawrence had four of those. M.J. Stewart, a sophomore cornerback, had three more. A season ago they were part of one of the worst defenses in school history – one that often left opposing receivers running downfield freely, not a defender in sight.

That secondary just might have been a difference between winning and losing against Pitt, especially when the UNC offense slowed after building a 17-point second quarter lead. Or was the difference Nick Weiler, the kicker who made four field goals?

The Tar Heels didn’t really have a reliable placekicker going for them last season, either. Some things are still the same, though. Well, two things, at least.

“The thing is, people think we’re irrelevant,” Williams said after the Pitt game, and he wasn’t wrong, necessarily, based on the national polls entering the week. “Nobody wants to give us respect.

“This was our opportunity to come in here and get people’s attention. And even if they don’t (pay attention), we’re going to keep doing what we do to keep people’s attention.”

Amid all that’s different for UNC, another thing that’s the same: Switzer still saves his best for the Panthers. Two years ago he returned two punts for touchdowns in a win at Pitt. In last year’s win, he caught a touchdown pass.

And on Thursday night he had the 71-yard touchdown and finished with 126 yards receiving. Switzer grew up in West Virginia, a fan of his beloved Mountaineers, who used to play Pitt annually when they were in the Big East. Switzer still remembers a particularly painful West Virginia loss against Pitt.

He said he “cried for weeks” after that game.

“It’s all still surreal,” Switzer said. “Playing a team you grew up hating.”

This felt a bit surreal, too: UNC doing what it hadn’t been known to do, before recently, and making the most of an opportunity on a national stage.

This story was originally published October 29, 2015 at 11:28 PM with the headline "UNC gets it done on national stage in 26-19 victory at Pitt."