Mack Brown was right — his North Carolina team should have had one more second in their loss to Wake Forest.
The ACC admitted as much in a statement on Saturday, revealing that the replay official failed to review the final play of the Tar Heels’ 24-18 loss. Such a review should have ended with one second being put back on the clock, which would have given North Carolina one more shot from the Wake Forest 43.
ACC admits officiating mistake at end of UNC-Wake game, UNC should have had 1 second left to run a play pic.twitter.com/BQ0JFLV0pS
— Brett McMurphy (@Brett_McMurphy) September 14, 2019
It certainly would have been unlikely that the Tar Heels would’ve found a play to score a touchdown from that position, but they should have at least had the chance. A furious Mack Brown even claimed that one of the referees on the field knew at the time they’d gotten it wrong.
While Brown and the Tar Heels can feel aggrieved, the reality is that they managed the clock poorly on that final drive. Had they done better, they would not have needed the officials to sort it out in order to have a chance to score.
