Somewhat lost between the 70 points allowed, five turnovers, and emotional locker room outburst of Saturday’s contest was the total lack of discipline the team showed during the game. The Heels were flagged for nine penalties totaling 76 yards. Ironically, one of the worst penalties isn’t even included in that number: the Heels had just regained a 14-11 lead and seemed to be finding their footing when Desmond Evans jumped offsides, resulting in a free play. Barnett promptly used it to uncork a 69 yard touchdown pass that put the Dukes back in the lead for good.
I’m certainly not going to argue the game would have ended differently without that play or with fewer miscues (JMU had 12 for 105 yards; in fairness to both teams, the refs were calling roughing the passer pretty liberally), but penalties have become a hallmark of the Mack Brown 2.