Quote :

" Of the 103 football games between North Carolina and N.C. State, the one 10 12 years ago certainly qualifies as one of the most memorable. UNC’s 30-24 win Oct. 9, 2004, at Kenan Stadium also turned out to be one of the most meaningful. That game, and how it was decided on the goal line, helped push the ACC into the era of instant replay and also kept the Wolfpack from going to a bowl. Here’s how three sides – N.C. State running back T.A. McLendon, UNC coach John Bunting and ACC head of officials Tommy Hunt – remember the classic game and its controversial finish. ‘We were cheated’ T.A. McLendon scored 36 touchdowns during 32 career games at N.C. State in 2002-04. Ten years later, the high school legend from Albemarle still believes his career total should have one more touchdown. “We know we were cheated,” McLendon said this week. “That’s one of the worst calls ever.” With 30 seconds left, N.C. State trailed 30-24 and had second-and-goal from the 3. McLendon ran behind center Leroy Harris and left guard Ricky Fowler and finished the play with the ball and half of his body in the end zone. “During the play, I reached out for the goal line,” McLendon said. “I know I broke the plane. “The same thing happened at the Ohio State game (in 2003), but I went down at the half-yard line. Once that happens to you, you don’t want that to ever happen again.” From the ground, McLendon could see one official, linesman Mike Owens, come from the N.C. State sideline and reach his hands up to make the signal and call it a touchdown. At that point, the Kenan Stadium scoreboard operator put up the six points. Then a second official, line judge Rick Page, came in from the UNC sideline and McLendon started to worry. “He couldn’t even see the play from where he was standing,” McLendon said. “How can you call a touchdown and then take it away?” But that’s what happened. Page huddled with head official Jim Knight, and after a review, the touchdown was overruled, and the ball was spotted at the 1. On third down, McLendon fumbled and UNC held on to win 30-24. The second-down play ended up being the difference between UNC going to a bowl and N.C. State not. The Tar Heels finished that regular season at 6-5 and went to a bowl in Charlotte. N.C. State finished 5-6, coach Chuck Amato’s first losing season. McLendon ran for 117 yards in that game, caught two passes for 54 more and scored a touchdown. As a freshman in 2002, he ran for 164 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-17 win at UNC. Ten years later, no one remembers any of that. “It’s always about ‘The Play,’ ” McLendon said. “If an N.C. State fan comes up to me, it’s ‘Dude, you were in.’ ” And if it’s a UNC fan? “I don’t really talk to Carolina people,” McLendon said. Bunting remembers ‘The Hit’ John Bunting coached at UNC, his alma mater, for six seasons, 2001-06. He beat N.C. State four times, but he can remember only one Christmas card to commemorate the occasion. It was the picture of defensive tackle Khalif Mitchell hitting McLendon in midair and forcing a fumble on third-and-goal to preserve the win. “I hope your Christmas is a big hit,” is what Bunting put on his family Christmas card that December. “I wish I still had that card,” Bunting said last week. “It should be framed and up on a wall somewhere.” Bunting made sure no one forgot that Mitchell play, which came right after the disputed McLendon play at the goal line. There was mural-size picture of the tackle in the north concourse of Kenan Stadium. There also was a wall-size version of it in the football office that greeted visitors when they got off the elevator. Ten years later, and Bunting still can remember Mitchell “was in the wrong place at the right time.” “He was not supposed to be in that gap,” Bunting said, “but they ran the same play two times in a row. (Mitchell) spiked inside to the B gap on his own. “He caught (McLendon) in the air and knocked the ball loose.” Almost as amazing as the play, that was Mitchell’s only tackle in the game. Bunting remembers more than the final goal-line sequence. He can rattle off the names from N.C. State’s defense that season: Mario Williams, John McCargo, Manny Lawson, Pat Thomas, A.J. Davis, Marcus Hudson and Stephen Tulloch. All seven played in the NFL; Williams, Lawson and Tulloch still are in the NFL. “They were really good on defense,” Bunting said. Bunting had a few pros of his own in center Jason Brown, fullback Madison Hedgecock, kicker Connor Barth and receiver Jesse Holley. Quarterback Darian Durant set almost every record at UNC before going on to a successful career in the Canadian Football League. Bunting reads off some stats from the game – 30 first downs for N.C. State, compared to 14 for UNC; 577 total yards for N.C. State, compared to 356 – and almost forgets how his team won. “We just made bigger plays,” he said. Holley had a 23-yard touchdown catch from Durant. Receiver Adarius Bowman caught a 46-yarder and linebacker Larry Edwards had a 54-yard interception return to set up Durant’s third touchdown pass. N.C. State quarterback Jay Davis completed 22 of 28 passes for 273 yards, but that interception was costly. As were the two fumbles. “Three turnovers to our one,” Bunting said. “There’s the game.” About ‘The Call’ Tommy Hunt called games for 27 years before becoming the coordinator of ACC officials in 1998. He can remember thousands of goal-line calls, just not many – if any – like the one by McLendon on second down. “Not many where one official gives the touchdown signal, no,” Hunt said last week. He was at the game at Kenan Stadium 10 years ago. He said then his crew got the call right and he said it’s still true to this day. “If one official sees his knee down, his knee is down,” Hunt said. “That’s what Rick Page saw.” Page was the line judge who came in from the UNC sideline, further away from the play. Owens was the linesman who made the touchdown call from the N.C. State sideline, closer to the play. Hunt said the only mistake was by Owens giving the early touchdown signal without consulting with the other officials. He said Page was in the right to dispute the call and bring it to head official Knight for discussion. “The best person that saw it, made the call,” Hunt said. “Rick was vehement about it. I would protect an official in that particular case. “He had the best shot of it, better than Jimmy Knight had.” Hunt said Page, who still works as a game official for the ACC, is one of the best in college football. “His ability on the field is unquestionably the best,” Hunt said. “His judgment, his rule knowledge, his experience. I would be absolutely confident that he would be able to make it correctly.” Hunt will add one qualifier to the call. “With the information we had it was the correct call,” Hunt said. In 2004, there was no instant replay. Even worse for that game, it wasn’t on television. The only footage of the game came from a camera in the outdoor ledge of the Kenan Stadium press box. There’s a YouTube clip with four minutes of highlights, including the disputed play by McLendon. From that camera angle, it’s impossible to tell where McLendon’s knee went down. “We didn’t have replay. We didn’t have camera angles. We didn’t have much when we went back and looked at it the next day,” Hunt said. Bunting said on his copy of the game tape, the right call was made. “It was clear to me that he was down,” Bunting said. “Now Chuck (Amato) would probably debate that but it was the right call.” Of course, McLendon saw it differently. “I’m sure if they had replay, the game would have went the other way,” he said. The ACC was working on implementing a replay system the summer before the 2004 season. The Big Ten used it on an experimental basis in 2004. Hunt said replay was coming in 2005, “but that play helped it along.” Actually, a decade later, McLendon does take some solace in that, in his own way, he helped the ACC adopt instant replay. “They can’t change the call now,” he said. “It is what it is. You just live with it.” "

wasnt televised??? that's nuts

5/19/2016 9:49:39 PM

5/19/2016 9:52:56 PM

Game was played in the 1920s

5/19/2016 9:54:05 PM

^ apparently

^^ that's being a bit harsh on T.A. Best RB ever at State?

5/19/2016 9:55:16 PM

It always comes down to a controversial call between two powerhouses to affect change.

5/19/2016 10:00:10 PM

Yeah he's better than Ted Brown the all time leading ACC rusher

5/19/2016 10:02:34 PM

eh, that was when the ACC was like 5 or 6 shit schools and Clemson, we talking big boy football, FSU, GT, ummm Clemson

5/19/2016 10:08:32 PM

Haha I was in the endzone @UNC in the student section for that game decked out in red.

It was great when they called it a TD...then it was not so great when they changed it to not-a-TD.

5/19/2016 10:17:00 PM

Quote :

"^^ that's being a bit harsh on T.A. Best RB ever at State"

ahahahahahah


^man when they overturned it and we lined up for another play from scrimmage, the state fan beside me said "why the fuck are we going for two?" hahaha. so much confusion

5/20/2016 7:40:59 AM

disagree?

5/20/2016 12:48:17 PM

yes.

at his best, he was very very good. he was very often not at his best, though

5/20/2016 12:50:13 PM

Did jb just plagiarize an entire column??

5/20/2016 1:01:51 PM

what?

5/20/2016 1:16:47 PM

Did you write what is in the first post?

5/20/2016 2:32:52 PM

If TA went to Tennessee, would he have been drafted this year?

5/20/2016 2:38:10 PM

wut?

5/20/2016 2:55:16 PM

because muh Vawls didn't have a single player drafted in this year's NFL draft

[Edited on May 20, 2016 at 3:09 PM. Reason : NFL is shying away from rapists, I reckon]

5/20/2016 3:07:57 PM

^^^^ no... that's why it's in quotes. And who the hell would type something like that in a random convo?

^^^ na, too old, but if Toney Baker had made the right choice he would be in the NFL now days

^ it's been a lean few years, but at our worst, still kicked State's ass all over the Dome.


[Edited on May 20, 2016 at 4:22 PM. Reason : d]

5/20/2016 4:19:54 PM

So post a fucking link

Toney Baker is a poor troll example since Andre Brown made the league

5/20/2016 4:45:47 PM

the article that fat boy quoted is from 2014. he figured he'd take an article from 2014 to make a new thread, because his rapey mcvawls sucked so much dick they couldn't get a single player drafted.

5/20/2016 4:54:37 PM

I was there and he really was in tho

5/20/2016 5:04:56 PM

i was there and i couldn't see shit lol

5/20/2016 5:29:34 PM

^^^^ yeah, I interviewed all the people in the article myself. Yeah, Brown made it, and bounced around as a backup. Baker had the talent to be a starter.

5/20/2016 5:52:45 PM

funny how one of us will post something about Tennessee that's like a week old and you're like

"old, irrelevant, already handled"

but you post some shit from 2 years ago like anybody gives a fuck about your obese opinion

5/20/2016 6:22:18 PM

this is an NC State messageboard... and many many people have created nostalgic threads

5/20/2016 9:30:52 PM

How old do you think you will be before you stop thinking it's fun to troll Internet message boards?

[Edited on May 20, 2016 at 10:18 PM. Reason : Just curious. It was probably mid to late 20s for me]

5/20/2016 10:17:19 PM

I never troll my man. If I did, you would know.

5/21/2016 12:01:49 AM

Jaybee is fat

5/21/2016 12:07:53 AM

^^^ see? you need to talk to ^, not me

5/21/2016 12:29:41 AM

Isn't Grace Shannon a girl's name?

5/21/2016 12:48:15 AM

I hung out with Jaybee in Atlanta once. Cool guy but made me call him by his tww screen name the whole time.

5/21/2016 12:58:35 AM

I thought you were what's his name, and I thought what's his name was the driver and that SlaveFamous was black

^^ I dont know, ask Shannon Sharpe

[Edited on May 21, 2016 at 1:40 AM. Reason : d]

5/21/2016 1:39:25 AM