On September 1, 2007, the Appalachian State Mountaineers beat the Michigan Wolverines, 34-32. Bettors were so confident that Michigan would win the game, there was no betting line issued, but the game has been known ever since as one of the greatest upsets in college football history.
15 years and two days later, the Mountaineers nearly performed an upset of similar… well, if not “impact” (the 2007 Wolverines came into the 2007 season as the fifth-ranked team in the nation), certainly degree of difficulty. Mack Brown’s North Carolina Tar Heels came into App State’s stadium, saw themselves down 21-7 early in the second quarter, then scored 27 unanswered points to go up, 41-21 by the start of the fourth quarter, and then, watched the Mountaineers score six touchdowns in the fourth quarter to almost pull off the upset. Had the Mountaineers not missed two-point conversions on their final two touchdowns, App State may have won the game, or at the very least, tied it.
But it was the Tar Heels who escaped with a 63-61 win.
How rare is it to score 40 points in the fourth quarter of a game? Let’s just say, it hasn’t happened in a while. Giving up 40 points in the fourth quarter and winning? We’ll go ahead and say that this is even more unusual.
The 40 4th-quarter points scored by @AppState_FB were the most by a major-college team since Houston scored 49 in a 100-6 win over Tulsa in 1968. @EliasSports
— Matt Martingale (@MattMartingale) September 3, 2022
“We witnessed two great quarterbacks,” Brown said after the game of his own quarterback Drake Maye, and of the Mountaineers’ quarterback, Chase Brice. “Those two guys just kept making plays and plays and plays. Every time you thought the game was over, somebody would come back and score! And then, we have to get an onside kick and return it for a touchdown instead of falling on it like we should, or the game would have been over then. Credit to Appalachian State, they’ve got a great environment. What a tremendous job — they fight you until the end. We needed to win a game on the road in the fourth quarter, and we’ve got a lot to fix, but we won the game. There are so many things we need to fix.”
Here’s how that onside kick return looked, by the way.
NORTH CAROLINA RETURNS THE ONSIDE KICK FOR A TOUCHDOWN
WHAT IS GOING ON pic.twitter.com/oMEbevHkDw
— Action Network (@ActionNetworkHQ) September 3, 2022
When App State scored with 31 seconds left in the game to make it 56-55 on a Brice 28-yard pass to Dashaun Davis, all it would have taken was this two-point play to tie it.
Nooooo! Chase Brice has Dashaun Davis WIDE OPEN for the game-winning two-point conversion. Davis turns too soon, and Brice overthrows him. pic.twitter.com/gXwvlUaON3
— Mesh Point Scouting (@MeshPointScout) September 3, 2022
North Carolina’s Bryson Nesbit scored a 43-yard touchdown on the aforementioned kick return, which would have seemed to leave them as the winners going away.
But, no! Brice came right back and hit Kaedin Robinson for ANOTHER touchdown with nine seconds left, and a two-pointer would have tied it at 63-all. But Brice fumbled his rushing attempt just short of the end zone, and the Tar Heels could finally exhale.
Brice, in that losing effort, completed 25 of 37 passes for 376 yards, six touchdowns, and one interception. Maye completed 24 of 36 passes for 352 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions.
AFTER ALL OF THAT NORTH CAROLINA IS STILL GOING TO WIN pic.twitter.com/Yy1IxjE6Mz
— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) September 3, 2022
A heartbreaker, to be sure. But as they did on September 1, 2007, the Mountaineers took their best to a team allegedly above their station, and they gave it everything they possibly had.
