North Carolina breezes past Temple 55-13 in Military Bowl
By David Ginsburg
ANNAPOLIS, MD. (AP) » Having guided North Carolina to a winning season and a lopsided bowl victory in his first year back at the school, Mack Brown has raised expectations — for himself and the fans — moving forward.
The veteran coach wouldn’t have it any other way.
Freshman Sam Howell threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns in addition to catching a TD pass, and the Tar Heels blew out Temple 55-13 in the Military Bowl on Friday to cap a satisfying return season for their 68-year-old coach.
Howell completed 25 of 34 passes and ran for 53 yards on three carries to help the Tar Heels (7-6) secure their first bowl victory since 2013. North Carolina was 4-6 before winning its last two regularseason games to qualify for a bowl bid.
North Carolina went 3-9 in 2017 and 2-9 last year before hiring Brown, who coached the Tar Heels from 1988-97 prior to heading to Texas for a 16-year stay. Coming off a five-year absence from coaching, Brown — with help from Howell — quickly turned the program around.
“The last three weeks we’ve been a really good football team,” Brown said. “It’s fun. Now these guys coming back have something to build on. Seven (wins) is not enough anymore. You want to go to a bowl every year and get a streak of wins.”
Temple (8-5) has played in a bowl game in each of the past five years — and lost four of them. This was the Owls’ first trip under coach Rod Carey, who came to Temple after a run of six-plus seasons at Northern Illinois in which he was 0-6 in the postseason.
“It’s hard to swallow because I don’t know if there is that big a gap between these two teams, but there was today,”’ Carey said.
It might take a while before the Owls view this season as a success.
“‘The further away we get from this moment, we will feel a lot better about it,”’ Carey said.
For Brown, there was no better feeling than frolicking with the players in the jubilant locker room at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium.
“To be where we are now compared to where we were a year ago when I walked into that meeting and looked into those faces that were sad and disappointed because they just lost their coach and had a tough year,” Brown said, “that dressing room was a lot of fun downstairs.”
The Tar Heels’ rise this season can be attributed to Brown and no small measure to Howell, a high school star in North Carolina who initially committed to Florida State.