Now that it’s over, I’ll be honest: I thought there was a very strong possibility that the Tar Heels would smoke the Hokies Saturday. I’m glad it didn’t turn out that way, because that would have been deee-pressing.

UNC was a team hitting its stride, winning nine games in a row for the first time since stringing together ten straight spanning the 1996 and 1997 seasons. They had hung 125 points on Duke and Miami, and as we detailed in our game preview, the Heels are one thing the Hokies are not: explosive. Egregiously so.

Meanwhile, the Hokies have been All-Frank, All the Time since Beamer announced his retirement on November 1st, and they were getting ready to play the last home game of Frank’s career. So much of what went on Saturday had very little to do with the actual game, and in fact, made things surreal: the pre-game Walk was more heavily attended than it had been at any point since the 2003 Miami game; former players poured into town to witness Frank’s last home game, and many of them wound up on the sidelines; Metallica recorded a special pre-game message that was played on Hokie Vision; a “Thank You — Beamer!!” chant was added to the usual pre-game ritual; the Hokies wore all-black uniforms for the first time since the 2010 Boise State game; and several videos were played during breaks in the action, honoring Frank.

Combine all that with a set of assistant coaches who have probably been making a lot of phone calls, trying to line up their next job, and it all added up to the dreaded Loss of Focus.  A blowout in favor of the Heels would not have been a surprise.

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