EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — North Carolina needed to make a big defensive stop and wound up getting some help from Connecticut’s Dan Ryan.
UConn’s senior offensive tackle was flagged for holding defensive end Robert Quinn in the end zone with 1:32 left in the game Saturday, giving the No. 19 Tar Heels a safety and a 12-10 comeback win over the Huskies.
“I had him beat around the corner,” Quinn said. “I was just out there trying to make a play, and then I saw the flag.”
The play capped a 12-point fourth quarter for North Carolina (2-0). Casey Barth started the comeback with a 22-yard field goal and T.J. Yates led the team on a 13-play drive that ended with his 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Zack Pianalto with 2:36 left.
Pianalto hurt his leg jumping up and down after the score and had to be taken from the field in an air cast, another bizarre moment from a game that ended in crazy fashion.
After the safety, UConn recovered the onside kick but couldn’t get into field-goal range.
“I told the chancellor, ‘That’s why you don’t see any 100-year-old football coaches,’ ” North Carolina coach Butch Davis said.
The Tar Heels are 3-0 against the Huskies, while UConn has just one win in 14 games against top 25 opponents.
UConn (1-1) was playing without its best defensive player, injured linebacker Scott Lutrus, and lost starting quarterback Zack Frazer to a knee injury late in the third quarter.
UConn got the ball at the 20 after the tying touchdown, but a snap over backup quarterback Cody Endres on second down put the ball at the 8-yard line.
Endres scrambled away from the pass rush on third down, and completed a 16-yard pass to Todman that would have given the Huskies a fourth-and-6 play. But there was the flag in the end zone, and the safety that gave North Carolina the lead.
“I didn’t even know that was a rule,” said Tar Heels cornerback Charles Brown Jr. “I heard the coaches screaming, ‘Safety, safety safety,’ so I started jumping up and down, (yelling) ‘Safety, safety.’ “
