Thankfully, the ridiculously tired and equally absurd ritual of gridiron victory celebrations wasn't necessary at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl.
North Carolina coach John Bunting and his triumphant troops were showered instead with thousands upon thousands of pieces of colorful confetti at their fans' end of the Georgia Dome.
Although the celebrations of the midnight hour were fast-approaching, the ocean of Carolina blue that engulfed 20,000 green seats boiled with cheer, instead of spilling out the orifices of the cavernous dome.
There was one last party to be had in 2001.
The fans, who proudly cluttered the Eisenhower Interstate System of the Southeast to migrate in their powder-blue-clad vehicles to Atlanta, stood strong and proud as they had the entire game.
Meanwhile, the Auburn faithful, hailing from a traditional football school, were long gone. Some were never there in body or spirit that night. The supposed sellout of 71,827 included entire vacant halves of upper level Auburn sections. Those who were there seemed about as inspired as their team, which got shut out through three quarters.
Few empties existed on the Tar Heels' end at kickoff and at the final whistle. Their fans held firm and fanatic, waving their pom-poms in unison. As the players danced and hollered on the artificial surface and exchanged their pads for Peach Bowl championship T-shirts, the blue-and-white faithful added to the ticker tape by showering the squad with jubilant cheers, chants and applause.
"They're going to fall in love with this football team over the years because they're going to play hard," Bunting proudly said. "It's demanded."
As bowl officials presented senior quarterback Ronald Curry with the Offensive Most Valuable Player trophy -- his second in two career bowls -- Bunting and his players called out his name in tribute.
