Extra Points: Full Circle

By Lee Pace

The east end zone was where Malcolm Ziglar made his first athletic dash on the playing field at Kenan Stadium. It was Military Appreciation Day at Carolina in November 2013, and the Tar Heel football team had taken a 14-0 lead over Virginia after one quarter on a sun-splashed afternoon.

Ziglar, seven years old, stood with his two sisters, younger brother and mother Ty on the goal line during the quarter-end time out in front of a stadium full of people as a pre-produced video told the story of the family from Fuquay-Varina. Petty Officer First Class Sharndell Ziglar was 20 years into his career with the Navy, and, at the moment, was ostensibly still on his deployment on the USS Harry S. Truman in the Mediterranean.

All the Ziglar children knew was that their family had been picked at random to be saluted and recognized during Military Day / Veterans' Day festivities. Ty hid the fact from her brood that she knew her husband would return home in early November and had reached out to Carolina officials about staging some sort of surprise homecoming.

"I love you, Daddy, thank you for serving our country," Malcolm said in the video.

Sharndell appeared on the screen in what looked to be a live video feed from halfway around the world. He told his kids to mind their mom and that he'd see them soon. Then the footage bogged down in a supposed technological snafu. Following the script, Ty pointed to the tunnel under the Blue Zone. Emerging at a jog was her husband. Malcolm was the first to figure it out and sprinted toward his father and jumped into his arms on the ground near where QB Marquise Williams had just caught a touchdown pass from Quinshad Davis on a gadget play.

"I was excited just to go to a game at Carolina," Malcolm remembers. "I had started playing football and had been a Tar Heel fan. Getting to actually walk out on the field—wow, that was huge for a little kid. Then I saw my dad and was overcome with emotion. I was so excited. I just took off. It was a great feeling."

The Ziglar family enjoyed the rest of the day, a 45-14 Tar Heel victory. Sharnell retired from the Navy and moved back full time with his family and watched Malcolm and his siblings grow up under the watchful eye and guidance of a career military man. And Malcolm sprouted to 6-foot-2 and could run like the wind. He continued to play football, evolving into a four-star recruit at Fuquay-Varina High in 2022 and receiving two dozen scholarship offers, among them Georgia, Clemson and Notre Dame.

And of course, from the Tar Heels.

"With everything UNC had done for my family in the past and having a great relationship with the coaching staff, my decision was easy," he said in signing with Carolina in December 2023.

Ziglar brings the qualities you'd expect of a young man who grew up in a military home—focused, disciplined and consistent.

"Growing up in a military family, what you learn is respect," he says. "Everything falls back on respect. If you have respect, it carries you a long way and solves a lot of problems. You carry yourself with respect and treat others with respect."

"The military element has given the kids discipline and focus and the ability to persevere," his mother says. "People do not understand the military life unless they've lived it. Most take for granted that mom and dad are always at home. My kids didn't get that. They still had to get up, go to school, do homework, live a normal life, not knowing if they might get a call that week from the dad. As the oldest boy, Malcolm had to learn perseverance. A part of him was missing, but he persevered."

As have the Tar Heels as a team during the 2024 season. After losing four straight games and facing the grief of a teammate's death, they have righted the ship with convincing road victories at Virginia and Florida State by 27 and 24 points, respectively.

Tailback Omarion Hampton continues to be a rock and has rushed for 100-plus yards in seven straight games. He has climbed the storied ranks of Carolina runners and now ranks No. 7 all-time with 3,083 yards.

Quarterback Jacolby Criswell improves each week with his decision making, ability to read defenses, launch accurate throws and make big plays running the ball. The offensive line is healthy and, with four new starters in 2024, beginning to develop cohesion and consistency.

The defense has notched 17 sacks in two games and held both Virginia (288) and Florida State (201) to under 300 yards of total offense. Kaimon Rucker, after missing a month with an injury, has been a terror with four sacks in the last two games, and the focus opposing offenses have to place on him opens up opportunities across the defensive front. Case in point is Beau Atkinson, who totaled career highs in tackles for loss with 4.5 and sacks with 3.5 at Florida State.

"This is the team I have been seeing in practice for weeks, but it took time to develop on the field," Mack Brown says. "I have said from the beginning I thought this was a team that would improve as the year progressed. We've done that. We've had two really good performances. We've played complimentary football. We're one of five teams nationally to average 200 yards rushing and 200 yards passing a game. We're balanced. We're fourth nationally in sacks. We've had zero turnovers and fewer penalties the last two weeks.

"This is a tough team. They've had a lot of problems. They've taken every negative thing and turned it into a positive. I'm impressed with this team."

And what do you know? It's Military Appreciation Day in Chapel Hill when the Tar Heels and Demon Deacons square off at 8 p.m. Saturday.

And Malcolm Ziglar is set to make another dash on the playing field, 11 years after he first entered Kenan Stadium. The freshman defensive back has found his niche on the kick-off cover team and will sprint downfield at least once and hopefully many times following Tar Heel scoring possessions. Brown at his Monday press conference lauded Ziglar and fleet-footed linebacker Michael Short for their speed and ferocity in covering kicks.

"What are the odds of that happening?" Ziglar muses. "It will definitely be an eye-opening moment. I'm just trying to make an impact wherever I can. It feels great running down there, showcasing my speed and open-field tacking ability. I'm just trying to get ready for the future."

"When he announced a year ago that he wanted to play at Carolina, it was like a full-circle moment," Ty says. "Who could have dreamed in 10 years he'd playing football on that same field?"

Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (Carolina '79) has been writing about Tar Heel football under the "Extra Points" banner since 1990 and reporting from the sidelines on radio broadcasts since 2004. Write him at leepace7@gmail.com and follow him @LeePaceTweet.

Players Mentioned

Beau Atkinson

Jacolby Criswell

Omarion Hampton

Kaimon Rucker

Michael Short

Malcolm Ziglar

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