University of North Carolina Athletics
Gio Bernard
Photo by: Jeffrey A. Camarati
October 29, 2026 | Football
To this day, Gio Bernard does not know what possessed him to shake off his dodgy ankle and take the field to receive a punt from NC State on that gray afternoon in late October 2012.
The Tar Heels and the Wolfpack were tied at 35 with 30 seconds to play in front of a jam-packed Kenan Stadium, Carolina having rallied from a 10-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter. Bernard, Carolina's junior tailback, had averaged nearly six yards on 23 carries but was doing so on a sore ankle. Coach Larry Fedora took Bernard off his usual punt return duties for this game to give him a little extra rest, with Roy Smith returning one punt for eight yards and fielding three fair catches.
On fourth down from its 18-yard line, State punter Will Baucom took the field and Smith jogged out to return the kick. Fedora called timeout to set up "The Wall" return, which would have had Smith fielding the punt and running to the right, hopefully around a carefully orchestrated shield of blockers.
"Fourteen years later, I have zero idea why I got up off the bench and put myself in," Bernard says. "I'm a very spiritual guy, and maybe God was saying this is your moment, your way to cement your name in Kenan Stadium history. I don't know. But I got up from the bench, walked out and told Roy I'd take it from there."
"That was fine by me," thought Gunter Brewer, an assistant coach who managed the punt returners. "It's like giving Michael Jordan the rock."
What transpired then was certainly one of the most famous moments in 100 seasons of football in Kenan Stadium.
The plan from the Wolfpack, as head coach Tom O'Brien later explained, was for Bauman to hang the ball high at his standard 40-yard distance and force a fair catch. But Bauman struck the ball too well and it soared 50 yards.
Bernard backpedaled to the 26-yard line to field the punt and had plenty of air between him and his pursuers to make the Xs-and-Os of the schematic diagram work. Bernard darted to the right and, one by one, his blockers knocked off one Wolfpack player after another.
"A perfect wall," Bernard said. "You can't draw it up any better."
Bernard darted into the end zone along the right sideline and kept sprinting to the wall at the bottom of The Tar Pit, the west end zone student section. A.J. Blue was just a few steps behind him, and they were lost in an orgy of noise and pandemonium. The Tar Heels executed a two-point conversion, and the game ended after the ensuing kickoff, Carolina a 43-35 winner and mercifully ending a five-year run of losses to the Wolfpack.
"I had my helmet on, ready to go out on offense," quarterback Bryn Renner says. "Gio does that and I launch my helmet into the air. It was the best win I've ever been a part of. We got a five-year monkey off our back, and we get a walk-off punt return after an electric game with both teams fighting and scrapping."
"Wow, that was awesome," Blue says. "I just remember jumping on Gio's back and everyone else jumped on me. It was chaos after that."
The Bernard touchdown immediately took its spot alongside Connor Barth's field goal to beat Miami in 2004, Bracey Walker's blocked punts in the 1993 Peach Bowl, Walter Davis's last-second bank shot to force overtime against Duke in 1974 and Michael Jordan's jump shot versus Georgetown in 1982 as one of the most electrifying plays in Carolina sports history.
"It's close to my heart, it's something I know is in the history books," Bernard says today. "When you're a kid, you don't really think about history, you're just thinking about making the play. It's like, 'Hey, I just want to go out and play football.' It was that way for me until a few years ago when I realized the impact that play had for Carolina football and what it meant. I always want to respect that. Respect the people involved in that play.
"Yes, I was the guy who caught the punt and took it back, but there were a lot of guys who made it happen."
Coach Butch Davis and his staff used their connections in South Florida to identify and recruit Bernard out of St. Thomas Aquinas High in Fort Lauderdale in 2010. Bernard missed his freshman season with a knee injury and then in a two-year career rushed for just under 2,500 yards and a six yards per gain average.
Bernard was drafted in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft and played eight seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. After he was released by the team in April 2021, Bernard signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and played two seasons with them before announced his retirement in April 2023. He finished his career with 3,783 rushing yards, 2,989 receiving yards and 36 total touchdowns.
Beyond the punt return against the Wolfpack, one of Bernard's most memorable games was two weeks earlier when the Tar Heels traveled to Miami and in front of dozens of Bernard's family and friends took an 18-14 win, with Bernard rushing for 177 yards and two touchdowns.
"To play against Miami just felt different," Bernard says. "I had been recruited by them, I knew a lot of their players, they were buddies from a long way back. I had friends there. I put that game at a different notch and different mentality. It was so special to have my dad and brother and a lot of friends and family there. It was every kid's dream in South Florida to play for 'The U.'
"But in the end, it made sense to pack my bags and head to Chapel Hill. The rest is history."
Bernard will return to Chapel Hill this weekend for the Tar Heels' game against top-ranked Miami. He'll join the team pre-game for the Old Well Walk and lead the Tar Heel Chant before kick-off. Traveling with him will be his wife, Chloe, a former member of the UNC football video staff, and 4-year-old son Julian (the Bernards also have twin daughters).
"I'm typically not the one to be in front of a camera or a crowd, but since I'm bringing my son, I want him to get that experience," Bernard says. "He's been a big part of me doing a lot of things I'm not necessarily comfortable doing. He's pretty pumped. He's just about old enough to understand, 'Oh, Daddy used to play here.'"
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (Carolina '79) has written about Carolina football under the "Extra Points" banner since 1990.
The Tar Heels and the Wolfpack were tied at 35 with 30 seconds to play in front of a jam-packed Kenan Stadium, Carolina having rallied from a 10-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter. Bernard, Carolina's junior tailback, had averaged nearly six yards on 23 carries but was doing so on a sore ankle. Coach Larry Fedora took Bernard off his usual punt return duties for this game to give him a little extra rest, with Roy Smith returning one punt for eight yards and fielding three fair catches.
On fourth down from its 18-yard line, State punter Will Baucom took the field and Smith jogged out to return the kick. Fedora called timeout to set up "The Wall" return, which would have had Smith fielding the punt and running to the right, hopefully around a carefully orchestrated shield of blockers.
"Fourteen years later, I have zero idea why I got up off the bench and put myself in," Bernard says. "I'm a very spiritual guy, and maybe God was saying this is your moment, your way to cement your name in Kenan Stadium history. I don't know. But I got up from the bench, walked out and told Roy I'd take it from there."
"That was fine by me," thought Gunter Brewer, an assistant coach who managed the punt returners. "It's like giving Michael Jordan the rock."
What transpired then was certainly one of the most famous moments in 100 seasons of football in Kenan Stadium.
The plan from the Wolfpack, as head coach Tom O'Brien later explained, was for Bauman to hang the ball high at his standard 40-yard distance and force a fair catch. But Bauman struck the ball too well and it soared 50 yards.
Bernard backpedaled to the 26-yard line to field the punt and had plenty of air between him and his pursuers to make the Xs-and-Os of the schematic diagram work. Bernard darted to the right and, one by one, his blockers knocked off one Wolfpack player after another.
"A perfect wall," Bernard said. "You can't draw it up any better."
Bernard darted into the end zone along the right sideline and kept sprinting to the wall at the bottom of The Tar Pit, the west end zone student section. A.J. Blue was just a few steps behind him, and they were lost in an orgy of noise and pandemonium. The Tar Heels executed a two-point conversion, and the game ended after the ensuing kickoff, Carolina a 43-35 winner and mercifully ending a five-year run of losses to the Wolfpack.
"I had my helmet on, ready to go out on offense," quarterback Bryn Renner says. "Gio does that and I launch my helmet into the air. It was the best win I've ever been a part of. We got a five-year monkey off our back, and we get a walk-off punt return after an electric game with both teams fighting and scrapping."
"Wow, that was awesome," Blue says. "I just remember jumping on Gio's back and everyone else jumped on me. It was chaos after that."
The Bernard touchdown immediately took its spot alongside Connor Barth's field goal to beat Miami in 2004, Bracey Walker's blocked punts in the 1993 Peach Bowl, Walter Davis's last-second bank shot to force overtime against Duke in 1974 and Michael Jordan's jump shot versus Georgetown in 1982 as one of the most electrifying plays in Carolina sports history.
"It's close to my heart, it's something I know is in the history books," Bernard says today. "When you're a kid, you don't really think about history, you're just thinking about making the play. It's like, 'Hey, I just want to go out and play football.' It was that way for me until a few years ago when I realized the impact that play had for Carolina football and what it meant. I always want to respect that. Respect the people involved in that play.
"Yes, I was the guy who caught the punt and took it back, but there were a lot of guys who made it happen."
Coach Butch Davis and his staff used their connections in South Florida to identify and recruit Bernard out of St. Thomas Aquinas High in Fort Lauderdale in 2010. Bernard missed his freshman season with a knee injury and then in a two-year career rushed for just under 2,500 yards and a six yards per gain average.
Bernard was drafted in the second round of the 2013 NFL Draft and played eight seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals. After he was released by the team in April 2021, Bernard signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and played two seasons with them before announced his retirement in April 2023. He finished his career with 3,783 rushing yards, 2,989 receiving yards and 36 total touchdowns.
Beyond the punt return against the Wolfpack, one of Bernard's most memorable games was two weeks earlier when the Tar Heels traveled to Miami and in front of dozens of Bernard's family and friends took an 18-14 win, with Bernard rushing for 177 yards and two touchdowns.
"To play against Miami just felt different," Bernard says. "I had been recruited by them, I knew a lot of their players, they were buddies from a long way back. I had friends there. I put that game at a different notch and different mentality. It was so special to have my dad and brother and a lot of friends and family there. It was every kid's dream in South Florida to play for 'The U.'
"But in the end, it made sense to pack my bags and head to Chapel Hill. The rest is history."
Bernard will return to Chapel Hill this weekend for the Tar Heels' game against top-ranked Miami. He'll join the team pre-game for the Old Well Walk and lead the Tar Heel Chant before kick-off. Traveling with him will be his wife, Chloe, a former member of the UNC football video staff, and 4-year-old son Julian (the Bernards also have twin daughters).
"I'm typically not the one to be in front of a camera or a crowd, but since I'm bringing my son, I want him to get that experience," Bernard says. "He's been a big part of me doing a lot of things I'm not necessarily comfortable doing. He's pretty pumped. He's just about old enough to understand, 'Oh, Daddy used to play here.'"
Chapel Hill writer Lee Pace (Carolina '79) has written about Carolina football under the "Extra Points" banner since 1990.
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