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CHAPEL HILL — Kennedy Tinsley sat in the posh new room high above Kenan Stadium with the stars of the game, his No. 36 jersey and uniform pants both covered in grass stains.

The senior from Greensboro took one last look around during the interview, drinking it all in like cold, cold Gatorade. He couldn’t stop smiling.

“To come in here and beat Miami in my last home game, that’s one of those things I’ll never forget,” Tinsley said. “Man, it was a lot of fun. And I had a good game, so I’m just blessed and thankful.”

Tinsley, who came to North Carolina after a stellar high school career as a fullback and linebacker at Dudley, has played mostly on special teams for the Tar Heels. He’s the team’s leading tackler on kickoff coverage, and he made four stops Saturday in Carolina’s 33-24 upset of then-No. 12 Miami.

That gives him 35 tackles this season, and that’s more than some of the established starters on the nation’s No. 5-ranked defense, such as E.J. Wilson and Da’Norris Searcy.

But that doesn’t matter to Tinsley, although it might have back when he redshirted as a freshman.

“My career in general has been a great experience,” Tinsley said. “It’s been up and down, man, with two different head coaches and a lot of growing up for me. A lot of it was just getting to know myself and then learning more about the game of football.

“The best thing about my career is we’re ending it on a bang. We’ve got a new coach from when I started, and things are looking up. I’m just proud to say I’m a part of all that. It’s been a real blessing.”

Recruited by John Bunting after helping Dudley reach the Class 3-AA state championship game, Tinsley came to Carolina as a star runner. He had 165 carries for 1,148 yards as a high school senior, scoring 12 touchdowns.

But under Butch Davis, Tinsley found his niche covering kickoffs. Going from high school star to college role player is just fine, Tinsley said, because now the Heels are winners.

“Oh, man, the program is in way better shape than when I started. Way better,” Tinsley said. “Not to mash the other coaches or anybody else, but things are just looking up. The guys have done a great job. The new coaching staff has made it a family experience. Things are looking really, really up.

"We’ve got young guys who are so talented. They’re building onto the stadium. There’s just so much going on. Carolina football is growing, and that will help the school.”

Tinsley will finish his career with three games on the road: at Boston College, at N.C. State and a bowl game to be determined. It’s the second year in a row Carolina has qualified for postseason play. The Heels lost to West Virginia 31-30 in the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte last season.

“To be honest, last year we talked about wanting to go to a bowl,” Tinsley said. “That was the thing: 'We want to go to a bowl. We want to go to a bowl.’ Then what happened was, when we got to the bowl guys kind of shut down and maybe stopped working as hard.

“So this year, we had our eyes set on higher things. Getting to a bowl’s not enough anymore. Being bowl-eligible is great, but the difference between now and back then is we have greater expectations. We want to finish these last three games strong, win these two coming up and then win whatever bowl game.”

In the meantime, Tinsley will savor his role in an upset victory in his final game between the hedges bordering the Kenan Stadium field. Memories of that game will fade far, far slower than the grass stains on his uniform.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com