The Tar Heels are off life support for at least one more week.
Carolina followed up a discouraging loss at better-than-expected Virginia Tech by battering middle major Georgia State before a less-than-capacity, still-enthusiastic crowd at Kenan Stadium in the home opener on an anx-free beautiful night in Chapel Hill.
It wasn’t a matter of whether the Heels would win to even their record at 1-1, but how they would respond to listless, mistake-prone offensive performance in Blacksburg. They did not look great in the first half, leading only 24-10, but blew the game open by dominating the third quarter (21-0) and the fourth with mostly reserves on the field.
Yes, Carolina got more from its running game behind dandy dual-threat Sam Howell, who broke two long jaunts for 22-yard and 62-yard touchdowns down the left boundary. Transfer Ty Chandler added 59 yards.
Howell was literally the bomb, also hitting 21 of 29 throws for 352 yards and three touchdowns, which won’t exactly thrust him back into the Heisman Trophy conversation but shows he can still walk-the-walk. The big question is can they all do it this Saturday in what suddenly has become the biggest game of the season against Virginia in the old lady at 7:30.
The 2-0 Cavaliers at this point have to be considered, along with Virginia Tech and Pitt as the best teams in the ACC Coastal (which UNC is favored to win), since they are the only schools with wins over Power 5 opponents. UVa followed a 43-0 blitz of William & Mary with a 42-10 win over Illinois of the Big Ten. Now the ‘Hoos have to come to our house, and we shall see.
The only local losers Saturday night were those who couldn’t find the game on TV after living in the part of town where the power went out in the first quarter of the Virginia Tech telecast. If you didn’t have the right streaming service, you settled for Jones Angell’s typically-great call on WCHL radio. Television, the American staple for decades, is now more confusing than ever.
The Tar Heels had 607 yards of total offense (an astonishing 75 percent provided by Howell). Josh Downs was still Slinging Sam’s top target with 11 catches and one touchdown, a short throw to the sideline where he juked two defenders out of bounds and waltzed into the end zone for a 52-10 lead after which Mack Brown emptied his bench.
Ten other Tar Heels caught balls for 333 yards including heaves of 57, 47 and 41 yards to Antoine Green, Emery Simmons and Bryson Nesbit, all of whom had touchdowns. Carolina got some of the separation of receivers from defenders it lacked at Virginia Tech, but must prove that versus Virginia.
The worst moments for Brown and defensive coordinator Jay Bateman came on a 17-play drive by the visiting Panthers that covered 75 yards and 7:30 on the clock and cut UNC’s lead to 21-10 in the second quarter, which also had the fans squirming. That was as close as Georgia State got in the eventual 59-17 whomping.
The thoughtful crowd was far less than the announced 50,500 (which represented a sell-out but not true attendance) and showed that football is not a life-and-death matter in Chapel Hill.
After the Orange origami folded into Lane Stadium last week and the 100,000-plus packed into the Horseshoe in Columbus earlier in the day, Tar Heel fans still had COVID safety on their minds. Which is good.
Those who stayed home missed some nice moments of remembrance on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, including local first responders who have worked on state and national task forces to help prevent something so insidious happening again.
The game was also attended by Tar Heel heroes Lawrence Taylor, the all-everything defensive end whose school sack record has been broken by fifth-year linebacker Tomon Fox, and Famous Amos Lawrence, who had four 1,000-yard rushing seasons but, strangely, is as beloved for the 11-yard draw play on fourth and goal to the east endzone in 1978 which beat a dismal Duke team in Dick Crum’s first (5-6) season.
Introduced on the field during the first half was “Tar Heel Legend” Jeff Saturday, who was an All-ACC center on Brown’s two best Carolina teams of 1996 and ’97. Undrafted by the NFL, Saturday was selling electrical equipment in Raleigh when a former college teammate with the Colts recommended him to management, earning him a tryout, and went on to snap the ball to Peyton Manning for 13 lucky seasons with the Colts. At 46, he is now a well-known ESPN talking head.
Saturday and his wife Karen made a generous donation to the UNC program, resulting in the “Saturday Family O-Line Room” in the Kenan Football Center. Of course, they also created Jeffrey, Jr., a reserve wide receiver on the current Carolina team.
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