Notre Dame running back Kyren Williams torched the UNC defense in a 31-17 win for the Fighting Irish over the Tar Heels last season. Saturday night, he decided to put on an encore performance.
A 91-yard touchdown run by Williams in which he reversed direction and made multiple Carolina defenders miss served as the highlight of the night in a 44-34 win for No. 11 Notre Dame. Williams tallied 202 rushing yards in addition to the score. Of those 202 yards, 175 came in the second half.
“That back [Williams] is a tremendous player,” UNC head coach Mack Brown told reporters after the game. “He has been every week we’ve watched him. He was the focal point, to try to stop him, and he ran up and down the field on us. So, those guys did a great job.”
“Out of all the backs I’ve played in college, I think he’s probably had the best vision I’ve faced out of all my three years of playing,” linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said of Williams. “His vision is at an elite level. He knows even when the gap he’s going to isn’t open, it isn’t hard for him to hit two jump cuts and find an open gap.”
Williams and the rest of the Fighting Irish were able to fight off a spirited effort from Carolina, as Sam Howell and the UNC offense amassed 554 yards to keep the Tar Heels in the game until late in the fourth quarter. Carolina even took a brief 20-17 lead on a 53-yard touchdown run from Ty Chandler on the first drive of the second half.
But that lead lasted only 58 seconds, as Notre Dame needed just three plays to answer on a lightning-quick drive, capped off by a 21-yard touchdown run from quarterback Jack Coan. It was his first rushing touchdown of the season.
UNC would never hold the lead again, with each Carolina score answered in kind by the Fighting Irish. Williams’ 91-yard run, which Brown called “one of the best runs I’ve ever seen,” was followed immediately by a Sam Howell interception in what proved to be the game-defining sequence.
That turnover was the only critical mistake in an otherwise historic game for Howell, who broke Marquise Williams’ all-time UNC record by accounting for his 100th touchdown. He also passed T.J. Yates as the school’s all-time leader in passing yards. Howell threw for 341 yards and a score, while adding 91 yards and another touchdown on the ground. He ended the game as Carolina’s leading rusher.
“I think what I take away most from the records and stuff like that is just the memories,” Howell said. “And the relationships I built along the way. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’m excited to finish this thing out.”
“We wouldn’t have won as many games as we have without Sam Howell,” Brown said. “And he has helped our recruiting. He’s upgraded everything that we’ve done, because he competes so hard and he wants to win. He’s the guy.”
Despite the gaudy numbers from Howell, the UNC defense just had no answer for Notre Dame’s rushing attack. Williams and four of his teammates combined to gain almost 300 yards on the ground. The Irish repeatedly challenged UNC’s defenders in the open field, and often times, as on Williams’ 91-yard house call, Notre Dame won that challenge.
Saturday night’s game also stood as the fifth time in six weeks the Carolina defense has allowed 35 points or more.
“Offensively last year, in the second half, we didn’t move the ball at all. We did tonight and gave ourselves a chance to win,” Brown said. “Defensively, we just gave up too many plays, and didn’t force sacks, and didn’t force turnovers.”
Carolina outgained the Fighting Irish and won the time of possession battle, but it was familiar woes which sent UNC to a 4-4 record: Howell’s interception was the lone turnover of the game, and the Tar Heels committed nine penalties for 75 yards. UNC will now have to win two of its final four games to reach bowl eligibility for a third straight season.
Up Next
UNC hosts undefeated Wake Forest in Kenan Stadium. That game will be played at noon on ABC.
Game Notes
- Sophomore receiver Josh Downs was held without a touchdown catch for the first time since the final week of the 2020 regular season.
- Sam Howell is just 239 yards away from breaking Marquise Williams’ UNC record for total yards of offense.
- Ty Chandler scored two touchdowns for the second game in a row for the Tar Heels.
Featured image via AP Photo/Carlos Osorio.
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