UNC held down the Charlotte offense all night in front of the largest crowd ever at the 49ers’ Jerry Richardson Stadium Saturday night, defeating the upstart hosts 20-3 to earn Tar Heel head coach Bill Belichick’s first ever win in college football.
“It’s always good to win. It’s hard to win,” Belichick told reporters after the game. “We saw that last week. You’ve gotta do a lot of things right, and you’ve gotta do them better than your opponent. Tonight, we were fortunate to do that.”
Just as they did in the opener against TCU, the Tar Heels started fast on offense: quarterback Gio Lopez found receiver Chris Culliver for a 51-yard touchdown pass on just Carolina’s third play from scrimmage. But also like the opening game, that hot offense stalled for much of the rest of the game. UNC didn’t score another touchdown until the final minute of the first half, as running back Davion Gause scampered in with 13 seconds left to give Carolina a 17-3 lead at halftime. The touchdown capped off an 11-play, 80-yard drive after Charlotte missed a short field goal which would have cut the UNC lead to 10-6.
“That was a big swing for us,” Belichick said. “We had a similar situation last week against TCU and we messed it up… That was great. One of the highlights of the night, honestly, to put together that drive at that time in the game.”
The Tar Heels’ only points of the second half came on a 33-yard field goal from Rece Verhoff early in the fourth quarter. Otherwise, Carolina managed only 64 total yards of offense in the second half, compared to 239 in the first half. Fortunately for Belichick and company, the 49ers weren’t much better: just 151 total yards of offense in the second half – much of which came after the game had been decided. The 49ers finished with only 21 rushing yards, for an average of 0.7 yards per rush.
“We just didn’t compete as good as we could [against TCU Monday night],” defensive back Gavin Gibson said. “We’ve gotta be better fundamentally, of course… that was the emphasis throughout the whole week.”
Gibson finished with six total tackles, tying linebacker Mikai Gbayor and defensive lineman D’Antre Robinson for the team lead. All three players were acquired via the transfer portal during the offseason.
Charlotte quarterback Conner Harrell, who himself transferred out of Chapel Hill during the winter, finished 17-29 with 140 passing yards. 49er fans thought Harrell had thrown his first touchdown pass in the third quarter, and Jerry Richardson Stadium shot off fireworks to celebrate – but the pass was ruled incomplete amidst the clamor. Backup quarterback – and former Duke Blue Devil – Grayson Loftis relieved Harrell late in the game and threw a pair of interceptions. Another notable transfer, former UNC defensive back Ja’Qurious Conley, led the 49ers in tackles.
UNC has not started a season 0-2 since 2018, head coach Larry Fedora’s final season in charge. Now 1-1 overall, the Tar Heels will be back in action when they host Richmond at Kenan Stadium next Saturday at 3:30 p.m.
Featured image via Associated Press/Nell Redmond
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