After weeks of speculation about what the UNC football team would look like with so many new faces this year, Saturday’s season opener at Kenan Stadium proved there’s still a lot of cleaning up to do—as the Tar Heels fell by a score of 35-30 to the California Golden Bears.

Making his first career start at quarterback, Cal’s Ross Bowers torched the UNC secondary for 363 yards and four touchdowns.

It was the type of performance that Tar Heel fans have become accustomed to seeing from their own quarterbacks in recent years—but that was certainly not the case on Saturday.

Head coach Larry Fedora decided to go with graduate transfer Brandon Harris behind center to start the game, but used a rotation system with freshman Chazz Surratt throughout the first half.

Surratt—who started the second half at the position—led all four of UNC’s touchdown drives in the game.

The emergence of tailbacks Jordon Brown and Michael Carter—who combined for 140 yards and two scores–lessened the load on Surratt, but the freshman stayed within himself and didn’t make many mistakes.

Harris, meanwhile, threw a pair of interceptions and looked shaky during much of his time on the field—which caused Fedora to leave him on the sidelines for the majority of the second half, including the entire fourth quarter.

“From the sideline, the thing I was looking for was to see how poised they were throughout the game,” Fedora told reporters afterward. “When a mistake was made, [I looked at] how they recovered from it.

“I thought both kids played hard,” the coach added. “Both kids did the things within the system. We had a couple throws we’d like to have back, but we’ll look at the film—see what he saw—and go from there.”

Linebacker Andre Smith (left) led UNC with 10 tackles against Cal on Saturday, and also had a 73-yard interception return. (AP Photo/ Gerry Broome)

With the UNC offense struggling to find a rhythm, much of the pressure was placed on the defense to keep them in the game.

The Tar Heels built a 17-7 lead late in the first half as they kept Cal from putting together anything of significance on offense.

Then a targeting penalty on defensive lineman Jalen Dalton—which warrants an automatic ejection—gave the Golden Bears new life. Instead of being forced to punt, Bowers was able to find Vic Wharton streaking down the sideline for a 67-yard touchdown pass just before halftime.

Lightning struck again in the Tar Heel defensive backfield when Bowers converted a similar play in the third quarter for a 54-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Laird.

Despite holding strong against the run–the team’s Achilles heel over the last couple seasons–explosive plays against the secondary proved to be the difference on Saturday.

“That’s disappointing,” Fedora said. “That’s not who we’re gonna be. We’re not gonna give up big plays. Unfortunately, that’s what happened. We have to find out why. But we’ll get it corrected and see what the problems were.”

Following Harris’s second interception, a play that came just after Cal took the lead on the long pass to Laird, it appeared as if the UNC defense was poised to steal the game back for the home side.

Linebacker Andre Smith intercepted Bowers and took it back 73 yards all the way to the doorstep of the endzone. This led to the first passing touchdown of Surratt’s career–and gave the Tar Heels a 24-21 lead–but it was the last significant offense UNC would manufacture until a garbage time touchdown as time expired.

The inability to find consistency on offense—mixed with too many big plays allowed on defense—ultimately put the nail in the coffin for the Tar Heels.

Meeting with reporters afterward, Smith cut straight to the point.

“They made some great plays, shout out to Cal,” the linebacker said. “But we really shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times.”

Up Next:

UNC will have to regroup this week, as it prepares for its ACC opener against No. 16 Louisville and last year’s Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson next Saturday. That game will be played at Kenan Stadium.

Game Notes:

  • It was the first time during his six seasons as head coach that UNC lost its home opener under Larry Fedora.
  • Surratt finished 18-for-28 with 161 yards and one touchdown for the Tar Heels, while Harris went 7-for-16 for 60 yards and two interceptions.
  • UNC’s two interceptions on defense in this game doubled the team total from all of last season, when it picked off just one pass all year.
  • The game was also the first ever meeting between the two schools in football.

 

FINAL STATS

 

Cover Photo via Gerry Broome (Associated Press)