Carter-Williams show in Miami convinced Gause he had to be a Tar Heel

By R.L. Bynum

CHAPEL HILL — On a December evening as a high school sophomore, Davion “Bullet” Gause already knew where he wanted to play college football.

The South Florida kid was in the Hard Rock Stadium when Michael Carter and Javonte Williams combined for 544 rushing yards in the Tar Heels’ 62–26 win at Miami on Dec. 12, 2020.

Watching the duo run all over the Hurricanes that night convinced Gause that North Carolina was where he wanted to play.

During Saturday night’s 38–20 win over Charlotte at Kenan Stadium 1,365 days later, Gause dazzled fans with similar talent and was reminded that picking UNC was the right choice.

He showed Williams’ ability to be a power runner. He displayed a bit of Carter’s elusiveness when he hurdled over a 49ers defender on one play.

Coach Mack Brown smiled as he told the story of the night that convinced Gause that he was destined to wear the Carolina blue.

“He said, ‘I made a decision that night I was coming to North Carolina if you all would offer me a scholarship,’ ” Brown said. “So, that’s really cool. And I love the young guy. He is not afraid of anything.”

Just about everybody except his mother calls him “Bullet.” That nickname has stuck since his youth league coach gave it to him at age five after Gause went through hitting drills.

The 5–11, 215-pound Gause ran for 109 yards and one touchdown on 16 carries as well as catching one pass for five yards. In the process, Gause had his coming out party, wowing Tar Heels fans.

“When the game goes on, and the defense gets tired and they’re starting to slow down, I feel like high school a little bit,” said Gause, who ran for 4,936 yards and 56 touchdowns in his high school career, leading Chaminade-Madonna Prep in Opa-locka, Fla., to a state title last season.

Since running back Darwin Barlow was out for the game with a lower-body injury, Gause knew his chance was coming when he saw that Omarion Hampton was banged up at halftime and on the exercise bike.

After Gause’s first series of the second half, Hampton told the young running back to keep doing what he was doing. Hampton has offered plenty of advice to Gause.

“What I learned from Omarion is don’t really get into what people say, and just keep your head down and keep working, no matter how big you get,” said Gause, who enrolled at UNC for the spring 2024 semester.

Gause, whose longest run was 18 yards, pointed out that he didn’t make plays that Carter and Williams made that evening in Miami Gardens, Fla. If not, they will surely come.

Brown said that Gause is mature beyond his years and not emotional.

“We’ve seen that in the spring. We’ve seen it every day in practice. When you put him in a situation, he looks like an older player, and he’s tough. He’s 220 [pounds], and he’s got really good vision.”

For most young running backs, pass-blocking is the hardest skill to learn, but that’s always come easily for Gause.

“When I did my first pass protection, and I realized I could be out here and I could play, and I got in the groove after that,” said Gause, who ran for 762 yards and six touchdowns as a freshman in high school. “In my first spring here, it wasn’t really hard, but it was. I just had to get along with the speed. But as far as camp went on and stuff like that, I felt like I was college-ready.”

To go from getting limited snaps against Minnesota to 16 carries against Charlotte was quite the shift, but Gause handled it better than some veteran players. He credited running backs coach Larry Porter.

“He prepared all the running backs in practice to handle the workload,” Gause said. “If one person goes down, it’s the next man up. So, I can say, Coach Porter, he gets us ready for big moments like that.”

Tar Heels fans are eager to see more of those moments after what they saw Saturday night.

Month/ date	Score/ time	Opponent	Record/ TV
September
1	L, 48–14	vs. TCU	0–1
6	W, 20–3	at Charlotte	1–1
13	W, 41–6	vs. Richmond	2–1
20	L, 34–9	at UCF	2–2
October
4	L, 38–10	vs. Clemson	2–3, 0–1 ACC
17 (Fri.)	L, 21–18	at California	2–4, 0–2
25	L, 17–16, OT	vs. No. 16 Virginia	2–5, 0–3
31 (Fri.)	W, 27–10	at Syracuse	3–5, 1–3
November
8	W, 20–15	vs. Stanford	4–5, 2–3
15	L, 28–12	at Wake Forest	4–6, 2–4
22	L, 32–25	vs. Duke	4–7, 2–5
29	L, 42–19	at N.C. State	4–8, 2–6