By Doc Kennedy
There’s a reason Dean Smith would not play in-state schools that were not in the ACC. Smith’s opinion was reportedly that if you win, you only did what you were supposed to, and if you lose, it’s a massive upset.
UNC football faced a similar situation when taking on Charlotte on a rainy Saturday night in the Queen City, but with the added pressure of trying to move past an embarrassing season-opening loss to TCU.
Carolina fans may have been hoping for the Tar Heels to star in a novel where the next chapter showed some excitement or appearance of improvement from Monday night’s debacle, but what they got wasn’t even worthy of tawdry pulp fiction.
Instead, UNC and the Niners slogged through a game that was as sloppy as the weather and wasn’t put away until the fourth quarter. Ultimately, Carolina survived for a 20–3 victory, giving Bill Belichick his first win as a college head coach.
Speaking of novels, the first two chapters of this one read much like the last one: Carolina took the opening kickoff and marched right down the field for a quick score, once again led by some nifty Gio Lopez passing, while the defense forced a punt. And while the stories diverged a little with Carolina adding a field goal on their next possession, the scoring challenges continued through most of the first half before the Heels collected a late score to go into halftime at 17–3.
The second half was a rock fight as the rain returned and UNC attempted to control the ball with the lead, which they generally did with success. The teams combined for a single field goal in the final 30 minutes as the Tar Heels head up I-85 with the win.
With that in mind, here is the very relieved version of the Good, Bad and Ugly Report:
Good
UNC rushing
Carolina ran the ball 32 times for 145 yards, which is a solid 4½ yards per carry. Davion Gause led off UNC’s scoring, and freshman Demon June ripped off a couple of big runs as the Heels kept running in fresh backs all night.
Defense
UNC held Charlotte to 271 total yards, only 21 of which were on the ground. They also kept the Niners out of the end zone, a feat Carolina last achieved nearly a decade ago, and the three points allowed were the lowest total a UNC defense has given up since 2001. Granted, a good portion of this was Charlotte’s ineptitude in the red zone, but stats are stats.
Rece Verhoff
The transfer place-kicker from Marshall went a smooth 2 for 2 on the night, including an effortless 49-yarder. Early indications are that place-kicking won’t be a worry this season.
Lopez
Belichick stuck with the South Alabama transfer as the starter, and Lopez was able to shake off his disastrous Monday night. He started off with a 51-yard strike to Chris Culliver for a score, finishing 17 of 25 for 155 yards, and added another 44 yards rushing between scrambles and designed runs. Lopez still doesn’t look comfortable with everything on offense, but his decision-making was better, and his passing was generally pretty accurate.
Bad
Penalties
While UNC only collected five penalties for 55 yards, those five penalties were brutal; two wiped out first downs, one extended a Charlotte drive, and one wiped out an interception. Still waiting to see the highly disciplined teams Belichick was supposedly known for.
Pass defense
Carolina gave up a not-awful-but-not-great 250 yards through the air to former UNC quarterback Conner Harrell and former Duke quarterback Grayson Loftis. At one point, Harrell completed 13 passes in a row, and Loftis went 8 of 12 for 110 yards but did have two interceptions at the goal line. The D-line only recorded one sack, and D-backs allowed Charlotte receiver Javen Nicholas to catch 11 passes for 122 yards. Good quarterbacks are going to give them fits (see last week).
Ugly
3rd-down conversions
The Tar Heels went 5 of 15 on third down, which isn’t terrible, but isn’t great either. It’s more than that, of the 10 third downs that weren’t converted, half of them were 3 yards or fewer. This included an opportunity late in the fourth quarter that would have salted the game away. This offense has to be able to stay on the field and grind out the clock.
If you want to walk on the sunny side of the street, there are plenty of positives to take away from this game. The talented running back room got to shine a little bit. Lopez did look better. Tackling was better. The defense kept Charlotte out of the end zone. Lots to build on for another supposed cupcake that comes to Kenan next week.
However, if you’re prone to the cloudy side of the street, Charlotte just isn’t very good, and UNC only scored 20 against them. The fact that they only scored three points is due to a dropped pass in the end zone and a field goal doink. Carolina is still making silly mistakes, having to blow time outs because personnel isn’t in place, and so on. Honestly, this game didn’t answer a lot of questions, and may have created more to be asked. There’s a reason why insiders were saying coming out of camp that making a bowl is a solid goal for this team.
As Dean Smith might agree, when you play a team like Charlotte, you can’t beat them enough to satisfy the critics, but it is somewhat of a palate cleanser after the crow the program has been eating the past week. But UNC is in the win column, and if you want to take the NFL view, last week, this week, and next are still preseason-esque games. Hopefully, next week irons out more kinks and UNC looks sharper against Richmond than against Charlotte, followed by a progress check against Central Florida before the first open week.
And once more, to paraphrase Dean Smith, “Lucky, yes. Fortunate? Yes. But we still won the game,” and now, in the words of another Hall of Famer who coached at Carolina, “it’s on to Richmond.”
Doc Kennedy is an alum, longtime UNC fan, and former high school and college basketball coach who wrote this report for years on Tar Heel Blog.
Photo by Joshua Lawton
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