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CHARLOTTE — Quarterback Conner Harrell showed plenty of athleticism, speed and running skills in the challenging role of taking over for Drake Maye. In his first college start, the redshirt freshman was impressive at times but also made a couple of ill-advised passes playing without the same talent around him. West Virginia ultimately made all the big plays in a 30–10 Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory in Bank of America Stadium on Wednesday night.
Carolina football welcomed 27 newcomers, including 20 early enrollees, on National Signing Day on Wednesday to give the program five consecutive top 25 recruiting classes
With quarterback Drake Maye and linebacker Cedric Gray announcing Monday that they are joining wide receiver Tez Walker in entering the NFL draft and skipping the Duke’s Mayo Bowl, how many other Tar Heels won’t play against West Virginia?
A season with plenty of Tez Walker highlight-reel catches that began with the wide reciver ineligible for four games will be his only one at Carolina. That was confirmed late Thursday night when the Senior Bowl announced that he had accepted an invitation to the game.
Carolina’s football season will end right where it started, at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. The Tar Heels (8–4) will play in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 27, (ESPN) against West Virginia (8–4), after opening the season with a 31–17 victory over South Carolina in Charlotte.
North Carolina’s bowl destination isn’t nearly as clear as before the conference championship games. Days after seven of 11 media projections ticketed the Tar Heels for the Gator Bowl, the most common prediction (three of 11) has them playing Charlotte on Dec. 27 in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
If the majority of the bowl projections are correct, North Carolina will play in the Gator Bowl for the first time since the last season of Coach Mack Brown’s first stint at UNC. Another projection features a tantalizing quarterback matchup.
RALEIGH — There was lots of blame to go around for North Carolina’s latest November shortcoming. Coach Mack Brown wanted to accept all of it.
You kind of had a feeling that was coming. UNC really hasn’t been the same team since they started the season 6–0, rose to No. 10 in the polls, and then lost to a bad Virginia squad at home.
Sam Howell bounced back from throwing three interceptions the week before with a better game against Washington’s bitter rival, the Dallas Cowboys, but it still resulted in a loss.
For over 40 years, weird things have happened when Clemson and North Carolina play football. The first half on Saturday in Death Valley took the weirdness and bad karma up a notch.
CLEMSON, S.C. — After North Carolina fumbled away a potential 21-point early lead, the frustrations kept piling up for the Tar Heels despite solid early defense. Against a Clemson team playing far better than its record, the Tar Heels couldn’t afford mistakes, and Omarion Hampton — who had an otherwise productive day — fumbled twice in the first half to keep UNC from taking control.
By R.L. Bynum Carolina moved up two spots to No. 22 in the AP Top 25 after the Tar Heels’ … More
I’ve written this column (or a version of it) for over a decade. Sometimes, it writes itself, sometimes there’s a search to put things in the right slots, and sometimes there’s a wait until the clock hits zero to have it come together. And sometimes there is a Saturday night.
CHAPEL HILL — Hear what Coach Mack Brown and players Drake Maye, Bryson Nesbit, Kaimon Rucker and Cedric Gray had to say after No. 24 North Carolina’s homecoming game with Duke on Saturday night.
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