UNC football earns bowl bid in 80-20 romp of Old Dominion

Quarterback Marquise Williams glanced at the Kenan Stadium scoreboard from the sideline, seeing that the North Carolina football team trailed by just two points.

It was fourth and goal. The Tar Heels were inside the Old Dominion 10-yard line with fewer than two minutes left to play, and Williams encouraged coach Larry Fedora to try for a field goal. But the coach wouldn’t bite, electing to have walk-on quarterback Caleb Pressley take a knee instead.

The move didn’t cost the Tar Heels the game, but it did cost them some bragging rights.

“We tried to beat the (UNC) basketball score,” Williams said after UNC’s 80-20 win against the Monarchs — a win that made UNC bowl eligible. “We saw they scored 82 (against Richmond). We wanted coach to let us kick the field goal so we could get 83, but that didn’t happen.

“I wish we could have gotten 83 so we could have bragged with the basketball boys.”

On a day of offensive record breaking, that was about the only area in which UNC (6-5, 4-3 ACC) fell short.

UNC set school records with 80 points, 11 touchdowns and 721 offensive yards. Williams broke T.J. Yates’ record for total offense in a game with 469 compared to Yate’s 443. He had 379 passing yards in the first half alone, setting another UNC record for any half — and he tied yet another school record with five touchdown passes.

The list goes on and on, but perhaps the most important figure was the six in UNC’s season win column — the benchmark for bowl eligibility.

“It means a lot that I get to leave Carolina bowl eligible and going to a bowl game,” senior cornerback Jabari Price said. “When we were 1-5, a lot of people didn’t even have us going to a bowl.”

“You feel motivated to lift now. When you’re 1-5 and you’re going to workouts and practice, you’re like, ‘For what?’ It hurts. It hurts very bad. We kept working, keep lifting, kept practicing, we didn’t change anything. Guys just practiced harder, and it ended up showing.”

UNC’s starters basked in the glow of their dominance in the game’s final minutes, as most of them moved to the sideline — the fourth quarter was even shortened to 10 minutes due to a mutual agreement by coaches.

Most players said they hadn’t been a part of such a lopsided game since high school. Quinshad Davis said his high school team might’ve scored 77 points once. And tailback T.J. Logan, who scored four touchdowns and ran for 137 yards, said the game ranked behind only his 510-yard, eight-touchdown performance in Northern Guilford High’s state championship.

“It was definitely fun,” Logan said.“I’m not gonna lie to you.”

Six different UNC players scored touchdowns and 11 different receivers caught passes from a 20-for-27 Williams. Freshman Ryan Switzer returned his fourth punt for a touchdown this season, and Logan returned a kickoff for a 99-yard touchdown. The defense held Old Dominion quarterback Taylor Heinicke, who won the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy last season, to just 139 total offensive yards.

“We’re playing our best football at this time of year, so it’s exciting,” Fedora said. “As the head coach, you watch how the team has progressed and how these young guys have progressed and this team has grown closer together.

“They’re having fun playing together. That’s really what it’s all about.”

But Fedora and the coaching staff didn’t let the Tar Heels have too much fun — shutting down their bid for surpassing the basketball team. And as the Tar Heels returned to the locker room, they were greeted with film of next opponent Duke beating them a year ago, taking the Victory Bell and rushing the sidelines.

It was a reminder that despite all of the offense, despite all of the broken records and despite the promise of a bowl, the Tar Heels are still just 1-0.

sports@dailytarheel.com