In its first action since a 25-23 Sun Bowl loss to Stanford in December, the North Carolina football team competed in its annual Spring Game. The Tar Heels’ defense, playing as the White Team, bested the Blue Team, UNC’s offense, by a score of 80-70.
What happened?
The game began sloppily for the offense. Redshirt first-year Chazz Surratt started the first series of the game but had a few overthrows early.
UNC’s defense took advantage of a quarterback rotation that kept the offense from getting into too much of a groove. It swarmed the ball and had a number of deflections.
Senior safety Donnie Miles had a huge sideline hit on a receiver, and fellow safety Jaye Stackhouse followed suit with a powerful tackle of his own in run support.
Who stood out?
None of North Carolina’s quarterbacks jumped off the page with their play. Nathan Elliott, Surratt and Logan Byrd all split reps at quarterback with the first-team offense.
Surratt looked like the most mobile of the three quarterbacks and had a better feel for the offense than either of the other two. Elliott was the best passer, with three touchdown passes. However, he picked apart UNC’s second-team defense and struggled against the starting defenders.
Byrd showed off some deceptive speed on a quarterback sneak but otherwise was the least mobile of the trio. Manny Miles played the least of the quarterbacks but led a successful final drive for a touchdown.
