North Carolina began its season opener against Louisiana State as if the Tar Heels didn’t need the 13 ineligible players.
Halfway through the second half, it was apparent they did.
In a span of five minutes and 38 seconds, the Tigers scored 23 points to take a 30-10 lead against UNC in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta’s Georgia Dome.
With the help of a UNC fumble in its own territory, LSU struck first with a six-yard pass from Jordan Jefferson to Russell Shepard to go up 7-0 with nearly nine minutes left in the first quarter.
But UNC responded with an 82-yard drive capped by Devon Ramsay’s first career touchdown. Quarterback T.J. Yates found Ramsay for a nine-yard score to knot the game.
Yates completed his longest career pass on UNC’s next drive when he connected with Jheranie Boyd for 75 yards that got the Tar Heels down to the 5-yard line. They could not punch it in at the goaline and settled for a 20-yard Casey Barth field goal.
A long LSU return to midfield on the ensuing kickoff put the Tigers in position to return the favor. Shepard ran for a 50-yard touchdown in nine seconds to give LSU the lead, where it would stay for the rest of the half.
Yates and center Jonathan Cooper weren’t on the same page for most of the first half. A snap went awry earlier in the game and with more than seven minutes left in the first half, Cooper snapped the ball over Yates head and into the endzone for a safety.
Patrick Peterson returned a Grant Shallock punt for 87 yards to the house and a minute and a half later Rueben Randle and Jefferson hooked up for a 51-yarder (another nine second play) to bring the lead to 20 for the SEC squad.
The Tigers, who won the coin toss, will receive the ball at the start of the second half.
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