On Saturday at Kenan Stadium, the North Carolina football team earned its first conference win of the season with a 48-34 win against Virginia Tech. Here are some of the highlights from the post-game reaction.
Blocking Bryn Renner
On the second of Giovani Bernard’s run of 50 or more yards Bryn Renner stepped out after making the toss to his running back to try and make some space for him in the open field.
Down the sideline Renner set a block for Bernard, much to the delight of his teammates.
“We talked about that a couple times,” Bernard said. “There was a couple times he had an opportunity. He definitely did a great job. He’s my roommate so I might take him out to dinner or something. He’s that type of player. He’s going to put his body on the line.”
Offensive guard Jonathan Cooper was more focused on Renner’s technique.
“James Hurst and I were talking about it,” he said, “and I mean, it was actually a great block. He butt blocked him, maybe not the best technique, but I mean it was a great job and allowed Gio to get a few more yards.”
Sean’s big scamper
Sean Tapley ignited the North Carolina offensive output with a 94 yard kickoff return in the first quarter. It was UNC’s first kickoff return for a touchdown since last season against Clemson and it was the first time in 237 games that Virginia Tech had given up a touchdown on a kickoff.
“We’ve felt like this year, we’re just one player away, one block away,” coach Larry Fedora said. “You know, they bounced the ball back there, I’m sure that threw their timing off a little bit and he handled it clean and our guys got on everybody. He made one guy miss and he outran them. That ignites your team. They expect to make plays in the kicking game now.”
Tapley said that after he took the opportunity to make the big play he could feel the momentum shifting.
“That was a big play,” he said. “We were down and that’s what adversity is — somebody needed to make a play and I wanted to make a play. So I did. I think it really helped us start a little rhythm.”
Oppressive offensive line
The Tar Heels rushed for 339 yards, 262 of them from Bernard, on their way to more than 500 yards of total offense. Fedora, Renner and Bernard were all singing the praises of the protection the Tar Heels had all day.
“Honestly, we had 300 plus rushing yards,” Bernard said. “That by itself showed that the offensive line did a great job today. They’re the ones out there struggling. They’re in the trenches.”
Renner, who was 17-for-30 on the day for 194 yards, was sacked only once despite several different blitz packages from the Hokie defense.
“Coach Foster did a great job scheming some blitzes up,” Renner said, “and we really had to rely on them to protect and really carry the team on their back, and you know, week in and week out they do that. They do their jobs and I can’t give enough credit to them.”
Fedora summed things up nicely by saying that the offensive line “worked their rear-ends off” today.
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