The North Carolina football team won its home opener against Middle Tennessee State Saturday 40-20. Here’s what The Daily Tar Heel observed from the press box.
Kickoff Confusion
ACC official Ron Cherry just kept looking at North Carolina football coach Larry Fedora. Both of them were confused.
The captains of North Carolina and Middle Tennessee State had just returned to their respective sidelines before kickoff with the results of the pregame coin toss.
The MTSU captains — who had won the toss — had deferred to North Carolina for the first half, in an effort to allow their own team to receive in the second. In electing to receive, North Carolina would have to kick to open the second half.
But when asked to choose between kicking and receiving to open the first half, a confused group of North Carolina captains mistakenly told Cherry that they wanted to kick in the first half — which would strip their team of receiving to open either half.
It was a miscommunication between the captains and Cherry and the captains and Fedora.
“I was talking to guys on the sideline about getting ready — getting them ready — and all of a sudden, somebody said ‘We’re kicking off.’ And I said ‘OK,’’’ Fedora explained.
“Ron Cherry was looking at me like I was an idiot and I didn’t know why he kept looking at me like that. Then I found out afterwards. It was a poor job on my part.”
Quarterback Bryn Renner explained that he thought wide receiver Quinshad Davis had simply misunderstood Cherry, but that he can’t remember the last time he saw a similar chain of events unfold.
“I was definitely stunned by that,” he said. “I think I did it one time probably back in little league, but I can’t remember a situation like that.”
Regardless, it won’t be acceptable in the future.
“That’s a big thing,” Fedora said.
“To have that type of miscommunication and that happen in a game — that’s a big thing that can’t happen.”
Renner finds rhythm
In his last home opener of his UNC career, the senior quarterback was 23-for-34, notching 339 passing yards, one throwing touchdown, and one rushing touchdown.
With an interception in the first half, he snapped his streak of 140 passes without an interception in his chase of the school record, which stands at 154 set in 1996 by Oscar Davenport.
But Fedora said he was pleased with Renner’s passing.
“That’s who we are. You push the ball down the field a little bit more, make some plays — make some explosive plays,” he said.
“I thought we were much better in that area of the game today.”
Though he was careful to make a judgment just two games into the season, Renner was also satisfied.
“We came out with a game plan and we wanted to be aggressive … and I think we did that,” he said.
“We got the ball to a lot of guys that made plays. Quinshad (Davis) obviously scored again and that’s a positive.”
Failed conversions
Between the two teams, the Tar Heels and the Blue Raiders failed three times in two-point conversion plays after touchdowns.
With 6:55 remaining in the first quarter, Romar Morris gave the Tar Heels a quick 6-0 lead with a 21-yard rushing touchdown.
Middle Tennessee’s Reginald Farmer and Jared Singletary prevented the Tar Heels from the two-point conversion.
The second time UNC attempted it was after Renner rushed into the end zone from the one-yard line with 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
However, a holding penalty on MTSU allowed the Tar Heels to bring in Thomas Moore for the extra point kick, which he made, extending UNC’s lead to 13-0 by the end of the first quarter.
The Raiders — who didn’t find the end zone until the third quarter, attempted a two-point conversion of their own in the fourth, only to lose about 20 yards on a bad snap.
Rebounding from South Carolina
With the victory, the Tar Heels improve to 1-1 on the season as they enter a bye week next Saturday.
“Good to get a win here, especially here in the Tar Pit in front of our fans,” Fedora said in his opening statement at the press conference.
“We work extremely hard. We talk about it — we’re going to outwork people. You get to have the opportunity to have fun on Saturdays, and that’s what you’ve got to do.”
The Tar Heels put points on the board in each quarter, enjoying touchdowns from Renner, Davis, and tailback Romar Morris. Backup quarterback Marquise Williams also threw for 23 yards and tossed one touchdown pass to freshman Bug Howard.
UNC won’t play again until Saturday, Sept. 21 when the team travels to Atlanta for a matchup with Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets run a triple option offense that the Tar Heels plan to spend adequate time preparing for.
“I feel like we’re definitely gonna take a lot of time this week to look at what they’re doing so we can give ourselves the best chance to win,” tight end Jack Tabb said.
Renner said the team was excited to move on from the hype of its season opening loss to South Carolina.
“Oh, definitely. It’s a lot better to win,” he said. “It was good to come back home and have our home crowd here and get the victory. It helped us get the bad taste out of our mouths.”
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