UNC Picks Up 2nd Straight Win Against Stanford 20-15-Will They Go Bowling This Postseason?

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CHAPEL HILL, NC – The Tar Heels are rebounding strongly from their abysmal start to the season after beating their second ACC opponent this year.

Carolina now sits at 4-5 on the season and is two games away from bowl eligibility, which would be a big milestone for a program written off from that mark just a few weeks ago.

Defense wins championships. Defense has certainly won the team their last three games. Carolina for the fourth straight week, has surrendered 21 points or less. They also notched nine sacks on the day which brings their total to 19 over the last three weeks.

Of 134 teams in NCAA FBS football, 75 teams have 19 or less sacks on the season. It’s a stat worth hanging your hat on.

That’s dominance. Teams rarely have that many in a game, much less 19 in that stretch. The Tar Heels are ranked 11th nationally in sacks with 27 on the season. This puts them sandwiched between College Football Playoff contenders Texas Tech and Indiana, who are at 12th and 10th, respectively.

The unit only gave up 320 total yards. Most of these were through the air, with Stanford quarterback Elijah Brown tossing for 284. He had a solid day where he also threw a touchdown but sophomore defensive back Khmori House picked him off in the third quarter with UNC up 10-3 to hold off the Cardinal offense. They needed to tie things up after UNC opened the third with a Gio Lopez touchdown pass that he lofted to sophomore running back Davion Gause.

Late in the game, the most drama unfolded after a very slow first half that saw a 3-3 score. After Brown’s late third-quarter pick, UNC would kick a field goal and score a touchdown on back-to-back drives in the fourth-quarter to pull ahead 20-3 with 12 minutes left in the game.

However, in typical Tar Heel fashion, the team turned around and gave up two consecutive touchdowns to make things stressful for the sky-blue clad crowd. Stanford received the ball after UNC went three-and-out and punted back to the Cardinal. They only had 46 seconds remaining and ran out of steam around midfield to give Head Coach Bill Belichick and his team back-to-back wins.

UNC continues to show gradual improvement over the last several games. Gio Lopez had one of his best games of the season. No turnovers. Two touchdowns and about 200 yards of passing. Jordan Shipp continues to turn in solid performances (18 catches, 214 yards, and two touchdowns over the last three games) as he and Lopez mesh. The defense has continued its aforementioned dominance. While they are not beating great teams, they are figuring out how to win. That’s huge for a roster that is largely new to Chapel Hill and under a new staff.

UNC Quarterback Gio Lopez throwing from the pocket. Photo Courtesy of GoHeels and credit to Ainsley E. Fauth.

The running game took a step back but overall has trended upward. You’ll have games like that. Sometimes it’s a slow day on the ground. However the identity of the backfield continues to remain a mystery. Davion Gause received the lion’s share of the carries with 11 of the team’s 27 attempts on the ground with the next highest volume of carries going to Benjamin Hall with 5. Demon June, after totaling almost 200 total scrimmage yards and two touchdowns last week was given three carries.

As in one plus two. As in not very many.

The freshman phenom has led the Heels in rushing yards with 420 while only receiving 67 carries and not getting a touch in their season opener.

Belichick has stuck to his team’s vision of using their different skills in a running back by committee approach. In August before the season he commented,

“It’s a pretty deep group and we’ll see how it all plays out,” Belichick said. “I definitely don’t think it’s all going to come from one person. We have a number of guys that are talented and we’ll just see how that plays out.”

They have not veered from this approach. While they have remained committed to the run game this season they have certainly not committed to one back. North Carolina’s three-headed committee has spread the rock with around the same amount of carries on the season for the Demon June (64), Benjamin Hall (55) and Davion Gause (52).

However June’s production is just higher. The other two backs average just under four yards per carry and June has 6.7 yards per attempt and more yards then either back. Hall sits at 215 and Gause with 191. That’s more than both backs combined on about half the carries.

UNC could technically be bowl eligible with three games left. They need to win two but they need to use the little star power they have to do so with a tough road ahead.

They end the season with a captivating in-state rivalry slate. They will face Wake Forest, Duke and NC State in that order. The Heels are not favored in a single one of those matchups and only have one home game.

Their two away matchups are at Wake Forest (not exactly an intimidating environment there) and at NC State which WILL be rowdy and loud at Carter-Finley Stadium.

All three teams have winning records and more conference wins than Carolina. NC State just upset ACC first place Georgia Tech who was ranked eighth nationally at the time and now sits at 14th. It was their first loss of the season.

Does Crolina have a shot? Mathematically, yes. Is it likely? Vegas wouldn’t give you great odds.

BUT!

Have they improved and shown hope for the future? Absolutely. If UNC falls short this season they have shown life and fight after a discouraging start. That’s something they can try to build this program on when they try to gain more funding and talk to recruits this offseason.

However that means they will have to compete well these next few weeks. That’s something that remains unclear if they will do.

Thomas Hicks is a journalist with video, PR, and writing experience who studied at UNC and the Hussman School of Journalism and Media. Thomas is always looking for work and the next story! He loves working with his camera or with his pen. This reporter can be contacted at thomasjhicks55@gmail.com, LinkedIn: Thomas Hicks and X: ThomasJ_H