UNC Football Moments After – UNC vs. UCF 34-9 Loss
UNC Tar Heels Football Team Stalls Out Against the Central Florida Knights
by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn
The North Carolina football team traveled to Florida to face off against UCF in its final non-conference game of the season. The Tar Heels got off to a rough start in this game, allowing a 13-play, 75-yard touchdown six-minute drive to UCF to open the game. The Heels’ offense then responded with two inexplicable turnovers by Gio Lopez and a punt on their first three offensive possessions. Even after this horrific start, UNC still only found themselves down 13-0 after several miscues early in this game. The North Carolina defense did a good job of holding the UCF offense to just field goals after the Heels committed those turnovers.
However, UNC’s offense was awful in the first half. After the first quarter, the Tar Heels had just 2 total yards of offense on 7 plays. Carolina’s offense was just out of rhythm from the very start of the game. The play calling was horrendous, the offensive line couldn’t hold up their blocks, hardly any receivers could get open, and UNC quarterback Gio Lopez had no clue where to throw the football. Because of the ineptitude of the Tar Heels’ offense, UNC’s defense was on the field a lot. UCF was on the field for 20 of the 30 minutes in the first half. North Carolina had only 97 yards of total offense and only scored 3 points going into halftime, making it one of the worst offensive performances in a half in years.
In the second half, the Tar Heels’ offense struggles continued after going three and out on their first drive after halftime. North Carolina, whose best part of the offense over the last couple of weeks was the rushing attack, could never establish the run game. UCF’s defensive line dominated the offensive line and dictated the line of scrimmage. Once the run game was bottled up, everything else around the offense fell apart. There were hardly any good pass plays called throughout the game other than on the two scoring drives they had. Even after Gio Lopez got hurt in the third quarter and Max Johnson came in, Carolina had one good drive with Johnson running the offense, and then went back to being inept. Everything was hard for the Tar Heels’ offense, even when they did score their one touchdown; it took 19 plays and a few fourth-down conversions to get down the field. The Heels had no flow to the offense and were only productive on two of their eight offensive drives.
Meanwhile, UCF scored on 6 of their 9 offensive possessions and wore down the North Carolina defense. The Tar Heels’ defense seemed out of gas in the second half after being on the field so much over the course of the game. The Heels missed tackles, struggled to get any pass rush, and just could never disrupt the flow of UCF’s offense after the first quarter. UCF led this game from start to finish, and UNC falls to 2-2 on the season
UNC Game Stats
UNC Total Offense- 217 yards
Rushing 63 Passing 154
UNC Passing: Gio Lopez 11/14 87 2INTS, Max Johnson 11/19 67 yards 1TD
UNC Rushing: Demon June 10-50 yards
UNC Receiving: Jordan Shipp 3-44 yards, Shanard Clower 4-34 yards, Kobe Paysour 1-8 yards 1TD
UCF Total Offense- 366 yards
UCF Passing: Tayven Jackson 25/32 223 yards 1TD
UCF Rushing: Tayven Jackson 10-66 yards 1TD, Myles Montgomery 12-35 1TD
UCF Receiving: Dylan Wade 5-47 yards, Jaden Nixon 4-41 yards, Kylan Fox 2-28 yards 1TD
UNC Bright Spots
Quarterback Max Johnson threw one touchdown.
Wide Receiver Kobe Paysour had one receiving touchdown.
Needs Work
The offensive system, game plan, playcalling, and whole operation must be better. The Tar Heels are not good offensively and are on their way to becoming one of the worst offensives in UNC’s football history. They have no identity, and there is no rhythm and flow to the offensive play calls. The offensive coaching staff just hasn’t put the offense in a position to succeed. They are unable to establish the run game, and the passing offense is nonexistent. They are not playing to the strengths of the offense. The offensive line is not blocking well, and Gio Lopez hasn’t been accurate or consistent enough with his decision-making for this offense to function well. There needs to be drastic changes with this offensive system, and they must find a way to put together a game plan for this offense to at least look decent.
Even when the offense is struggling and the defense is on the field entirely too much, they must continue to play with the same effort and urgency as earlier in the game. There were entirely too many missed tackles and players out of position, unable to make impact plays. There was also hardly any pressure on the quarterback and not enough effort to make him more uncomfortable in the passing or run game.
The Defensive coaching staff also needs to do a better job of putting their players in a better position to stop the read-option play, be more disruptive in the backfield, and get the offense out of rhythm with different coverages, blitzes, pressures, and schemes
Final Observations
The Tar Heels fall to 2-2 on the season. After making some progress in the last two weeks even against inferior opponents, the Tar Heels seemed to have taken some strides on both sides of the ball towards establishing a true identity. This week against UCF, it felt like they took a step back in that area. The defense played good enough in the first half to keep the Tar Heels in the game, but later in the game, the lack of effort was concerning. It got to the point where the defense was missing several tackles, not staying disciplined in their gaps, and not making the quarterback or the receivers uncomfortable.
No matter how the offense is playing, the defense must continue to play at a high level for the entire game and then challenge the offense to do their job and help them out. The biggest issue for this team right now, though, is the offense. In three of the four games the offense has been inept. The offensive system, gameplan, and operation has been awful. There is no flow or rhythm to their style of play. The offense has been conservative, basic, generic, and lacks innovation and creativity. It’s almost to the point where it looks like Offensive Coordinator Freddie Kitchens and his offensive staff don’t know how to build a successful, effective offense. Most of their pass plays are behind the line of scrimmage or three or four yards up field. Their first down plays are not good and when they get stopped on early downs, it keeps them in third and longs, where it hard for any offense to function or be successful let alone this offense.
The offense does not use their best players or personnel well and they are hardly any play calls that gives them an advantage. There’s just nothing special about the offense. There are hardly any explosive plays generated, and they struggle to score touchdowns in the red zone when they do get down there. Everything just seems hard for the Tar Heels on the offensive side of the ball, and that needs to change. Running back Demon June and Jordan Shipp are their best offensive players, so they must find creative ways to get them the ball in space to make plays. In addition, they need to find out what the rest of their skill players do well and utilize them in the best way to make them productive. The Tar Heels are in a tough spot because they don’t have the most talent on either side of the ball, but they have to eliminate mental errors or mistakes that puts them in an even worse position. UNC has a bye week coming up to clean up a lot of its shortcomings and weaknesses as a team. The Tar Heels need to be a team that plays fundamentally sound football and not beat themselves. The coaching staff has to do a better job of putting them in a position to succeed, or the season won’t go the way they want it to. Next up is Clemson on Saturday, October 4th.