UNC Football Moments After – UNC vs. Wake Forest 28-12 Loss 

UNC Tar Heels Football Team Squanders Their Opportunities and Loses Against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

The North Carolina football team faced off against Wake Forest on Saturday to start its three-game stretch against the other North Carolina schools in the ACC. On the first drive of this game, Carolina wasn’t as dialed in or focused as they should’ve been defensively. The UNC defense was missing tackles, not finishing plays when they were in position to sack the quarterback, and the ball was fumbled on two separate occasions on this drive where North Carolina was unable to recover either one. One of those fumbles where UNC failed to recover, Wake Forest receiver Carlos Hernandez picked up the ball and ran it 50 yards for a touchdown. After that ridiculous play, the Heels’ defense woke up and started to disrupt Wake Forest’s offense with their pressure from the defensive line and sticky coverage on the back end, which resulted in three straight stops from Carolina’s defense. However, the Tar Heels’ offense wasn’t doing much. Everything just seemed difficult for the North Carolina offense.  The Heels’ offense just isn’t explosive or creative, which makes them easy to defend.

In addition to that, UNC quarterback Gio Lopez isn’t the most accurate with his throws and doesn’t read or process the field well enough to make plays out of structure or after the first read. The two drives where Carolina’s offense was able to find success, Gio Lopez was getting the ball out quickly to his receivers, and there was a good balance between the running and passing game. Those drives still resulted in only field goals because the play calls on critical downs and in the red zone were just not effective enough to help keep those drives alive and put the Tar Heels in position to score a touchdown. UNC’s offense was so anemic that it couldn’t even score after the defense forced a turnover and the drive started in the red zone. Carolina’s defense kept the Heels in the game, and the two touchdowns Wake Forest had came after unfortunate breaks for the Tar Heels. One touchdown came off a fumble recovery, and the other touchdown came a couple plays later after Wake Forest converted a 4^th and one that North Carolina’s defense clearly stopped before the Demon Deacons made it to the sticks. However, the call didn’t go Carolina’s way and Wake Forest led 14-6 going into halftime. 

In the second half, North Carolina continued to struggle to score when getting in the red zone or even in Wake Forest territory. UNC had five drives in Wake Forest territory but managed to only score 12 points off field goals. Whereas Wake Forest scored four touchdowns, some of those due to explosive plays allowed by the Carolina defense, but the defense was good overall, keeping the Tar Heels in the game. The points left off the board by the Tar Heels’ offense were the difference in the game. UNC quarterback Gio Lopez missed some wide-open receivers downfield that could’ve kept drives alive, but offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens did him no favors with the playcalling on those other drives. They were too conservative play calls when the Heels got in the red zone, including outside runs that hadn’t worked all game long, screen passes, and throws behind the line of scrimmage that were well defended. The Tar Heels should’ve been more aggressive with the plays that got them down the field, which were quick intermediate throws to tight end Jake Johnson, wide receiver Jordan Shipp, and wide receiver Kobe Paysour, and inside runs between the tackles with running back Demon June. Their offensive decision-making by offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens cost them the game because the defense gave them several opportunities to get back into the game. This was the first game since 2016 that North Carolina didn’t score a touchdown in a football game. The Tar Heels fall to 4-6 and Wake Forest beat the Tar Heels for the first time in five years. 

UNC Game Stats  

UNC Total Offense- 257 

Rushing 56   Passing 201           

UNC Passing: Gio Lopez 21/36 201 yards 

UNC Rushing: Demon June 9-32 yards 

UNC Receiving: Jake Johnson 5-54 yards, Kobe Paysour 

  

Wake Forest Total Offense- 414 yards 

Wake Forest Passing: Robby Ashford 15/25 191 yards 1TD 

Wake Forest Rushing: Demond Claiborne 23 98 yards 1TD, Robby Ashford 10-52 yards 1TD 

Wake Forest Receiving: Carlos Hernandez 6-100 yards 1TD 

UNC Bright Spots  

Quarterback Gio Lopez threw for 201 yards. 

Tight End Jake John had 5 catches for 54 yards. 

Linebacker Khmori House led the team in tackles with 9 and had 1 sack and one forced fumble. 

Needs Work  

The offensive playcalling for the Tar Heels is atrocious. Offensive Coordinator Freddie Kitchens is not putting his players in the best position to succeed. Everything is so hard for the Tar Heels offensively. The wide receivers and tight ends are never schemed wide open, and they are not used to their strengths enough. We’re 10 games in, and Kitchens still hasn’t figured out a consistent formula or recipe for success. They are awful in red zone and struggle to score touchdowns because he calls plays that Gio Lopez is not just good at executing. The offense is predictable, basic, non-explosive, and just not creative enough to get the most out of this offense. The lack of offense puts too much pressure on the defense to be perfect, and that’s practically impossible. Kitchens needs to focus on simplifying the offense and just stick with the plays that work best for these players and their skillsets. 

Defensively, the effort and tackling in space must be better. There were too many instances in this game where Wake Forest players were getting extra yards or explosive plays because of missed tackles due to bad angles and just being out of position. 

Final Observations 

The Tar Heels are now 4-6 on the season. The offense is really hurting this team and its ability to win games. They are frustrating to watch. There is no flow or rhythm to the offensive play calls, and Offensive Coordinator Freddie Kitchens doesn’t call the plays that are effective in getting the ball to his best playmakers enough. I’ve never seen a coach who likes to call plays that haven’t worked all season long as much as Freddie Kitchens does. There will be instances where the defense is just stuffing outside run plays, screen passes, or any plays behind the line of scrimmage that start behind the line of scrimmage going toward the perimeter, and he’ll still go back to it on the next drive. Freddie Kitchens just hasn’t shown the ability to be a good player and get the most out of this offense.

When they do have some success, as little as that may be, he can’t even call a sequence of plays that help his offense get in the end zone enough. In this game, UNC had five offensive drives inside the Wake Forest 40-yard line and only managed four field goals. They had no touchdowns in a game for the first time since 2016. The offense cannot continue to be this bad. They struggle most weeks to even put up 20 points, and that just puts too much pressure on the defense to play practically mistake-free or perfect football. That just isn’t going to work from week to week, and for the Tar Heels, their offense has been responsible for most of the losses this season. Something needs to change offensively because there are two games lef,t and with two wins, the Heels can be bowl eligible. Next up is Duke on Saturday, November 22.