UNC Tar Heels Football Team Cruises Past Western Carolina on Senior Day

by Derrick Isaiah Clyburn

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The North Carolina football team played their final home game of the season against Western Carolina on Saturday afternoon. The offense and defense came out and dominated on both sides of the football all game. The defense held Western Carolina to just 3 points for the entire game. The offense was extremely explosive scoring on 6 of their 7 first-half offensive possessions.

Seniors Dazz Newsome and Michael Carter made sure to have big days in their last home game as Tar Heels. Newsome had 82 yards receiving and a touchdown and Carter had 73 yards rushing and 3 touchdowns. North Carolina led the game 42-3 at halftime. As a result, in the second half, they were able to put their backups in the game. The backups played well on defense not allowing any points in their time out there on the field. The backups on offense had some flashes as well and had a touchdown drive of their own. This game was completely dominated by the Tar Heels and puts them in a good position going into their final game against Miami next week.

UNC Game Stats

UNC Total Offense- 540 yards

Rushing 231 Passing 309

UNC Passing: Sam Howell 20-23-287yds 2TDs, Jacob Criswell 2-3-16yds 1 INT

UNC Rushing: Michael Carter 8-73 yds 3TDs, Elijah Green 6-43 yds, Sam Howell 2-41 yds, DJ Jones 5-31 yds 1TD, Javonte Williams 3-8 yds 1TD

UNC Receiving: Dazz Newsome 6-82 yds 1 TD, Javonte Williams 3-48 yds, Emery Simmons 2-33 yds, Rontavius 3-28 yds, Antoine Green 1-22 yds 1TD

Western Carolina Total Offense- 253 yards

Western Carolina Passing: Will Jones 5-12-48 yds, Reggie Jones 1-1-40 yds, Kason Lincke 3-3-40 yds

Western Carolina Rushing: Donnavan Spencer 13-52 yds, Mikai Stanley 11-46 yds

Western Carolina Receiving: Owen Cosenke 1-40 yds, Donnavan Spencer 4-33 yds

UNC Bright Spots

Sam Howell threw for 287 yards and 2 touchdowns. He also rushed 2 times for 41 yards.

Michael Carter rushed 8 times for 73 yards and 3 touchdowns.

DJ Jones rushed 5 times for 31 yards and his first career touchdown.

Dazz Newsome had 6 receptions for 82 yards and one touchdown.

Antoine Green had 1 reception for 22 yards and one tocuchdown.

Needs Work

The defense needs to continue to work on tackling in space and do a better job of knowing their assignments out there on the field. They are still allowing too many big runs from the opposing teams.

Final Observations

The Tar Heels are now 7-3 on the season. Today, they were able to get valuable reps for their young players on both sides of the football who are not used to seeing playing time due to the blowout. Coming into this year, there were high expectations for this team and the Heels did a pretty good job living up to them. The offense has been one of the most explosive teams in the country all season long, and the defense will continue to get better with more reps for their young players.

This will allow the defense to be even better going into next season. Although they will not be in the ACC championship game this year, North Carolina has put themselves in a position to play in one of the top tier bowl games this year. The future looks bright for the Tar Heels going forward and we should be expecting this team to be in the ACC championship in the next couple of years. UNC plays their final game of the season next week against top 10 ranked Miami team in what should be an exciting matchup.