Just ugly all around. There’s really no other way to describe a loss that saw Carolina lose their starting quarterback to an injury after the issue had already been decided. Any sense of hope that had developed
in the last two games evaporated under the Florida sun inside the Bounce House.
Let’s just dig right into our awards for the past weekend. No reason to really use too many words to set this up.
Winners
Damon June – It’s tough to find things to like about the game on Saturday, but June’s performance is one of them. It arguably was his best one, despite just going for 50 yards with 10 attempts. The fact that he averaged five yards a carry is precisely why he came out looking great. This is three weeks in a row that his rushing has been the brightest spot among all of the running backs. With Gio Lopez’s injury it’s likely he’s going to end up being even more of a focus on the offense, and it’s going to be interesting to see how he and the team respond.
Rece Verhoff – The senior transfer from Marshall is currently a perfect three-for-three on kicking field goals this season, and added two more under somewhat difficult circumstances Saturday. There’s a joke about how reliable college kickers are, but of all of the other additions to the team from the portal, Verhoff at least looks like he was a good pickup. He’s likely going to be playing even more of an important role as the season continues.
Jordan Shipp – The leading receiver for Carolina on a really low offensive day for the team overall gets credit for showing out and having the longest pass catch of the day for 24 yards. He caught a total of three balls for 44 yards, and with his skill you can’t help but to wonder if more consistent quarterbacking play would allow him to shine just a little bit more.
Losers
Bill Belichick – You just have to wonder if ten million dollars is worth it for the coach at this point. There’s still plenty of time left in this season, and when you look at the upcoming schedule there’s absolutely the chance the team can cobble together four more wins somewhere in order to go to a bowl game. Even the upcoming game against Clemson all of a sudden looks at least winnable because the Tigers are just going through it, and in this era of the transfer portal you wonder just how engaged they’ll be. With all that said, the offense for Carolina looks uninspired, the defense is just getting worn down, and any sense of ego he might have had about his ability to just waltz in and take over college football has to be gone. His girlfriend is also continuing to generate headlines like these, which doesn’t help. Even if Carolina manages to win eight in a row at this point, does anyone think they’d do anything but embarrass themselves against someone like Georgia Tech or Miami? It’s also going to feed the takes from the folks who think this was a bad idea — both inside and outside the fanbase.
The middle segment defense – In a game like Saturday’s, there’s typically plenty of blame to go around, but the fact is that the defense had held their own well. Yes, they gave up a touchdown early, but despite just how bad the offense had performed, Carolina found itself only down 13-3 and with a chance to get the ball at the start of the third quarter. All they had to do was keep UCF from scoring and instead they had two auto-first drive-extending penalties — actually three, but two were on the same play — and then just let UCF waltz into the end zone without any real work. The Tar Heels were then down 20-3, and after another Tar Heel three-and-out the defense let UCF score in seven plays, never even touching third down. It was then 27-3, and the game was effectively over at that point. It was reminiscent of how Carolina let it get away from them against TCU, and it’s clearly a trend.
Gio Lopez – As of this writing it’s unknown if he will be back this season as he was in pretty severe pain after a hit in the third, and needed the cart to get back to the locker room. Even before he was hurt fans were done with what they had seen from Lopez. How bad has the offense been under Lopez?
Think about that — against two Big XII teams, Lopez only has eight drives that haven’t ended with either a three-and-out or a turnover. Is it just the fact that Lopez is rough as a passer or that the offensive coaching staff — starting with Belichick — just haven’t given him what he’s needed to succeed? Maybe it’s both. Either way, it certainly seems like he may have to give way to another starter against Clemson — the question will be if the Tar Heels will make it known or try to keep some intrigue.
Honorable Mentions
Max Johnson came in after the injury and gave the Tar Heels their only TD of the day, and finished 11-19 with 67 yards and seemed to like getting it to his bother Jake Johnson. We’ll see if he’s the primary starter under center from here…five Tar Heels recorded a tackle for loss but only one was on the defensive line: Smith Vilbert. Carolina also recorded zero sacks, and while the Tar Heel defense has done a great job of keeping the team in games, not creating negative plays makes their job ridiculously harder, especially when you aren’t creating turnovers.
Everyone gets a week to take their mind off football as the Tar Heels head back to Chapel Hill and prepare for the Clemson invasion. When the season began it probably wasn’t a surprise that the Tar Heels would come in 2-2. The fact that Clemson is 1-3 is, and clearly the Tigers are going to want to try to recover some of their dignity.
