UNC vs. West Virginia Postgame Notes
Posted Dec 28, 2023
North Carolina finishes the football season at 8-5. Mack Brown is 282-148-1, including 107-73-1 in 15 seasons as coach of the Tar Heels. True freshmen Kaleb Cost made his first career start at defensive back. Cost recorded five tackles and two pass break ups. Kaimon Rucker is the first Tar Heel to have 15 TFLs in a season since Chaz Surratt in 2019.
• Entering Wednesday, UNC had passed for 200 yards in 26 straight games. This was the longest active streak in FBS. Arizona now has the longest active streak of 25 games. Conner Harrell passed for 199 yards.
• In the first half, Harrell had four rushes of over 10 yards, including runs of 11, 15, 17, and 20. He accounted for every Tar Heel rush greater than nine yards.
• On Harrell's first drive as the Tar Heels' starter, he went three for three through the air and had three rushes for 30 yards.
• Omarion Hampton passed Elijah Hood and finished the season with the second-most rushing yards in a single season in Tar Heel history. He now has 1,504 rushing yards on the season. Only Don McCauley had more yards in a single season, with 1,720 yards in the 1970 season.
• Hampton is the first ACC running back to run for over 1,500 yards in a season since Boston College’s A.J. Dillion (1,685), Clemson’s Travis Etienne (1,614), and Louisville’s Javian Hawkins (1,525) in 2019.
• Power Echols recorded 10 tackles, marking the seventh game of his career with doubledigit tackles.
• In the past decade, the only Tar Heels who recorded for more double-digit tackling games were Cedric Gray (16), Cole Holcomb (14) and Chaz Surratt (9).
• Cedric Gray and Power Echols are the first ACC teammates to both register over 100 tackles in back-to-back seasons since UVA’s Micah Kiser and Quin Blanding did so in 2016 and 2017.
• Gavin Blackwell recorded a career long 47-yard reception in the first quarter.
• Armai Gainer forced a fumble that was recovered by Armani Chatman. It was the sixth forced fumble of Gainer's college career and his first as a Tar Heel.
• Noah Burnette made one 28-yard field goal. He finishes the season 19 of 20 and holds the fourth-highest FG percentage in the FBS (95.0%).
• This was the 95th game in a row that Carolina has scored a touchdown. 95 is the longest active streak in the ACC.
• Carolina was held scoreless in a half for the first time this season. It was the first time that the Tar Heels were held scoreless in a half since the second half of the 2022 ACC Championship against Clemson.
• The 2022 ACC Championship was also the last time that the Tar Heels were held to fewer than 20 points.
Courtesy UNC Athletics Communications
In 2019, when Sam Howell was a freshman quarterback at UNC, he attended one of his future protégé’s high school playoff games. Howell was impressed...