North Carolina vs. Charlotte Postgame Notes
Posted Sep 8, 2024
UNC Football is 2-0 for the third straight season. North Carolina has scored at least 30 points in five straight home openers, winning all five of those games. This was UNC’s first game against Charlotte. The Tar Heels are 256-125-17 against current in-state Division I opponents. UNC has gained 400 or more yards in five consecutive home openers.
• Mack Brown is 284-149-1 as a head coach, including a 109-73-1 record in 16 seasons as head coach of the Tar Heels. Brown has the most wins in UNC history and the most of any active FBS head coach.
• Brown is 14-2 in home openers in Kenan Stadium, including 6-0 since returning to UNC in 2019.
• UNC is 68-26-3 all-time in home openers at Kenan Stadium.
• UNC is 48-0 when scoring more than 30 points in home openers and 72-8 when it scores 30 or more points under Mack Brown.
• UNC started consecutive regular-season games with different quarterbacks for the first time since 2018. (Nathan Elliott vs. Western Carolina and Cade Fortin vs. NC State).
• UNC has won consecutive regular-season games while allowing 20 or fewer points for the first time since defeating Mercer (56-7) and NC State (45-10) in the last two regular-season games of the 2019 season.
• A Tar Heel has rushed for 100 or more yards in four consecutive home openers for the first time since 1979-83. True freshman Davion Gause rushed for 105 yards vs. Charlotte, Omarion Hampton had 234 in 2023 against Appalachian State, Hampton had 101 in 2022 against Florida A&M and Sam Howell gained 104 against Georgia State in 2021.
• UNC’s first-quarter touchdown drive of 94 yards was its longest touchdown drive since scoring touchdowns on a 95-yard drive and a 94-yard drive against Syracuse last season.
Offense:
• Conner Harrell threw his first two touchdown passes of the 2024 season, a 30- yarder to Bryson Nesbit and a 58-yarder to Christian Hamilton. Harrell has four career touchdown passes.
• Harrell’s 58-yard touchdown pass to Christian Hamilton was the longest scoring pass of Harrell’s career and the longest by a Tar Heel since Drake Maye threw a 62-yard touchdown pass to Bryson Nesbit against Virginia in 2023.
• Harrell rushed for the second touchdown of his career in the second quarter.
• Nesbit’s touchdown reception was his first TD reception of the season and the 11th of his career.
• Nesbit’s 30-yard reception was the third-longest TD reception of his career (scored on a 62-yard reception against Virginia in 2023 and a 47-yard reception against Georgia State in 2021).
• Hamilton made his first touchdown reception. The 58-yard TD catch was the longest of his career.
• Nate McCollum had his first rushing touchdown as a Tar Heel and the second rushing touchdown of his career (scored on a 40-yard run against Western Carolina in 2022 while playing for Georgia Tech).
• McCollum’s score was the first rushing touchdown by a Tar Heel wide receiver since Dazz Newsome rushed for a touchdown against Virginia Tech on 10/10/20.
• Davion Gause rushed for a game-high 105 yards, the first Tar Heel true freshman to rush for 100 or more yards since Omarion Hampton gained 110 at Georgia State in 2022.
• Gause (105) rushed for 56 more yards than Charlotte (49) rushed for as a team.
• Hampton’s 77 yards increase his career total to 2,111 rushing yards, 17th in school history. He rushed for 77 yards on 11 carries but left the game due to injury in the second quarter and did not return, although he was officially listed as available to return.
• Jordan Shipp and Charleston French recorded their first career receptions and French had his first carries as a Tar Heel.
• Carolina is 14 of 27 on third downs in the first two games.
Defense:
• Jahvaree Ritzie had two more sacks today and has five sacks in two games this season (seven and a half in his career).
• Ritzie is the first Tar Heel to have at least five sacks in a two-game stretch since Kareem Martin recorded 3.5 sacks against Pittsburgh and two against Old Dominion in 2013.
• Amare Campbell had a career-high seven tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
• Campbell recorded a sack for the second consecutive game.
• UNC’s defense limited Charlotte to 49 rushing yards, the fewest rushing yards UNC has allowed since South Carolina had -2 in 2023.
• The Tar Heel defense held the 49ers to two third-down conversions in 14 attempts.
• Alijah Huzzie made a career-high 1.5 tackles for losses.
• Joel Starlings and Ty Adams recorded their first career tackles.
Special Teams:
• Noah Burnette’s first field goal, a 44-yarder, was his 26th made field goal in his last 27 attempts.
• Burnette missed his next attempt, a 49-yarder, in the third quarter. Until the miss, Burnette had made 13 consecutive field goals, last missing an attempt against Georgia Tech on 10/28/23.
• Burnette has made 39 for 47 field goals as a Tar Heel.
• Noah Burnette surpassed Connor Barth for eighth in PATs made at UNC, with 106. Barth finished his career with 103.
Courtesy UNC Athletics Communications
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