North Carolina went right down the field on its first possession and scored on a nice throw and catch from Bryn Renner to Dwight Jones. Then Missouri got the ball. The Tigers reeled off 31 points on their next five possessions and it was all but over. Missouri won 41-24 in the Independence Bowl tonight.

Thoughts:

Listening the tone of his voice before the game as much as anything he said, I don’t think Everett Withers wanted to be coaching that game. He’s already been doing recruiting for Ohio State. I expect that the players picked up on the disappointment that Withers had over not being chosen to be the permanent UNC head coach. The players could have used the emotion to get a win for Withers but I’m not sure they were convinced that it mattered that much to him. I’m sure he wanted to go out a winner but I’m just not sure it was in him.

Going into the game, I thought Carolina had more to play for than Missouri. What difference does it make that Missouri is changing conferences? The Carolina team had a chance to eliminate some of the ghosts hanging over the program and had a chance to send their supposedly beloved Coach Withers out with a win. Don’t really understand the effort.

Carolina turned the ball over twice in the determining first half – one was a fluke interception off the back of Dwight Jones. But Jones, auditioning for the NFL, could have been stronger hanging onto the ball on that play. The other turnover was an unforced fumble by tailback Gio Bernard, who banged into his own teammate at the line of scrimmage. Bernard, the leading freshman rusher in the country, finally looked like a real freshman as he was contained all evenging. He couldn’t break tackles and the offensive line was manhandled. Bernard rushed 13 times for 31 yards – not good.

If you take away the 14 points off those two turnovers and Carolina gets a TD instead of a field goal at the end of the first half, when a drive stalled at the two-yard line, the game could have been very different in the second half.

The Tar Heels had gotten the momentum midway through the second half, when they cut the deficit to 31-17 but Missouri’s T.J. Moe took the ensuing kickoff way up at the 17 yard line, started to throw a lateral pass across field, thought better of it and ran all the way to the Carolina 34. The Tar Heels worked hard to make it a two-score game and then they let something like that happen? Another short kickoff and hardly laying a hand of the returner? A minute later the deficit was back to 21 points and the game was practically over.

The quarterback for Missouri, James Franklin, rushed 18 times, more than anyone else in the game. He had more carries than he had completions. That’s what the spread offense often brings. You can win with it but I’m not fond of watching a game with it, particularly if the quarterback runs that much. Time will tell if new UNC Larry Fedora’s spread offense relies on the quarterback running it that much.

Franklin ran the ball 217 times for 981 yards in Missouri’s spread offense this year. Austin Davis, the quarterback under Fedora’s spread offense at Southern Miss, duirng his three years as the starter, averaged about 130 carries a season and 400 yards rushing. UNC’s Renner, who has tons of potential, is pro style quarterback and has to be secretly disappointed that UNC will be switching to Fedora’s spread offense. While he passed for more than 3,000 yards, Renner rushed only about 55 times for minus more than 100 yards. His rushes were mostly sacks.

Renner is the best passer of the three and the worse rusher of the three but will he fit in Fedora’s spread offense or will Fedora adjust his spread offense to Renner’s talents? Fedora is an impressive coach and he might win with a spread offense but the game of football will be vastly different for Carolina fans. Those who don’t like running quarterbacks might not like the style of play, again, unless Fedora adjusts to Renner’s talents.

North Carolina’s season really turned when the Heels laid an egg in Raleigh against rival N.C. State. Carolina went into that game 6-3 and didn’t score a point in a 13-0 loss. The Heels won just one more game, against lowly Duke, the rest of the way and finished 7-6. A win would have given the Heels an 8-5 record and it would have been the fourth year in a row they had earned eight wins.

University of North Carolina senior wide receiver Dwight Jones has been reinstated by the NCAA and is eligible to compete in the Independence Bowl vs. Missouri on Monday, Dec. 26. Jones had been ruled ineligible for allowing his name and photo to be used to promote an event in his hometown of Burlington, N.C.

NCAA rules prevent student-athletes from using their name, photo or likeness to promote a for-profit entity. UNC learned of the secondary violation and declared him ineligible. UNC then applied for reinstatement Tuesday.

“I apologize to my teammates, the coaching staff, and the University for the poor decision I made to allow my likeness to be used in the promotion of a party given by a family member while still a part of the Carolina football team,” Jones said Tuesday. “I should have asked the coaching staff or administration before allowing this to happen. I was wrong and the party is cancelled. I’m sorry for being a distraction to our team and taking the focus away from our preparation for the Independence Bowl.”

UNC’s compliance office sent a cease-and-desist letter to the party promoters.

North Carolina plays Missouri in the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl on Monday, Dec. 26. The team departs for Shreveport on Dec. 22.

Previous version:
UNC requests reinstatement for Dwight Jones for bowl game
University of North Carolina senior wide receiver Dwight Jones committed a secondary NCAA violation when he allowed his name and photo to be used to promote an event in his hometown of Burlington.

NCAA rules prevent student-athletes from using their name, photo or likeness to promote a for-profit entity. UNC learned of the secondary violation and has declared Jones ineligible. Carolina has applied to the NCAA for his reinstatement.

“I apologize to my teammates, the coaching staff, and the University for the poor decision I made to allow my likeness to be used in the promotion of a party given by a family member while still a part of the Carolina football team,” said Jones. “I should have asked the coaching staff or administration before allowing this to happen. I was wrong and the party is cancelled. I’m sorry for being a distraction to our team and taking the focus away from our preparation for the Independence Bowl.”

“Coach Withers and I met, and Dwight realizes he made a mistake,” said UNC athletics director Bubba Cunningham. “Dwight has cancelled the party and we have submitted a reinstatement request with the NCAA.”

UNC’s compliance office also has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the party promoters.

North Carolina plays Missouri in the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl on Monday, Dec. 26. The team departs for Shreveport on Thursday, Dec. 22.

– News Release

If the Tar Heels could play like they did during a six-minute stretch in the second half when they outscored Nicholls State 23-1, this could be a special season. But overall, the Heels didn’t look special in a 99-49 victory.

They’ll have to shoot better against Texas Wednesday because the Heels will not get 31 offensive rebounds against the Longhorns. Plus, they can’t leave points at the free throw line against good teams. Carolina hasn’t shot well from the line all year, coming into the game hitting just 65 percent, but the Heels managed only 21 of 41 free throws against Nicholls St.

Coach Williams said there isn’t much to say about free throw shooting. He compared it to talking about putting in golf. The more you think about it, the worse you do. But he did have the Heels shoot some extra free throws yesterday, something he said must have been a mistake.

For more on the Nicholls State game, please click here.

Anytime you get up by 29 points, you shouldn’t end up winning by only 15 as the Tar Heels did in a 97-82 victory over Appalachian State. If the game had ended at 75-46, Tar Heels fans may have been happier. But it’s still early in the season and Carolina will learn from it.

Plus, exam week does take something out of you. Eleven players had tests the day before the game.

Tyler Zeller’s 31-point effort can’t just be attributed to playing a smaller team because Appalachian has a couple of guys over 6-foot-10. He just had a good night. Even he laughed at a lucky shot that he put up that bounced around and went in.

For more on the game, please click here.