Mitch Trubisky falls flat against Georgia in collegiate debut

ATLANTA — This wasn’t supposed to happen to Mitch Trubisky.

He was the one tasked with leading the North Carolina football team to a win over an SEC power in the first start of his collegiate career. And if the Tar Heels were defeated, surely it was in spite of a brilliant performance from the redshirt junior quarterback. 

[More reading: Mitch Trubisky ready to take control of the Tar Heels]

But as UNC exited the field after falling 33-24 to Georgia in Atlanta on Saturday, a stunned feeling lingered in the catacombs of the Georgia Dome. The Tar Heels’ run defense didn’t help matters by giving up 289 yards on the ground, but the offense was uncharacteristically inconsistent — and the man leading the charge was anything but sharp.

"(I played) below average,” Trubisky said. “I didn’t play as I expected.”

If anything, the Tar Heels (0-1) kept the game close despite their anemic offense, which had its worst performance since an embarrassing 35-7 loss to N.C. State in 2014.

Trubisky looked like a shadow of the efficient passer he had been in the last two seasons for the Tar Heels. After completing 85.1 percent of his passes in 2015, he connected on just 24 of his 40 throws Saturday. Sometimes he overthrew the ball; other times he waited too long in the pocket. Whatever the outcome, he never really looked comfortable.

“I think he got a little antsy a couple of times and had some time that he didn’t realize he had,” Coach Larry Fedora said.

North Carolina actually shot out to a 10-point lead in the third quarter. But when the Bulldogs (1-0) began to make things close, Trubisky and his cohorts couldn’t put together a drive to flip the momentum — at least not in their favor.

After Georgia cut the score to 24-21 late in the third quarter, a strange sequence of events — involving a muffed kickoff return and a pair of subsequent penalties — backed the Tar Heels inside their own 5-yard line.

And as the crowd noise inside the Georgia Dome reached peak levels, the quarterback from Mentor, Ohio made arguably his biggest mistake of the night.

North Carolina called a screen to counter what they thought would be an over-aggressive Georgia play call. But after evading pressure and scrambling to his left, Trubisky tossed the ball to Elijah Hood — who was blanketed by several defenders in his own end zone — instead of throwing the ball away.

The end result was a safety and a momentum shift toward the Bulldogs.

“That was just a dumb play on my part,” the quarterback said. “I’ve gotta burn the ball.”

While Trubisky wasn’t precise, his teammates struggled to help him. There were low snaps. There were dropped passes. There were times when he took hits he didn’t need to.

“I feel like he took a couple shots,” Hood said. “And I feel like that’s mostly on us as running backs and the (offensive) line: Make sure we do a better job making him feel comfortable, especially in his first (start).”

But in the end, perhaps it was the gravity of the moment that hurt Trubisky the most. With all the hype surrounding his first start, he admittedly tried to play things safe — a decision that might have lost the Tar Heels the game before it even started.

“I was just excited to be out there,” Trubisky said. “I kept trying to tell myself not to do too much, but now ... I wish I could have done more.”

@jbo_vernon

sports@dailytarheel.com