Bernard hits benchmark in win against Louisville

As a group of linemen gathered on the sidelines Saturday, offensive line coach Sam Pittman offered them four brief words of motivation.

“Do it for Gio.”

And that’s all they needed to hear.

Those linemen were stacked against one of the nation’s best defenses, but for Giovani Bernard, they’d do anything.

It was the fourth quarter of North Carolina’s 14-7 home win against Louisville, and the redshirt freshman tailback was 20 yards away from his fourth straight 100-yard game — a feat that no Tar Heel had accomplished since 1984.

As Pittman rallied the UNC linemen on the sidelines, Bernard stood close by, overwhelmed by their support.

“I broke down in tears,” Bernard said. “I’ve never had such an amazing O-line, such an amazing O-line coach and such a team feeling.

“And it just broke my heart to see that those guys were working so hard for me and to do something special for me.”

After taking three carries in the game’s final 41 seconds, Bernard finished the day with nine more yards than he needed.

But those 109 yards didn’t come easily.

In fact, not much did come easily for the UNC offense Saturday. Early on, the Tar Heels (5-1, 1-1 ACC) were rarely able to touch the ball, much less hand it off to Bernard.

Through the first half, UNC had possession for only eight minutes, and it struggled to put anything together against a blitz-heavy Louisville defense.

“With that defense, it’s tough to get into a rhythm,” said quarterback Bryn Renner, who went 12 for 18 on the day and was sacked four times. “We like being on the field, and a couple of linemen just said, ‘Man, I feel like we haven’t even played yet.’”

But the Louisville offense couldn’t capitalize on its sizable first-half time advantage, as placekicker Chris Philpott whiffed on two field goal attempts.

Those missed opportunities translated into a scoreless half of football for both teams. But after halftime, the Cardinals continued to stymie their own efforts.

After a Louisville fair catch interference call, Renner and the Tar Heels started their second drive of the third quarter on their own 47 and quickly charged into the red zone. The Cardinals forced a fourth and two, but once UNC kicker Thomas Moore took the field, Louisville was drawn offsides.

That gave the Tar Heels a fresh set of downs, and fittingly, it was a three-yard run to the outside by Bernard that put UNC on the board.

“You see a hole, you’ve got to hit it,” Bernard said. “If we were on the one-yard line, that would have been a 99-yard run. It was just that wide open.”

Bernard led a much-improved offensive showing by the Tar Heels in the second half, picking up 79 of his 109 yards. Receiver Dwight Jones, too, was instrumental in the offense’s resurgence.

In the opening drive of the fourth quarter, Jones snagged an underthrown pass by Renner on the 13-yard line, breaking past one Cardinal defender and spinning off another to set up an easy waltz into the end zone.

Jones’ touchdown made it a two-possession game, and while Louisville managed a touchdown in the final minute, it was clear that the Cardinals’ time had run out.

There was plenty of time, though, for Bernard to take a stab at 100 yards. And with 41 seconds left on the clock, interim coach Everett Withers elected to run Bernard instead of having Renner take a knee.

After Bernard reached the milestone, he was quick to give credit to his offensive line.

“I thank those guys so much,” Bernard said. “They’re like big brothers to me almost. I thank them for helping a young guy out, and they’ve done an amazing job this entire year.”

On Saturday, those linemen cleared a path toward history.

And they did it for Gio.

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