Marquise Williams has help carrying the load against Pittsburgh

So often in this seesaw that is the North Carolina football team’s season, the storyline has been the same.

Marquise Williams has done this. Marquise Williams has done that. He’s led the team in passing, rushing and leadership, and the redshirt junior quarterback has been the lone stabilizer for a group that has so desperately been searching for consistency.

On Saturday, in a 40-35 come-from-behind victory against Pittsburgh (4-6, 2-4 ACC) in a cold Kenan Stadium, Williams once again played that role for the Tar Heels.

With 276 yards and a touchdown, again Williams led both teams in passing. With 122 yards and three rushing touchdowns, yet again, Williams took the reins on UNC’s run game. And with a final drive that led to a UNC touchdown in the last 50 seconds of the game, No. 12 was unsurprisingly the man whom UNC trusted to set the stage for the most important play. Williams managed to anchor a comeback that saw the Tar Heels (5-5, 3-3 ACC) trail for all but 10 minutes and 30 until the final drive, after the Panthers jumped out to a 14-0 advantage in the first quarter.

But on Saturday — for the first time perhaps all season — Williams didn’t carry the full load alone. He didn’t have to. After the Tar Heels recorded an astonishing 11 rushing yards to Miami’s 295 two weeks ago, sophomore T.J. Logan made it his mission to flip a switch.

And in a game that was dominated by Pitt running back James Conner, who broke record after record with his 220 yards and four touchdowns, Logan proved that he too, could make a difference in the run game. That he too could make a difference in keeping UNC’s postseason dreams alive with a season-high 92 yards on 18 carries.

“It was nice to see him get close to right there at 100 yards, and he had to, too,” coach Larry Fedora said. “We were very low on running backs today ... we needed him very much and he did a really nice job today.”

With Elijah Hood out due to injury, Romar Morris suspended after a DWI two weeks ago and Khris Francis battling a mid-game injury, it was Logan who stepped up in a time of need and scored the game-winning touchdown with 50 seconds remaining on a one-yard run.

The Panthers jumped out to a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter on two rushing touchdowns from Conner. Williams cut it to 14-7 on a 23-yard carry three minutes into the second quarter, but Pittsburgh went ahead again just over five minutes later when Chad Voytik connected with Tyler Boyd for a 50-yard touchdown. 

Back-to-back touchdowns from Williams and Ryan Switzer pulled the Tar Heels within two points early in the third, but Conner’s third touchdown of the game put the Panthers up 28-19 with 6:17 left in the quarter. Two more UNC touchdowns and a final rushing score from Conner put the Tar Heels within one before Williams and Logan strung together the final, winning drive, in which Logan muscled his way into the end zone with 50 seconds left on the clock.

“I definitely feel like the O-line did a great job and I feel like that’s where it started,” Logan said. “When they’re blocking very good, I feel like it just takes our game to the next level.”

With the win, the Tar Heels need to win just one of their two final regular-season games against Duke and N.C. State to become bowl eligible.

“We talked about it in the week,” Fedora said. “It didn’t matter what the adversity was. Just if we keep playing — we stay together — we’ll be alright and we’ll find the way to get the win.”

Fedora was right. And after coming up with nearly 27 percent of his total rushing yards on the season in this one game against Pittsburgh, Logan proved that Williams doesn’t always have to do it by himself.

“This is where me and T.J. started last year. We started to break off against Pitt last year,” Williams said. “We were just doing what we needed to do to help us win a football game.

“T.J. Logan’s back. Thank God.”

sports@dailytarheel.com