As the North Carolina football team walked toward Kenan Stadium for its season opener Saturday, safety Deunta Williams was whispering to his teammates.
“Shutout,” he recalled telling them. “Domination. I think that’s what I was preaching to the guys before the game.
“Just straight domination, and I think that’s what we did tonight.”
The No. 21 Tar Heels didn’t get their shutout, but they pounced on The Citadel in the first half and cruised to a 40-6 win.
It was their third straight victory in a season opener and the largest margin of victory under head coach Butch Davis.
On both sides of the football, UNC controlled the line of scrimmage, which created a huge discrepancy in the ground game. UNC tallied 261 rushing yards while the Bulldogs managed just 30 on 20 carries.
North Carolina continued to feature the two-headed rushing attack that emerged a season ago. Ryan Houston pounded in touchdowns of five and three yards, while starting tailback Shaun Draughn tallied 118 yards.
“I had my adrenaline going, really trying to break a long one at the beginning,” Draughn said. “So I had to calm myself down, and I had to think of the things I did good in practice and the preseason and go back to that.”
It wasn’t just The Citadel’s ground attack that never got going. The Tar Heels stifled the Bulldogs’ first 12 drives and forced four turnovers.
Even when a Tar Heel turnover gave The Citadel great field position near the end of the first half, UNC responded. Cornerback Kendric Burney won a jump ball in the end zone and tipped it to Williams, who kept his feet in bounds and prevented UNC from losing any momentum going into the locker room.
“That was a phenomenal job right before the half,” Davis said. “I’m going to tell you, you talk about two guys that you can tell the evidence of growth and maturity — the play that Kendric Burney and Deunta Williams made … they really diagnosed it and read it well.”
The pick was one of three UNC interceptions in a complete defensive performance. The unit, though, was most excited about being able to finally run at full speed.
“I’ve just been waiting for my chance,” Williams said. “In training camp, we try not to hit our guys so much, so it was good to unleash on a couple guys today.”
North Carolina quarterback T.J. Yates also threw two first-half touchdowns, and junior Da’Norris Searcy returned a punt for a late 77-yard touchdown.
The Tar Heels were not without error, though. The special teams unit muffed two punts, and UNC receivers began to pile up drops. Davis said that the errors may have been a result of inexperience for some of the younger Tar Heels.
“In talking to some of the kids in the locker room after the game, they were nervous,” he said. “There’s no getting around it. Josh Adams said, ‘Coach, I’ve got to be honest with you, I was nervous. I have never played in front of that many people with that much noise.’
“And I think as those guys gain some poise, and as they get in the games and stuff, I think some of that stuff will certainly go away.”
Those errors didn’t prove costly on Saturday, and UNC took care of business in a game in which it was heavily favored.
“There’s a lot of things we still need to work on, as an offense, defense, special teams and everything,” Yates said.
“But just going out there, getting some points on the board, doing some good things on offense and defense, it’s really going to give us a lot of confidence in the next week.”
Contact the Sports Editor at sports@unc.edu.
Football: No. 21 UNC rides defense to 40-6 win over the Citadel
Wideout Johnny White brings down the first touchdown of his career as well as the first of the game.
