UNC gets Homecoming win over Wake Forest with balanced offensive attack

Two days after the North Carolina football team’s loss to Clemson, redshirt sophomore quarterback Bryn Renner and senior linebacker Kevin Reddick asked their coaches if the team could have some alone time.

UNC handicapped itself against the Tigers on Oct. 22 with six turnovers and a porous defense. To avoid a third-straight conference loss, the Tar Heels knew things had to change.

That players-only team meeting seemed to do just the trick.

In a strong display of offensive balance, North Carolina beat Wake Forest 49-24 in the Homecoming game Saturday at Kenan Stadium.

But more than anything, interim head coach Everett Withers was pleased to see his team take responsibility for improving from its own miscues.

“I think (the team meeting) shows ownership of the team,” Withers said. “To me that shows the growth of a football team. (On) good teams, the players police the team.”

Renner threw for a career-high 338 yards against Wake Forest, completing to senior wide receiver Dwight Jones for 138. Junior wideout Erik Highsmith grabbed two touchdown passes Saturday, posting the first two-score game of his career.

On the ground, redshirt freshman tailback Giovani Bernard had 154 yards on 27 carries and two touchdowns. In the first quarter, Bernard also caught a seven-yard touchdown pass from Renner in the end zone, marking his first career receiving touchdown.

Bernard, who now has 12 touchdowns and 965 rushing yards this season, is just 35 yards away from being North Carolina’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 1997.

After watching UNC’s defense spend a lot of time on the field during the last two games, Jones was happy to see a shift.

“It was finally a change,” he said. “The defense, throughout the season they’ve been on the field a lot trying to get us the ball back. Today, we were fortunate enough to stay on the field for them and give them a little break.”

But it was the defense itself that earned the right to ride the bench through much of Saturday’s game.

Coming into Saturday’s matchup, Wake Forest sophomore quarterback Tanner Price averaged more than 260 passing yards per game. Against UNC, Price finished with just 146 yards through the air.

UNC linebacker Zach Brown said defending the pass was a major topic of Saturday’s team meeting.

“We wanted to let it be known that we were going to hit you when you’re about to catch the ball,” Brown said. “Even if you don’t catch the ball, you’re still going to get hit.”

UNC helped hammer the nail in the coffin last week with its six turnovers against Clemson, but Saturday it was the Demon Deacons who had trouble holding onto the ball.

Before taking on the Tar Heels, Wake Forest had coughed up the ball just five times this season. But Saturday, Price threw three interceptions and Wake Forest lost one fumble, and North Carolina scored 28 of its 49 points off of turnovers.

“It’s a mindset about creating turnovers, not turning it over, and then when you get an opportunity to get a turnover, scoring off of those turnovers,” Withers said. “That shows to me a step of growth for this football team.”

When Renner and Reddick called the players-only team meeting after the Clemson loss, they did so with the intention of instilling a much-needed renewed focus.

And Saturday, that’s exactly what the Tar Heels saw.

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