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Heels dismantle JMU in opener

Posted on September 8, 2011September 8, 2011 by Fernlane

By Eddy Landreth
Staff Writer

The ultimate challenge facing the Carolina football team this week is to defeat Rutgers to start the season 2-0 before opening conference play at Kenan Stadium on Sept. 17 against Virginia.

But when Carolina and the Scarlet Knights kick off at 12:30 p.m. this Saturday at Kenan, the Tar Heels will also be working to build on one of their finest opening games in years.

UNC dismantled James Madison, 42-10, a club that returned 10 defensive starters from a team that defeated Virginia Tech in Blacksburg a year ago. Not only did the Tar Heels beat JMU, they played nearly flawless football.

Carolina committed five penalties for just 35 yards in losses. The sloppy play that so often accompanies first games never really materialized. The closest UNC came was when punter Thomas Hibbard fumbled a snap.

The Tar Heels looked to be in midseason form.

“One of the things we’ve talked about is that we’ve been 8-5 with a lot of talent around here,” interim head coach Everett Withers said. “We feel like if we do the little things right, we can do better than 8-5. That has been a team emphasis. I’m talking about on the field, in the meeting rooms, in the classroom, everything. The little things are what make good teams good. That is what we’re trying to strive for.

“Any time you win, you can always go back the next day and find some things you need to work on,” Withers said. “It gives you great motivation to go in there and coach your butt off. We want to be better. Our goal is to be better Week 2 than we were Week 1.

“That is the whole emphasis. How can we get better, Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so we can be better when we play Rutgers – bottom line.”

Redshirt sophomore quarterback Bryn Renner can improve on his first performance as a collegiate starter, but it will not be easy to do so. Renner set an ACC record by completing 22 of 23 pass attempts and threw two touchdowns. His only incompletion came on an interception, which he threw when he went deep into double coverage.

“He was just really poised,” redshirt freshman running back Giovani Bernard said. “He did not get ahead of himself. Even after the interception, he came back strong. He never really worried about that pass.

“To have only one incomplete pass in his first start is an amazing thing. The equivalent would be a running back scoring every single time he got the ball. He is definitely the leader of this team.”

Renner said that he will not rest on one game, and that he doesn’t expect this team to let off the gas.

“The type of character kids we have on the team now [will stick together],” Renner said. “I’m not saying we didn’t before, but there were some distractions before with certain players.

“We did a great job Saturday of playing football and having fun. Our main goal was to go out there and have fun.”

The Tar Heels’ offense played so well, it overshadowed a solid game by the defense. JMU gained just 59 yards rushing and had 211 total offensive yards compared to Carolina’s 461.

Another factor that may have gone unnoticed by many fans is that the Tar Heels caught the ball on punts. Last year, Carolina let far too many punts hit the ground and roll, costing the Tar Heels precious yards in field position.

“We feel like that is such a big part of the game, fielding punts and not letting the ball hit the ground and determine whether we will lose field position,” Withers said. “We can control that.”

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