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They all had to return, mercifully.
When the first lightning strike flashed, the video board read “4th, 15:00.” The score, 35-0 UNC. The game, over, if not officially. Bill Belichick, with UNC staff beside him, walked out into the pouring rain and to meet with ETSU coach Will Healy as their teams waited back in the locker room. That was during the first of what would be several delays.
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The previous 45 minutes of game-time featured a lot to like for those in witness of the 100th home-opener at Kenan Memorial Stadium. After a 1-hour, 19-minute delay due to lightning in the area, predictably, not many fans poured back in.
But UNC made that return feel unnecessary because, for most of the game, its FCS opponent didn’t look like it even had a chance to score.
A 35-3 win for UNC (2-0) over ETSU (1-2) was a stat-stuffing performance for the Tar Heels.
Running back Demon June rushed seven times for 33 yards and three touchdowns, becoming the first UNC running back since Omarion Hampton to score three touchdowns in a game.
Quarterback Billy Edwards Jr. completed 15 of 20 passes for 244 yards and tossed his first two touchdowns at North Carolina.
Defensive back Greg Smith intercepted a pass and recovered a fumble.
Defensive lineman Jaylen Harvey had two sacks in one half.
Defensive lineman Xavier Lewis had two sacks on one drive.
The Tar Heels were able to mix in a quarterback change, too, getting sophomore Miles O’Neill in the game with 1:51 remaining in the third quarter.
It was an otherwise methodical game. UNC imposed its will. The defense, save for ETSU’s lone field goal, stifled an offense that averaged 506.0 yards per game entering Saturday. Rinse, repeat. But two games into the season, there’s still no reason to believe the competency the program has shown on the football field is a mirage.
After a three-and-out and two ETSU first downs, an interception by Tar Heels defensive back Greg Smith just 3 minutes, 49 seconds into the game sparked an onslaught. Tight end Jelani Thurman (four catches, 71 yards and a touchdown) cashed in with a touchdown at the 9:48 mark of the first quarter after a three-play, 58-yard drive. Then a diving special teams play by ETSU wide receiver Xavier Gaillardetz to down UNC at the one-yard line the next drive couldn’t even keep it out of the end zone. Running back Benjamin Hall caught the 26-yard touchdown that tied the longest touchdown drive in program history — the first that long since a 27-24 win over Miami on Oct. 8, 2022 — and just one punt stood between three-more-straight touchdown drives in a row.
The third of those drives, capped with the third of June’s touchdowns from just one yard out, marked the first time the Tar Heels completed two 90-yard scoring drives in one game since a 40-7 blowout of Syracuse on Oct. 7, 2023. UNC had yet to prove capable of putting up numbers like this against ACC opponents — and, especially, Miami-quality ACC opponents — but after an unexpected win in week zero, it kept things trending positively on the football field.
If there was any concern that the Tar Heels couldn’t continue to build, as ETSU running back TJ Peyton dragged tacklers towards the first-down marker on the Buccaneers first play from scrimmage in the second half, UNC linebacker Peyton Seelmann knocked the ball free of his arms. Smith jumped on the ball and June scored his second touchdown of the game just 1 minute, 44 seconds later.
June scored another, and just as UNC was set to get the ball back at the start of the fourth quarter, a flash of lighting forced a 30-minute delay. The pregame raucous, with DJ Diesel (NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal) putting on a concert for fans, former UNC men’s basketball star wing Caleb Wilson speaking to the crowd and a commemorative coin for Kenan Memorial Stadium’s 100th home-opener being brought out for the coin toss, was over. Rain poured down. The stadium was empty.
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Fittingly, a sleepy scene. But after players returned and the game ended, it finalized yet another FCS game without drama for UNC. And that means something.
Here’s what stood out from the game.
There was little the ETSU defender could do — Demon June was just bigger. On June’s first touchdown of the game, a six-yard with 1:22 remaining in the first half, it wasn’t necessary for June to seek much contact. But on the second one, though, he for sure found one.
On just his fourth carry Saturday, June barrelled through a tackler between him in the end zone and created a pop audible from far above as he tallied his second score. After limited playing time before a game-sealing drive against TCU in Dublin, June was more involved and more effective against ETSU.
The big-bodied running back can be a punishing change-of-pace behind Hall and Jayden McGill, who was June’s co-No. 2 on the Tar Heels’ depth chart shared with media on Saturday. And in situations where opponents stack the box, proved he can help the Tar Heels. On his last touchdown of the game, it was clear to everyone who the ball was going to. A nine-yard run by June the play before downed UNC at ETSU’s one-yard line. June got the next handoff, too, on the left. A hole didn’t open up, but it didn’t matter — June pushed into the end zone anyway.
The first play from scrimmage, UNC seemingly wanted it all. Star wide receiver Jordan Shipp ran deep and waved his hands, nothing between him and the end zone. Wide open. But Billy Edwards Jr. didn’t see him.
To that point, that hadn’t been a strength of the Tar Heels offense. Edwards had just a 9.4 average depth of target against TCU, per PFF. It looked like something UNC needed to work on that downfield play, as Edwards missed Shipp and instead targeted a heavily-covered CJ Sadler. A looping throw went incomplete, and UNC’s early gamble was rewarded with a three-and-out on its first drive.
So, the next drive, it went back to something that has worked. Shipp was open on a similar vertical route the next possession for UNC, but Edwards instead hit tight end Jelani Thurman on an underneath throw for nine yards. Then the next play, he hit Thurman on another one that the tight end took 24 yards to the end zone to open the game’s scoring. Whether it was underneath passes, outside runs or a wheel route which freed Hall wide open for a 26-yard touchdown that, this time, Edwards didn’t miss, pressing towards the sideline worked time after time for UNC on Saturday.
There’s been a lot of pass-rushing statistics to go around for the Tar Heels in their first two games of the season. UNC had three sacks and 12 total pressures against TCU, per PFF. Interior defensive lineman Xavier Lewis was the star with 2.0 sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss. Melkart Abou Jaoude had maybe the biggest highlight, with a sack-fumble, but he didn’t play in Saturday’s home opener with an apparent injury.
So someone else had to create the pressure. And another pass-rushing star emerged as a result.
Lewis got his numbers, too. But UNC defensive lineman Jaylen Harvey was the beneficiary on Saturday, recording 2.0 sacks and bringing the pressure to force a pass that led to Smith’s interception on ETSU’s first drive.
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