Noah Burnette makes 4 field goals to secure Tar Heel’s win.
The Tar Heel’s Noah Burnette hit field goals from 29, 52, 42 and the game-winner from 45 to lead North Carolina to a 17-19 win over Minnesota to open the 2024 college football season.
Sometimes you watch a game and you cannot reasonably understand how the team you cheer for was ahead or even close to winning. The entire second half felt this way while watching North Carolina absolutely control the game on both sides of the ball. But the Gophers managed two, 4th quarter drives to make one field goal and put themselves in position to win the game with a 47-yard field goal attempt from Dragon Kesich. The attempt was wide right as time expired.
It is not unusual for the first game of the year to have mistakes and miscues. Minnesota was not immune to this and found creative ways throughout the game to get in their own way. The mistakes compounded each other and in the end, North Carolina made the plays necessary to win
Both teams opened the game punting on each of their first two possessions before Minnesota put together a drive, getting deep in to UNC territory. A clutch 3rd and 19 conversion ignited the drive, Marcus Major found some room and the Gophers took the ball down to the nine before getting stopped. Kicking the field goal was the obvious choice on 4th and 9, but the kick was missed by Kesich. The string of mistakes begins.
On UNC’s first play of the ensuing drive, Jai’Onte’ McMillan breaks through for a sack and forced fumble on Max Johnson. Cody Lindenberg recovers at the 10 and Minnesota was knocking on the door for points again. But it was too good to be true as Aiden Gousby was called for defensive holding, continuing the drive and 8 plays later the Tar Heels scored a touchdown on a Johnson scramble.
The rest of the second quarter saw Minnesota start to play better and take control. A Justin Walley interception set up Major touchdown. The defense forced a quick three-and-out, giving the ball back to the offense. And this time Max Brosmer led the offense 65 yards for another touchdown and a 14-7 lead that they took into halftime.
However, after the break, North Carolina settled down while Minnesota’s mistakes continued.
Talking about the compounding mistakes after the game, PJ Fleck knew there were a lot of missed opportunities.
“Touch the stove enough and you’re going to get burned.”
A sack on third and long was negated by another defensive holding call. A Brosmer fumble on a scramble, giving the ball back to North Carolina. Both leading to UNC field goals.
In total, the Gophers had 6 penalties. The offensive line allowed 5 sacks. The offense managed 1 yard of offense in the third quarter.
Their final two drives looked competent. When the Tar Heels finally took the lead, Brosmer led the offense on a 10-play drive that went 63 yards and stalled out inside the 10 again. And then again, needing a FG to win, they moved the ball 46 yards on 7 plays, setting up the game-winning attempt. A Major run to the UNC 18 would have made the final FG attempt more manageable had it not been called back for holding…a common theme of untimely mistakes.
Clearly there are a number of things that need to be worked on and cleaned up. The offensive one struggled more than expected. The defense was on the field a long time. The play-calling in the red zone was embarrassing. And penalties were untimely.
Today the team that made the fewest mistakes won. It wasn’t pretty for North Carolina, but they came away with a road win to start their season.
Up next for Minnesota is another home game on September 7th. The Rhode Island Blue Hens will be in town. A lot needs to be fixed in the next 9 days.