CHAPEL HILL — From sputtering in the beginning to high-flying by the end, North Carolina settled into the silence of these extraordinary surroundings and hinted at looking the part of what’s expected this football season.
The 18th-ranked Tar Heels put the squeeze on Syracuse in the second half and broke free for a 31-6 victory at empty Kenan Stadium, the 50,000 vacant seats here due to coronavirus providing the muted backdrop to an opening game unlike any other.
Sam Howell threw for 295 yards and a touchdown, and Javonte Williams ran for three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. After Syracuse pulled within 7-6 during the latter stages of the third quarter, North Carolina delivered four straight scores in a matter of 9½ minutes of game time to win going away.
“Opening games are always crazy anyway,” Tar Heels coach Mack Brown said. “And then you add the pandemic to it, all the things that have happened with the social injustice and the roller coaster that these kids and coaches across the country have been on.”
Six months and one day after North Carolina and Syracuse played the Atlantic Coast Conference basketball tournament’s final game before the COVID-19 outbreak pulled the plug on the event, and college sports entered shutdown mode, the Tar Heels and Orange kicked off their football campaigns here in Chapel Hill on this mostly deserted campus.
No beehive of activity and buzzing of anticipatory energy like customary game days, particularly the openers to seasons wrapped in lofty expectations. Quiet streets, unoccupied parking lots and bare walkways around the stadium Saturday gave way to cardboard cutouts of fans inhabiting some seating sections inside the stadium, where spectators weren’t allowed because of pandemic precautions.
Brown, the College Football Hall of Famer embarking on his 32nd season as a head coach, said he found that the emptiness created a surreal quality, even during the moments when artificial crowd noise or music played through the public address system.
“It’s just so weird that there’s absolutely no crowd noise,” Brown said. “Even when you have the music or the noise over the loud speaker, when you look up it’s like a scrimmage. Because you look up and there’s just nothing.”
On the field, it became an erratic performance in spots for North Carolina, billed as a potential ACC contender. The Tar Heels coughed up three turnovers — two of them were interceptions thrown by Howell, who was picked off just seven times across all of last season — and committed nine penalties that cost them 91 yards.
North Carolina led 10-6 late in the third quarter when a penalty on Tony Grimes wiped out Dazz Newsome’s 71-yard punt return for a touchdown, another frustrating error. But the Tar Heels were starting to achieve a higher gear by then, and Syracuse couldn’t keep up.
Williams’ three touchdowns, on runs of 1, 6 and 6 yards, capped rapid-fire scoring drives that required 2½ minutes or fewer to reach the end zone.
“Once we settled down, things started opening up,” Howell said.
“We just had to get back in our rhythm,” Williams said. “Once the second half started we just came together and made plays. I feel like (Syracuse) got tired in the second half. Once we started scoring, it seemed like they kind of faded away a little bit.”
Meanwhile, North Carolina’s defense stayed swarming.
The Tar Heels supplied seven sacks of Syracuse quarterback Tommy DeVito and 11 tackles for lost yardage on the afternoon. Chazz Surratt and Tomari Fox recorded two sacks apiece, as North Carolina allowed its fewest points in any football game since Sept. 29, 2012. Among ACC opponents, the Orange’s output marked the fewest points the Tar Heels have given up in a league game since Nov. 7, 2009.
Syracuse gained just 202 total yards. North Carolina’s miscues on offense set up the Orange with four possessions that started in Tar Heels’ territory, three of them inside the 37-yard line. But Syracuse never managed a touchdown, and its two field goals weren’t nearly enough by the end.
“I’m really proud of how we played,” Surratt said of the Tar Heels’ defense. “We got put in some tough spots, them being on our side of the field a few times and we were able to hold them out.”
North Carolina led 7-3 at halftime, and had to feel fortunate to be in that position with Syracuse whiffing on chances like Andre Szmyt’s missed 29-yard field goal during the closing seconds of the first half.
Earlier in the second quarter, Syracuse’s Sharod Johnson, looking back over his shoulder, let what couldn’t been a simple touchdown catch sail through his outstretched hands in the corner of the end zone, after he had separated from Tar Heels defensive back Trey Morrison. Szmyt booted a field goal for the Orange there.
This opening game began with North Carolina looking the part of a nationally ranked team that’s predicted to become a factor in the ACC race this season, and perhaps a challenger to projected frontrunners Clemson and Notre Dame.
Howell’s 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end Garrett Walston put the Tar Heels up 7-0 less than 4½ minutes into the season, capping an eventful first possession of the year that provided a preview of the unevenness to come.
“Offensively, I thought we probably scored too quickly and felt like it was going to be an easy day,” Brown said, “and then had some lapses against a new defense. They were blitzing and moving all over the place, and we had inconsistencies.”
Howell was sacked on the second play of the day, before Michael Carter had a 41-yard burst wiped out by a holding penalty. North Carolina then bounced back with Howell hitting Newsome for 18 yards to convert a fourth-and-7 that kept the drive moving toward the end zone.
“I think this was probably the most excited I’ve been for game dating back to when I was a little kid,” said Surratt, the senior. “Just not knowing if we were going to play or not this year, and getting the opportunity to go out there and play with the guys I have so much respect for and was looking forward to playing with, I think that meant a lot.”
This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC settles into silence, steps on Syracuse in football season opener
