North Carolina Tar Heels: Three Takeaways from A&T
The North Carolina Tar Heels did what they had to do on Saturday against the North Carolina A&T Aggies. They scored almost at will and they limited the number of big plays of the opposing team. There were no turnovers for the Heels. It was the learning experience that Heels fans wanted, and Aggies fans didn’t. Here are some of the takeaways.
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1. The Platoon is not coming back.
Observers might have found it strange that Mitch Trubisky trotted out onto the field to take command of the offense on the third series of the game. That might seem to point to a lack of confidence in starter Marquise Williams after a tough outing against the South Carolina Gamecocks. I look at it as the team was rolling and they found some work for Mitch. If it had been Illinois, I do not think the rotation gets made.
2. Running into the end zone (finishing drives)
Last week, the Heels gave up the ball three times in South Carolina territory when they should have tested the Gamecocks defensive line. This was particularly true on third and three on the final drive. There was less hesitation to call runs here. Of the seven touchdowns, four were scored on running plays and two were touchdown passes on goaline formation fakes where run was hinted. The team let Elijah Hood bang it in twice before doing the silly stuff.
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3. Hello, Seth Littrell
Those two touchdown passes to Brandon Fritts were really neat calls. The tight end had a pass each from Trubisky and then Williams for two scores when I was not sure the Heels had a tight end on the roster (Kendrick Singleton is a TE?).
Littrell, the offensive coordinator, also had another great call for another score. Trubisky reentered the game with a weird flexbone shotgun formation that put three backs out there with him. So not only was the running quarterback not out there (Williams), there were three more likely ball carriers on the play as well. What was the play? Trubisky ran it and made it to the end zone.