UNC football gives Mack Brown elusive victory over Florida State Seminoles

North Carolina’s Mack Brown finally has a victory over Florida State -- and a game ball as a memento -- and the Tar Heels’ turnaround now includes another decisive road win.

The Tar Heels turned loose Omarion Hampton on offense and continued to pile up sacks on defense, taking a 35-11 victory Saturday over the Seminoles, whose season has gone from bad to worse to terrible.

Hampton, the bullish junior from Clayton, accounted for five touchdowns, running for four and adding a fifth on a 49-yard shovel pass from quarterback Jacolby Criswell in the fourth quarter.

Hampton became the first UNC running back to score five TDs in a game since Kelvin Bryant in 1981 as the Tar Heels followed their big win at Virginia with another to improve to 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the ACC.

Hampton had a career-high 32 carries for 172 yards rushing and had three receptions for 93 yards before being lifted. That’s 35 touches and 265 total yards. That’s having a day.

“He’s our best player, and if you can beat them with you best player that’s what you need to do,” Brown said in his postgame press conference.

For the record, Hampton’s scores came on runs of 1, 2, 31 and 1 yards, plus the pass from Criswell, who finished 13 of 17 for 211 yards and the touchdown in another efficient outing for the graduate transfer.

For the first time in his two coaching runs at UNC, Brown was able to beat his alma mater and has a game ball to prove it.

“It was embarrassing. I’ve never gotten a game ball because I had lost so many games,” Brown joked.

As Brown put it, no one was beating Bobby Bowden’s Florida State teams in his first stint at Carolina in the 1990s, and he was 0-8 as the UNC coach before Saturday.

“The team is learning how to win,” Brown said. “I told them winning is euphoric. It’s a celebration for everybody. Losing stinks. ... I’m really proud this team is playing with more confidence and we did finish the game.”

The Seminoles, the 2023 ACC champions, fell to 1-8 and 1-7 in the ACC, losing their last conference game of the season. FSU had 201 yards in total offense, just 42 rushing, while the Heels had 500 total yards -- 289 rushing -- and had the ball almost 40 minutes.

“They did a great job and really dominated the game in all phases,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said of UNC.

Three takeaways from the game:

Going after the QB

If the Tar Heels keep chasing after and sacking quarterbacks at this rate, someone will need to come up with a fitting nickname for the defensive front.

Consider that the Heels had 15 sacks for the season before the Virginia game. They had 10 last week, the most for UNC since 2000, and then seven against a Seminoles offensive front seemingly incapable of sustaining blocks — not enough, at least.

UNC’s Beau Atkinson was near unstoppable in the first half Saturday. The 6-6 sophomore end from Raleigh was aggressive, quick off the ball and spent considerable time roaming around the FSU backfield, coming away with 3.5 sacks in the opening half.

The Tar Heels’ D did bend in the third quarter. After having quarterback Luke Kromenhoek sacked to end their first possession of the second half — UNC’s Jahvaree Ritzie and Kaimon Rucker teaming up for the stop — the Seminoles went back to quarterback Brock Glenn at QB, who had the game but had a poor first quarter.

Glenn gunned a 50-yard completion to Malik Benson, then had a 28-yard TD throw to Ja’Khi Douglas on a fourth-and-3 play The ‘Noles added a 2-point conversion and UNC’s 21-3 had been trimmed to 21-11.

Early in the fourth quarter, after the Heels had pushed the lead to 28-11, end Des Evans broke up a fourth-down play by the Noles at midfield as Evans hit Glenn’s arm on a pass attempt — no sack for Evans but a pass but a turnover on downs.

“I think the energy has been very good. It’s all a mentality of trying to go in and take over games as a front and as a defense,” Atkinson said in his postgame comments to the media.

Big O delivers

UNC’s Brown has said that Hampton would be happy getting the ball on every play, not that offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey will do that.

However …

After the Seminoles pulled within 10 points, the Heels went 75 yards in seven plays for a touchdown. The drive: Hampton for 43 yards, Hampton for 5, Hampton for 7, Hampton for 4, Hampton for no goal, Hampton for no gain and then Hampton for 1 yard and the TD.

At that point in the game, Hampton had 27 carries for 159 yards and three scores — in other words, a full day’s work for most backs in three quarters. He had notched his seventh consecutive 100-yard game, tying the UNC record set by Don McCauley in 1970.

Hampton was stuffed in the first quarter on a fourth-down play from the FSU 1. But he would not be denied after that.

Hampton went 49 yards on the shovel pass from Criswell in the fourth quarter, zigzagging his way through the FSU defense.

Hampton, who now has more than 3,00 career rushing yards, likes the work. He doesn’t like talking about it — Brown likes to joke that a nod from Hampton is about it, don’t expect a speech — but likes doing it. The guy they call the Big O just wants the football.

“He’s not a guy who talks too much, but when he’s on the football field ...” Criswell said.

Big second quarter for UNC

The Tar Heels controlled the second quarter. Almost all of it, in fact.

UNC scored two touchdowns in the quarter. It had 120 total yards to FSU’s 26 and had the ball for 10:24 in the quarter.

Hampton gave the Tar Heels the lead on the third play of the quarter and scored again with another short run late in the period.

Football coaches constantly have noted that there are fewer possessions in today’s college game. There is when one team runs 16 plays, gains 93 yards and keeps the ball for 8:11 – on one possession.

The Heels did that in the second quarter, starting a drive 10:08 before halftime and ending it with 1:57 remaining. UNC converted three third-down plays as the Heels made good use of Hampton, brought in freshman running back Darian Gause for a few plays, and had Criswell mix in some key completions.

In the drive, Criswell had completions to Kobe Paysour, John Copenhaver, Christian Hamilton and Paul Billips II. Hampton touched the ball eight times, scoring from the 2 for the 14-3 lead.

The Heels nearly scored again before the quarter ended, but Noah Burnette was wide right on a 55-yard field goal try on the final play.