For UNC football, a win is a win. What the Tar Heels were saying after beating Charlotte

It’s hard to find a lot of warts when you win a football game 38-20, when you win your home opener, playing the game in the second half without your star running back but not needing him.

North Carolina had that kind of day Saturday at Kenan Stadium, beating Charlotte with leading rusher Omarion Hampton an observer on the sideline and quarterback Conner Harrell making his first start of the season.

UNC coach Mack Brown wasn’t in any kind of critical mood. It was a win, a lot of guys got in the game, enough big plays were made, Harrell was poised enough. The Tar Heels move on. They’re 2-0, and they move on.

“We won a game by a bunch of points and left a lot of points on the board,” Brown said.

There was a string of numbers on the Charlotte side of the stat sheet that was a bit eye-opening. Under the column for longest pass receiving plays were: 42, 40, 30, 28, 25, 23. Those were the chunk plays Charlotte was able to get.

“They threw over our heads a few times and we’ve got to get that solved,” Brown said. “Because when you stop the run, they’re going to take deep shots.”

The 49ers opened the game with Max Brown, a 6-3, 230-pound sophomore, at quarterback. The transfer from Florida passed for 175 yards in the opening half, but left the game after being dumped by the Heels’ Jahvaree Ritzie, who had another two sacks after three in the season opener against Minnesota and is off to a tremendous start in his senior season.

With the 49ers unable to run — Charlotte had minus-2 yards on seven carries in the first half — the Tar Heels went after the passer. They also did it without rush end Kaimon Rucker, who was injured lifting weights Thursday and did not play. Rucker will be out a couple of weeks, Brown said.

Max Brown faced blitzer after blitzer as UNC defensive coordinator Geoff Collins, in Brown’s estimation, took a page out of the football book of legendary Florida State coach Bobby Bowden.

“We were hitting the quarterback a lot early in the game and (Brown) was still making plays,” Brown said. “At some point, if you keep getting those shots, you’re going to get tired of them.

“Coach Bowden said, ‘As long as we’re hitting them, I don’t care.’ And our guys continued to do that.”

The 49ers’ Brown finally took one hit too many and left the game. In came Deshawn Purdie, a 6-4 freshman from Baltimore, who made his share of plays, throwing for 134 yards and two touchdowns in the second half as Charlotte finished with 309 yards in the game.

The first TD pass came early in the second half, pulling the 49ers within 21-13. But the Tar Heels answered that quickly with the biggest offensive play of the game.

Harrell handed the ball to running back Caleb Hood, who then flipped it to wide receiver Kobe Paysour on a reverse. Paysour quickly pitched the ball back to Harrell on the flea flicker.

Tight end John Copenhaver, the primary receiver on the play, had gotten behind his man down the right side, but wide receiver Christian Hamilton was all by himself even deeper over the middle. Harrell gave the ball a fling, Hamilton waited on it, and the freshman hauled it in for a 58-yard TD.

“I thought it was never going to come down,” Brown said, “and poor ol’ Christian Hamilton was waiting on it for-ev-er.”

But the UNC secondary had some moments that could have Collins taking some long looks and perhaps making some adjustments. Kaleb Cost, getting a chance to start this season at the ‘star” position — the hybrid of linebacker and defensive back — was beaten twice on throws to junior wideout Jairus Mack, and cornerback Marcus Allen was burned on a deep sideline throw.

That’s going to happen, especially when the blitz leaves defensive backs in single coverage. This game, it wasn’t costly. As Mack Brown likes to say, those are “teachable moments.”

“We left, we like to call it ‘money,’ we left a lot of that on the field,” Ritzie said. “I feel like I could have played better. We could have all played better.”

Harrell was good enough. Freshman running back Davion Gause impressed. The flea flicker worked. The defensive line was as stout as it was active, even without Rucker.

“We went out there and won, which is all that matters,” Ritzie said. “But of course I feel like we could play way better.”