After their first winning week of the season, North Carolina teams had their worst outing ever, including embarrassing blowout losses by some of the state’s highest-profile teams.
North Carolina’s record: 11-18 (52-61 overall)
Last week’s winners (ranked in order of impressiveness of the victory—a combination of opponent and performance):
- NC Central: 66-24 over NC A&T
- Fayetteville State: 31-7 at Elizabeth City State
- Duke: 45-17 at Middle Tennessee
- Shaw: 48-14 over Lincoln (PA)
- Gardner-Webb: 42-21 at Presbyterian
- Lenoir-Rhyne: 29-21 at Mars Hill
- Winston-Salem State: 15-14 at Virginia State
- Guilford: 44-35 over Sewanee
- Brevard: 42-26 over Belhaven
- Johnson C. Smith: 21-16 over Virginia Union
- Methodist: 17-14 over Greensboro
Central and Fayetteville State got big rivalry wins, while Duke and G-W rolled on the road.
Last week’s losers (ranked in order of impressiveness, despite the result):
- Wingate: 31-28 in overtime at Carson-Newman
- Greensboro: 17-14 at Methodist
- Catawba: 31-28 at Virginia-Wise
- Livingstone: 31-17 at Bowie
- East Carolina: 35-24 at Liberty
- Western Carolina: 46-35 at Montana
- UNC Pembroke: 58-36 at Charleston (WV)
- Charlotte: 52-14 at Indiana
- Campbell: 24-17 to Stony Brook
- Mars Hill: 29-21 to Lenoir-Rhyne
- Elon: 34-17 to ETSU
- NC State: 59-35 at Clemson
- Barton: 41-0 at Emory & Henry
- NC A&T: 66-24 at NC Central
- NC Wesleyan: 49-28 to Huntingdon
- App State: 48-14 to South Alabama
- Elizabeth City State: 31-7 to Fayetteville State
- UNC: 70-50 to James Madison
Off: Wake Forest, Davidson, Chowan
Remaining unbeatens (4, down from 6 last week):
Duke: 4-0
Johnson C. Smith: 4-0
Lenoir-Rhyne: 3-0
Guilford: 3-0
UNC and Wingate fell from the ranks of the unbeatens.
Winning records (6, down from 8 last week):
UNC, Shaw, Winston-Salem State: 3-1
Wingate, Davidson, Fayetteville State: 2-1
At .500 (7, up from 3 last week):
Livingstone, Elizabeth City State, App State, NC State, ECU, NC Central: 2-2
Brevard: 1-1
Losing records (10, up from 7 last week):
Charlotte, Campbell, Elon, Gardner-Webb, NC A&T, Western Carolina: 1-3
Barton, Wake Forest, Catawba, Methodist: 1-2
Still winless (6, down from 9 last week):
St. Andrews, UNC Wesleyan, UNC Pembroke, Greensboro: 0-3
Mars Hill, Chowan: 0-2
Brevard, Gardner-Webb and Methodist got off the schneid this weekend.
Name Game:
NC State lost to Clemson in the Textile Bowl. It’s the Eagle-Aggie Classic this year as NC Central gets a big win over A&T. Fayetteville State got a big win over Elizabeth City State in the Down East Viking Classic.
This week, Central faces Norfolk State in the 40th annual Circle City Classic in Indianapolis. We refuse to call it the Battle of the Blues, but UNC and Duke play for the Victory Bell in Durham.
State title standings:
Actually, James Madison seems to be on pace to win the North Carolina State title with three wins over teams here. The Dukes have one more chance to add to their dominance, playing at App State later this season.
2-0 UNC, Guilford, Fayetteville State
1-0 Duke, App State, NC State, Wake Forest, Campbell, Wingate, Davidson, Barton, Lenoir-Rhyne
1-1 Charlotte, Shaw, Catawba, Methodist
1-2 Elizabeth City State, NC A&T, NC Central, Elon, Western Carolina
0-1 ECU, Gardner-Webb, Winston-Salem State, Mars Hill
0-2 Chowan, UNC Pembroke, Greensboro
State title games this week:
UNC at Duke
Mars Hill at Wingate
Out of state battles for Week Four:
Liberty at App State, Northern Illinois at NC State, Charlotte at Rice, UTSA at ECU, Louisiana at Wake Forest, Delaware State at Campbell, Davidson at Presbyterian, Richmond at Elon, Tennessee Tech at Gardner-Webb, NC Central vs. Norfolk State in Indianapolis, NC A&T at South Carolina State, Anderson at Barton, Carson-Newman at Catawba, Mississippi College at Chowan, Fayetteville State at Virginia State, Johnson C. Smith at Bluefield, Tusculum at Lenoir-Rhyne, Livingstone at Lincoln (PA), Shaw at Virginia Union, UNC Pembroke at Glenville State, Bowie State at Winston-Salem State, Brevard at Maryville, Southern Virginia at Greensboro, Methodist at LaGrange, NC Wesleyan at Belhaven, St. Andrews at Lindsey Wilson.
Off: Western Carolina, Elizabeth City State, Guilford
Bad neighbors:
Liberty, Charleston (WV) and Clemson joined Averett and JMU with multiple wins over NC teams. Virginia is now 12-5 over NC in the border war. Meanwhile, Lincoln (PA) is the only team to lose twice to North Carolina teams.
All-state performances for Week Three:
Quarterback: Walker Harris, NC Central 16-of-23, 272 yards, 3 TD.
Running backs; Carson Gresock, G-W 22 rushes for 134 yards, 3 TD. Quasean Holmes, G-W 10 rushes for 132 yards, 2 TD.
Receiver: De’Andre Tamarez, Western Carolina, 8 catches for 229 yards, 61-yard TD. Markell Quick, NC Central, 4 catches, 119 yards, 60-yard TD catch.
Defensive line: Jalen Alexander, JC Smith, 8 tackles, 5 solo, 3.5 TFL, 2 sacks. Shi Gaskin, Fayetteville State, 4 tackles, TFL, forced fumble.
Linebacker: Alex Howard, Duke 8 tackles, 6 solo, 1.5 sacks, 3.5 TFL, fumble recovery, QB hit, Demorian Smith, Elizabeth City, 4 tackles, 3 solo, 35-yard pick six, PBU, Jaelin Willis, Lenoir-Rhyne, 8 tackles, 4 solo, 3 TFL, 2 sacks, PBU.
Defensive back: Malcolm Reed, NC Central, 5 tackles, 11-yard fumble return touchdown, PBU, Justin Fleming, Winston-Salem State, 8 tackles, 5 solo, 2 TFL, 2 sacks.
Special teams: Aaron Harris, NC A&T 100-yard kickoff return to open the game. Gilberto Lorenzana, Winston-Salem State, 3 field goals, including the game-winner with 3 seconds left.
