UNC football looks to end road woes in front of a record-setting App State crowd
It’s worse on the road at night, so at least North Carolina’s game at Appalachian State is a noon kickoff Saturday in Boone.
The Tar Heels are looking to snap a streak of seven consecutive losses away from Kenan Stadium, which includes their Orange Bowl and Duke’s Mayo Bowl defeats. Under coach Mack Brown, the Heels are 5-11 in road games during his three seasons back in Chapel Hill.
They’ve been close, as three of those road losses were in overtime and two were in games decided by three points.
“Everybody says, ‘Why can’t you win on the road?’ ” Brown said. “Well, usually programs that are growing but not great yet can’t win on the road. It’s just tougher.”
The Mountaineers have a lot of experience returning and the difference between them and Carolina is amplified at quarterback. Carolina will start redshirt freshman Drake Maye, who is making his first road start. App State trots out Chase Brice, a sixth-year player who will be appearing in his 51st college game.
App State features 21 fifth- or sixth-year players on its depth chart, 13 of whom are listed as starters. Brown said, “all odds are against us this weekend,” with the confidence and experience that App State brings.
“We’re going to a hostile environment, and we haven’t played well on the road in those,” Brown said. “So we got our hands full. We’re gonna have to play great to have a chance to win.”
Since App State moved into the Football Bowl Subdivision in 2014, it has the nation’s sixth best home record behind national powers Clemson (53-1), Alabama (52-2), Ohio State (48-4), Oklahoma (43-6) and Georgia (43-6).
“This and Georgia State will be great challenges for us because it’s something we haven’t done well,” Brown said. “We’ve played well. We’ve gotten close, but we haven’t finished on the road.”
Sellout crowd
Saturday’s game officially sold out in July, and App State is anticipating the largest crowd in Kidd Brewer Stadium history. The previous two games atop their attendance records also came from visits from ACC members. Miami set a record at 34,658 when it defeated the Mountaineers 45-10 in 2016. The very next season Wake Forest drew 35,126, which remains the current school record, and escaped Boone with a 20-19 win.
App State sold out its allotment of season tickets for the first time in school history. Some of those sells were believed to be from UNC fans who wanted to ensure they could get a ticket to this game.
The cheapest ticket on the resale market was going for $158 on StubHub for a general admission ticket. Prices were as high as $810 for a seat in a club suite.
Chase again?
App State quarterback Brice will be on the opposite sideline against North Carolina on his third different team. He was a backup to Trevor Lawrence when Clemson won in Chapel Hill 21-20 in 2019. He was Duke’s starting quarterback and went 11-for-23 passing for 155 yards with an interception in the Blue Devils’ 56-24 loss in 2020.
Gene Chizik, UNC’s assistant head coach for defense, said he’d go back and review how Brice played against the Heels two seasons ago. But he didn’t know how much he’ll really use from it and pointed to Florida A&M quarterback Jeremy Moussa as an example.
“I will pull that up to look at it, just to see his skill set, but let me tell you, quarterbacks change based on scheme,” Chizik said. “I mean, look at the guy last week, he went to Vanderbilt and did nothing, because I don’t know why. No one really knew anything about him. I thought (Moussa) was really efficient, accurate, set in the pocket and threw the ball well, so I think the scheme helped with that.”
At App State, Chizik said Brice has been put in a scheme where he’s successful. The Mountaineers’ running game helps take pressure off of Brice, and Chizik added that when he does throw, they often protect him with extra blockers and limit his progressions to three players in pass routes.
“He’s been really, really efficient, so I don’t know a lot about where he was at Clemson and Duke in terms of his production,” Chizik said. “I will go back and peek at it, but what I’ve seen so far is really, really good.”
This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 6:45 AM with the headline "UNC football looks to end road woes in front of a record-setting App State crowd."