The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: North Carolina Tar Heels 2026 Edition

Miami went on the road to face a team that’s dominated them over the last decade, and earned a hard fought 38-35 win over the North Carolina Tar Heels.

Craig T. Smith has your recap

And Mike Schiffman has your 3 stars.

With no further ado, let’s get into The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good

• A win! I’ll never take this for granted.
• A win over North Carolina. The Tar Heels had won 5 in a row and 8 of 11 against Miami.
• Exorcising demons. No, it didn’t impact today’s game, but going up there to the house of horrors where The U as championship team died in 2004 to Connor Barth, and where we’d gotten run out of the building by the likes of Marquise Williams and Ryan Switzer and winning was well and truly needed.
• Finding a way to win. Again, this wasn’t the best performance of the year, especially defensively, but where other teams have lost games where they struggled, Miami found a way to win yet again.
• QB Darian Mensah. Another strong week from the Canes’ signal caller, especially with adding timely scrambles to his performance. 22/29 passing for 274 yards with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions, and 4 carries for 36 yards rushing.
• Mensah’s cumulative stats this year: 187/233 passing, 80.3% completions, 2,425 yards, 25 touchdowns, 1 interception, 24 carries, 109 yards, 2 touchdowns.
• RB Mark Fletcher Jr. The star senior stepped up with a big performance tonight. 13 carries for 43 yards and 2 touchdowns rushing, and 2 catches for 43 yards and a touchdown receiving.
• Fletcher Jr. turned in his first career game with both a rushing and receiving touchdown tonight.
• RB Javian Mallory. 12 carries for 51 yards rushing and 3 catches for 25 yards receiving.
• WR Malachi Toney. Carolina allocated tons of resources toward stopping him, but they could only contain him for so long. 7 catches for 75 yards and 2 touchdowns, and 1 rush for 11 yards.
• Toney’s cumulative stats this year: 73 catches, 1,027 yards, 13 touchdowns, 4 carries, 61 yards, 1/1 passing, 2pt conversion.
• S J.J. Dunnigan. 9 tackles, 0.5 TFL, 0.5 sack. Dunnigan was all over the place tonight.
• LBs Mo Toure and Chase Smith. 9 tackles each.
• EDGE Marquise Lightfoot. Stepped up and made a huge play when needed. 7 tackles, 2 TFLs, 2 sacks, 1 forced fumble.
• DT Justin Scott. 4 tackles, 0.5 TFL, 0.5 sack, 1 fumble recovery.
• Also, random, but this is the second consecutive week with Scott recovering a forced fumble. I love the swarming to the ball.
• S Zechariah Poyser and LB Ezekiel Marcelin. 6 tackles each.
• ANDDDD Marcelin recovered the North Carolina onside kick to help Miami secure the win.
• WR Cooper Barkate. 4 catches for 71 yards. Allowed the offense to keep moving when Carolina was doing everything they could to contain Toney.
• TE Elija Lofton. Some big plays, including 2 HUGE conversions in the 2nd half. 3 catches for 48 yards, but the impact was immense.
• The Offensive Line. Much maligned, the Canes OL did well tonight. Sure, they need to better in pass protection, but they were passable, and the run blocking was pretty good overall. IT WAS NOT PERFECT, but I’m going to give them some praise tonight.
• Mensah with an early scramble to convert a 3rd down. Been begging him to run more when needed so this is a good start for me.
• And ANOTHER scramble to convert 3rd and 4 in the red zone for Mensah. Huge huge huge to add him to the run game on 3rd downs.
• QB Darian Mensah to WR Malachi Toney for the first touchdown of the game. We’re really incredibly blessed to watch this pair.

• MY GUY S J.J. Dunnigan gets home for the early sack to force a Carolina punt. Officially a split sack with EDGE Marquise Lightfoot.

• Miami converting 5 of their first 6 on 3rd down
• Miami converting their first 4th down attempt
• Miami going tempo in multiple places, including after the 4th down conversion, which resulted in this 31 yard Mark Fletcher Jr. RECEIVING touchdown to put the Canes up a score

• And with that touchdown, Mark Fletcher Jr. is now the all-time leader in touchdowns in Miami Hurricanes history!! Congrats, 4!!!!

• Mensah to Barkate for a 40 yard gain on a stutter-go to get Miami into the red zone.
• Miami punching back after going down by a score early in the 3rd quarter, walking down the field for a Mark Fletcher Jr. touchdown, his 2nd of the game, extending his own record.
• Yet another Mark Fletcher Jr. touchdown, his 3rd of the game, extending his record, tying the record for most rushing TDs in Miami history, and most importantly, giving Miami a 31-28 lead with just under 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter.
• EDGE Marquise Lightfoot with a strip sack, fumble recovered by DT Justin Scott! FINALLY A STOP!!!

• Mensah to Toney for another touchdown to put Miami up by 10! And WHAT A NASTY ROUTE BY TONEY!!!!

• EDGE Booker Pickett Jr. with a sack just ahead of the 2 minute warning.

• 1 turnover gained — fumble forced by Lightfoot, recovered by Scott
• +1 turnover margin
• 0 turnovers
• 416 yards of offense
• 274 yards passing
• 142 yards rushing
• 6.7 yards per play
• 12.5 yards per completion
• 4.3 yards per rush
• 25 first downs
• 6/11 on 3rd down
• 2/2 on 4th down
• 5-5 red zone scoring — 4 touchdowns, 1 field goal
• 10 chunk plays — 7 passes (15+), 3 runs (10+)
• 5 TFLs
• 4 sacks
• Allowed 66 yards rushing
• Allowed 2.2 yards per carry (man, it felt like more)
• Allowed 1 TFL
• Allowed 1 sack
• 1 recovered onside kick
• 1 kneel down
• Advanced stats show what this was: an even game with the offenses dominating the day. The turnover proved to be the difference in Miami’s favor.

The Bad

• An even time of possession. 29:09 for Miami, 30:51 for Carolina
• That’s more than 4 minutes less possession for Miami on average
• And, more importantly, it’s WAY MORE possession for the opponent. Which I don’t love.
• Carolina’s early ability to get pressure. Mensah was pressured on nearly every pass play through the first quarter.
• Malachi Toney with a highlight 1 handed catch overturned (correctly) for losing control as he hit the ground. That’s not the bad. The blatant defensive pass interference on the play that was wholly ignored is.
• Having to settle for a FG late in the 2nd quarter. I don’t like it, especially when this game is not showing the separation it should.

The Ugly

• 3 penalties for 30 yards.
• 2 of those penalties on Carolina’s last drive.
• Those penalties helped Carolina move down the field and score in just 55 seconds
• Allowed 5-5 red zone scoring — all touchdowns
• Allowed 407 yards of offense
• Allowed 341 yards passing
• Allowed a career-high 4 touchdown passes to Carolina’s QB
• Allowed 6.4 yards per play
• Allowed 12.2 yards per completion
• Allowed 8/11 on 3rd down
• Allowed 2/2 on 4th down
• Allowed 27 first downs
• Allowed 30:51 time of possession
• Just gonna leave this here:

• Allowing a 3rd and 10 conversion on Carolina’s first offensive series
• Missing like 5 tackles on the next play to allow a big gainer for the moribund Carolina offense. C’mon man.
• Carolina walking down the field for a touchdown on their 2nd drive. Hot knife through butter. Easy as pie.
• Cooper Barkate with this drop on a 1st down play. Nitpicking, yes, but he’s too good for this kind of stuff.

• Miami’s inability to get Carolina off the field on defense. Allowed 5/7 on 3rd down and 1/1 on 4th down in 1H.
• And another 3rd down conversion to the tight end wide fucking open to start 2H.
• Tons and tons of missed tackles, including a missed sack that led to a touchdown to give North Carolina the lead.

• False start, Elija Lofton. Miami’s 1st penalty of the night at the 8 minute mark of the 3rd quarter.
• Even more missed tackles.
• Running into the kicker on a point after touchdown. Declined. Unspecified player on the scoresheet, but I rewatched the play. It was Bryce Fitzgerald after a dive attempt to block the kick.
• Defensive holding. J.J. Dunnigan.
• Defensive pass interference, Ryan Mack. Ball was woefully underthrown due to pressure and Mack hit the receiver trying to stop for the short pass. Tough spot but correct call
• Miami gave up an onside kick recovery but Carolina was offsides.
• Then on the NEXT onsides kick, Carolina recovered but there’s another penalty on the Tar Heels.
• My GOD Miami has been putrid in special situations this year.
• I know Miami found a way to win, but the path there, especially at the end……………not great.

Team Grades

Offense: B+

Really strong performance. Only 1 punt. And that was the only open drive other than the final drive, which was just to get the hell out of dodge with a win. Mensah was great. The run game was effective. Fletcher Jr. and Mallory did very well. Toney showed up in big moments. Barkate and Lofton did their thing. And the OL was solid after some early struggles in pass pro. This was a game where the offense had to go score on every drive, especially after falling behind in the 2nd half twice. And they did. If we pick the nits and iron out the kinks, this is still the best offense in America. And this is a fair grade in my opinion.

Defense: D

Not fireable because we FINALLY showed up and made a play in the 4th quarter. My man. This does not portend well for Miami. Another week getting gashed by the pass game. Another career-high for the opposing QB, who is average at best. TONS of missed tackles. A defensive line that spent the majority of the game unable to generate pressure, quick passing game notwithstanding. And, also, another week when the opposing offensive coordinator GASHED the defense with perfectly timed screen passes. Miami has to do some self scouting here and address the gaps and tweak the schemes. I don’t need this to be the 2001 Canes defense or the 2001 Ravens or 1985 Bears, but THIS?! No sir. Absoutely not.

Special Teams: D

1 punt for 43 yards, but there was pressure and it was like a half step from getting blocked. Kickoffs were all touchbacks, so that’s great. No punt returns but a fair catch by Toney. 2 kick returns by Wingo for a 22 yard average. Short FG before half. Made all the PATs.

But buddy. That horror show on onside kick hands team at the end was a nightmare. Carolina attempted and recovered a pair of onside kick attempts doing the “kick it up the middle and chase the dribbling ball and get it after 10 yards” thing. They were, thankfully, offsides on the first attempt, then hit Bryce Fitzgerald early before 10 yards on the second attempt, negating each successful recovery. Marcelin handled the 3rd and final onside kick, but it shouldn’t have come down to that. Miami completely shuts down in special situations this year, and this week it was onside kick recovery team that was the issue.

Coaching: C

Cristobal managed the game well, I thought. Dawson was in his bag and called the right plays to bludgeon the Carolina defense to death.

But Corey Hetherman. Buddy. That defense. I don’t have the answers, but I do know that continuing what we’ve been doing is a recipe for disaster. There is much that ails this defense, but nothing moreso than the performance of the secondary in pass coverage. It could be scheme. It could be personnel. But whatever it is, it *MUST* be fixed. The secondary and the offensive line are units that I view as existential to this team’s championship hopes this year. You’re in charge of this one. So fix it. Now.

That’s it for this installment of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

Hop in the comments and let me know your thoughts.

Go Canes