SportsDirect Inc. staff
Sep 3, 2011
A near-perfect passing performance by Bryn Renner in his first career start helped North Carolina (1-0) coast past James Madison 42-10 on Saturday and give interim coach Everett Withers a win in his first-ever game as a head coach.
Renner threw for 277 yards and two touchdowns while completing 22 of 23 passes. His completion percentage—95.7—was just a tick off the NCAA single-game record of 95.8 percent set by former Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin in 1988.
The Dukes (0-1) never recovered, and fell short in their bid to beat an ACC opponent on the road for the second straight season. JMU stunned Virginia Tech last September.
UNC’s Giovani Bernard ran for two touchdowns as part of a game-high 64-yard effort on the ground. Ryan Houston ran for 59 yards and a TD. Dwight Jones paced the receivers with nine catches for 116 yards, including a 34-yard TD from Renner to cap the game’s opening drive.
James Madison rolled up 211 yards in the first game since head coach Mickey Matthews took over as play-caller and quarterbacks coach. The Dukes scored their lone touchdown on a 41-yard pass from Justin Thorpe to Daniel Brown that was set up by a short field from a punt the Heels fumbled, and then had blocked.
Tar Heels fullback Devon Ramsay suffered a nasty-looking knee injury in the second half. Ramsay had been ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA and missed the final nine games of the 2010 season, but the case got overturned in February.