What if a crazy sports journalist scanned every box score of every 2024 college football game involving a North Carolina team, looking for the longest scoring plays?
Well, that’s what we did throughout the course of the 2024 campaign, logging every offensive scoring play that covered at least 60 yards and every defensive & special teams scoring play no matter the distance. (It took a lot of time but we can’t help ourselves. We love our NC college football and love our box scores).
Now that the 2024 North Carolina college football season has concluded, it’s time to celebrate those players who covered the most ground on their way to 6 points (or in two cases, on their way to 2 points). Introducing our next set of North Carolina “Stat Champions.”
What’s the longest distance a football player can cover to score a touchdown? For three North Carolina athletes in 2024, the answer was the official maximum in the college game – 100 yards.
Aaron Harris (North Carolina A&T): A 100-yard return on the opening kickoff in the storied rivalry game against North Carolina Central. (Alas, the rest of the game didn’t go so well for the Aggies).
Demond Claiborne (Wake Forest): A stunning 100-yard kickoff return during an ACC matchup at Miami.
Tycorien Gist (Louisburg College): An unofficial 106-yard interception return against Nassau College, bringing the ball out of the end zone to go untouched down the left sideline. (Alas, it still goes in the books officially as a 100-yard return).
Duke’s Sahmir Hagans nearly joined the 100-yard touchdown club in the final moments of the final game of the NC college football season. Hagans returned a late fourth-quarter kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown against Ole Miss in the Jan. 2 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl – the final points earned by a North Carolina college team.
All told, we had 23 scoring plays that covered at least 90 yards during the season. Most were kickoff returns.
NC State’s Jordan Waters recorded the longest rushing touchdown of the season, galloping 94 yards against Stanford in Week 10.
Fayetteville State’s Julian Milligan had the longest touchdown reception of 2024, covering 88 yards on a pass play from Joe Owens Jr. in a Week 11 game at Winston-Salem State.
The longest punt return TD of the season came courtesy of Brevard’s Zackary Orr, who raced 88 yards to the end zone in Week 6 at Southern Virginia.
Gardner-Webb’s Miles Richardson covered the longest distance for a mere 2 points in a Week 12 game against Tennessee State. The Tigers muffed a PAT attempt; Richardson scooped it up and raced 98 yards to give the Bulldogs the extra points. Elon’s Ismel Atkins did something similar against Campbell, picking off a PAT pass and returning it 95 yards for 2 points.
Davidson’s TJ Magee had the second-longest pick-six of the season, covering 98 yards against Presbyterian. That’s still a lot of ground to cover.
Catawba’s Juice Martin picked off a pass on a botched field goal attempt by Newberry and turned that into an 89-yard interception return TD.
North Carolina’s Chris Culliver returned two kicks for 95-yard touchdowns, both times in Boston. His first long-distance return came at Boston College in Week 13. The second came in the Fenway Bowl against Connecticut on Dec. 28. Alas, the Heels lost both games.
More fast facts about scoring plays from the 2024 season:
Our 34 college programs recorded 126 scoring plays that covered 60 yards or more, including 23 that went for 90 or more yards.
During the 2024 season, North Carolina college football players recorded
- 53 pick-sixes, an average of 3.8 interception-return TDs per week during the regular season
- 19 kickoff return TDs
- 7 punt return scores
- 10 scoop-and-score plays
- 4 punt blocks resulting in touchdowns
We had a total of 95 defensive and special teams scores for the season. Three scoring plays went into the books officially as zero-yard touchdowns – fumble recoveries in the end zone by Davidson’s Dixon Hudson and North Carolina Central’s Kamari Houze, and a punt block covered in the end zone by North Carolina Central’s Trey Goodridge.
The 25 Longest Scoring Plays of the Season
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