It was a bittersweet Saturday across the North Carolina college football landscape.
There were big wins and amazing highlights, yet gut-wrenching defeats as well. Many Western North Carolina communities are still in hurricane recovery mode, and one school lost a beloved player to cancer.
Here are the top 10 headlines from week seven, the good and the bad, involving our collection of college football teams in the Old North State:
1. Tylee Craft’s Passing
The North Carolina Tar Heels announced after Saturday’s 41-34 loss to Georgia Tech that player Tylee Craft had passed away earlier in the day. Craft had been battling stage four cancer since 2022. He was moved to hospice recently.
“(UNC coach) Mack Brown said he first learned of Tylee’s death after the game but could tell from the long hug from Craft’s mom during the ceremony at the end of the first quarter that something sad already had happened,” writer Chip Alexander of the News & Observer posted on X.
2. Welcome Back, Fans
Western Carolina played in front of an empty stadium last weekend en route to a victory over Wofford, the ongoing impact of Hurricane Helene. The Catamounts welcomed spectators back this week — more than 6,000 showed up! — and treated the mostly purple and white crowd to a 30-16 win over The Citadel.
While it has been a shaky first few months of the season, made all the more difficult by the storm of the century, Western Carolina is right where it wants to be in terms of SoCon play. Kerwin Bell’s team owns a 2-0 conference record with key opponents on deck.
3. UNC Pembroke’s Offensive Outburst
UNC Pembroke came into the season as a conference title favorite and D2 playoff contender. The Braves then lost their first four games.
UNCP seemed to unleash a month’s worth of offense on West Liberty at home Saturday, rolling to a 67-20 victory. Colin Johnson threw for 514 yards and SEVEN touchdowns, rewriting school record books in the process.
Que Kennedy, Josh Jenkins and Josiah Hayes each had 100+ yards in receptions and two touchdown catches each. As a team, the Braves recorded 675 total yards. Read More HERE.
4. Livingstone In The Conference Hunt? Yep.
Much of the CIAA football spotlight has been on programs like Johnson C. Smith, Winston-Salem State, Virginia Union and Virginia State this season. Meanwhile, Livingstone has quietly been building its best season in a decade.
The Blue Bears beat six-time CIAA South Division champion Fayetteville State 24-19 to improve to 5-2 overall, 3-1 in the league. The homecoming triumph ends a dought against the Broncos extending back to 2015. The last time Livingstone won five games in a season? Also 2015. The Bears were 4-6 the past two seasons.
Livingstone will host Winston-Salem State (also 5-2) on Saturday in what is now a tantalizing match-up on the CIAA docket with title implications. Who could have predicted that when Livingstone was picked ninth back in July?
5. De-Fense! De-Fense!
Wingate hasn’t been scored on this month. The Bulldogs earned their second-straight shutout, beating visiting Barton 50-0 under the lights. Coach Rashaan Jordan’s team, which blanked UVA Wise 33-0 a week ago, held Barton to 89 total yards.
Wingate’s conference partner, Lenoir-Rhyne, allowed all of three points in a win over Newberry. The Bulldogs and Bears appear to be on a collision course to determine the Piedmont Division’s representative in the South Atlantic championship game. We’re here for it.
6. Running It Up
UNC Pembroke was one of three schools to break the interstate highway speed limit (65) in points this week.
North Carolina Central hit 68 points in a shutout win over Virginia-Lynchburg — the highest total by an Old North State school this season. Louisburg, a junior college program from Franklin County, put up 66 on visiting Myrtle Beach Prep.
UNC Pembroke would have had 70 points had the Braves not allowed three extra points to be blocked.
7. Mountain Strong
The Brevard community had an abbreviated version of homecoming this weekend. The school asked that only students, alumni and fans who lived in the community attend Saturday’s football game. They encouraged everyone from out-of-town to stay away to reduce traffic on roads and not hamper ongoing recovery efforts.
Brevard put on a pleasing performance on the field, scoring 28 points in the first quarter and dashing past Greensboro 42-9.
We’ve written about quarterback Ethan Beamish and receiver Zackary Orr a lot the past two years. Beamish threw for 310 yards and four TDs against the Pride. Orr caught six passes for 122 yards and two of those TDs. Orr is now Brevard’s all-time receiving yardage record-holder. He’s up to 1,591 yards with a month left in the season.
8. Hoops Anyone?
We posted this on Twitter/X with confidence earlier this week: “NC State will beat Syracuse on Saturday night. Mark it down.”
Well, fans from other schools did mark it down and made us eat our words late Saturday night. Syracuse won 24-17, controlling much of the contest.
We had our reasons for being so bold. This just felt like the type of contest NC State usually wins under Dave Doeren: Night game. All-black uniforms, Backs against the wall. Folks writing them off. But the Pack committed too many mistakes, and Syracuse lived up to billing as the favorite.
ACC basketball media days happened earlier this week in Charlotte. Not a moment too soon for fans of the Pack, Deacons and Tar Heels, who collectively went 0-3 this weekend. Blah.
9. Gut-Wrenching Finishes For Catawba, Mars Hill
Can someone get Catawba a horseshoe? The Indians have been the epitome of a tough-luck club this season.
Catawba has played four conference games so far. All four have gone to the wire, and three have gone the other way. Saturday proved another heartbreaker for coach Tyler Haines’ group.
Limestone forced overtime with a late field goal, then slipped past the Indians 36-33 in double overtime. Catawba also lost to Carson-Newman 35-34 and dropped a 31-28 decision at UVA Wise earlier this season. How razor thin the margin can be between conference title contention and back-of-the-pack!
Mars Hill can relate to Catawba this week. The Lions let an early 17-0 lead slip away against undefeated Carson-Newman before losing 28-27. The Eagles scored the go-ahead touchdown on fourth-and-one as time expired to improve to 6-0. Ouch.
10. Coaching Carousel Getting Ready To Spin?
We hesitate to even bring this up, but head coaching turnover is a reality at the highest levels of college football. The collective disappointment across our FBS landscape right now is palpable.
UNC, Wake Forest, NC State and Appalachian State are each below .500 and collectively hold a 1-11 conference record (the lone win was Wake over NCSU). All of these dark clouds have us wondering how many coaching changes will take place in the coming months.
Possibly at all four of the above schools? At ECU, which has been inconsistent? At Charlotte if the Niners can’t hold their momentum? It really feels like only Duke’s Manny Diaz is completely safe.
11. Week 7 Quick-Hitters
Chowan went 0-10 last season but already has two wins in 2024. Maurice Smith accounted for two passing and two rushing touchdowns in Saturday’s 31-27 triumph over Shorter…
Davidson leads the FCS in rushing yards (368 per game) but was held well below that mark Saturday, getting outrushed in a 16-14 loss at Dayton. The Flyers put on a block party, muffing three Davidson field goal attempts and a punt…
We pegged Elon as a legit CAA contender in the preseason. But the Phoenix have struggled mightily since drilling North Carolina Central 41-19 in early September. New Hampshire handed Elon its fourth loss in a row, and fifth of the season, on Saturday by a 17-10 count…
How Our Fabulous 15 Fared This Week
