CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Almost certainly staring at an overtime game on the road after what would have been a demoralizing fourth-quarter collapse, Jamal Haynes broke off the biggest run of the Georgia Tech season Saturday at Kenan Stadium.
Haynes broke a 68-yard touchdown run and scored with 16 seconds left to beat North Carolina 41-34. The Yellow Jackets (5-2, 3-2 ACC) had let second-half leads of 27-14 and 34-24 fall by the wayside. But they got the ball back with 44 seconds left in the game after North Carolina tied the score at 34-34.
On second down from his own 32, Haynes took a handoff and broke up the middle for an untouched touchdown run.
“I had a couple coaches just telling, ‘Bust one! Bust one! It’s coming.’ They had been harping on it all game. Just calm down and one’s gonna come,” Haynes said. “I really got the ball and I was thinking explosive play, anything can happen. My left guard, my left tackle, they pulled. One kicked, one wrapped, I just seen daylight and hit it.”
That gave Tech a second consecutive victory this season and fourth in a row over UNC (3-4, 0-3 ACC).
Haynes finished with 170 yards on 19 carries. Quarterback Haynes King, who left the game in the fourth quarter with an injury, threw for 127 yards and rushed for 107.
Tech next faces No. 11 Notre Dame at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
“I’m proud of the team for playing for 60 minutes,” Tech coach Brent Key said. “We pride ourselves on playing for 60 minutes, we played for 60. We got the ball back with less than a minute there at the end, and we were trying to push it out there. (Haynes) popped through there, made a cut, made a cut, and ol’ boy he was gone.”
After giving up 10 consecutive points at the end of the third quarter Saturday, Tech began the fourth quarter by scoring on a 10-play drive that ended with Haynes’ 5-yard touchdown run, which made the score 34-24 with 11:18 to play.
Tech then got a fumble recovery by Ahmari Harvey with 11:08 to play. But Aidan Birr missed a 49-yard field-goal attempt minutes later to keep hope alive for the Tar Heels.
North Carolina covered 68 yards in 13 plays and scored on a 1-yard sneak by quarterback Jacolby Criswell with 3:27 to go, making the score 34-31.
With backup quarterback Zach Pyron in the game, the Jackets couldn’t run the clock out and punted the ball to UNC. Eight plays later, Noah Burnette made a 26-yard field goal to tie the score with 44 seconds left.
That was all before Haynes saved the day.
Tech’s defense made the first play of note Saturday when defensive back Syeed Gibbs came off the left edge on a third-down blitz, hit Criswell and knocked the ball loose. Defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg fell on the ball at the North Carolina 38.
Five plays later, running back Chad Alexander, placed on scholarship earlier in the week, scored on a 2-yard run over left guard making the score 7-0 nine minutes into the opening quarter.
Three minutes later the Tar Heels tied the score on a 1-yard option keeper around left end by Criswell. That score followed a 53-yard completion and defensive pass interference earlier in the drive.
After Burnette missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt in a 7-7 game early in the second quarter, a kick partially blocked by Tech defensive back Rodney Shelley, Tech put together its second scoring drive of the game. A 13-play, 66-yard drive melted 6-1/2 minutes off the clock and was capped by Birr’s 26-yard field goal.
Tech padded that lead just before the half when King ran in a 20-yard quarterback draw up the middle of the UNC defense. But, on the next play from scrimmage, Omarion Hampton broke a 71-yard run down to the Tech 4, and two plays later Criswell found J.J. Jones on a 4-yard touchdown pass, making the score 17-14 with 34 seconds left in the first half.
That turned out to be more than enough time for Tech to gain 63 yards on three runs to the UNC 12, where Birr booted a 29-yard field goal that put the Jackets up 20-14 at the break.
Tech ran for 214 yards and averaged 7.7 yards per carry over the first 30 minutes. Its offense also held possession for almost seven more minutes than the Tar Heels.
The Jackets got a fourth-down stop on their own 32 early in the third quarter. Tech’s offense turned around and covered 67 yards in eight plays to go up 27-14 on King’s 8-yard touchdown run around right end with 6:46 left in the period.
Burnette made a 50-yard field goal with 2:47 to go in the third to get UNC within 27-17. The Tar Heels’ defense then forced on a three-and-out, and on the ensuing punt, Alijah Huzzie took the return 69 yards the other way for a touchdown that made the score 27-24.
That would be how the scoreboard read as the two teams prepared for the final 15 minutes.
“This team just don’t know how to quit, and we’re not going to,” Tech center Weston Franklin said. “In years past, maybe if they score a touchdown right there or get points or whatever and tie the game up, we might, ‘Ah, you never know.’ But that’s just not in this team. That’s not who we are, that’s not what coach Key preaches, and we believe everything he says and what he’s doing in this program. Never say die, that’s kind of our mindset.”
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