College Football’s Week 12:
DG’s “Pick Six” Begins With Wake Forest-UNC,
ECU-Tulsa (Thursday), Wingate’s Title Shot, More
By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
Each week during college football season, we offer a “Pick Six” package of intriguing matchups — three “local” games that include one or more North Carolina-based team and three “national” contests that involve the Atlantic Coast Conference and/or the most prominent intersectional games.
Week 12: Top “Local” Games
Game Four
Wake Forest (4-5) at North Carolina (5-4), Sat., 8 pm (ACCN)
Latest Betting Line: Tar Heels an 11-point favorite
This has been a lopsided rivalry, in favor of the Tar Heels, dating all the way back to the 1880s. All-time, Carolina has won about two-thirds of its head-to-head games against Wake Forest.
More recently, UNC has won four of the past five matchups, usually in high-scoring affairs. The Heels’ three consecutive victories in this series under sixth-year coach Mack Brown have been by scores of 59-53, 58-55 and 36-34 — so definitely high-scoring, but also nail-biters that could have gone either way.
UNC’s last two games, dominating road victories over Virginia (41-14) and Florida State (35-11), were probably the Tar Heels’ two most complete games of the season.
On defense, the return of fifth-year edge rusher Kaimon Rucker from injury has been absolutely huge. It’s not easy for any single player on an 11-man defensive unit to make such an enormous difference, especially after missing significant time, but that’s exactly what Rucker has done this season.
In Carolina’s best defensive games of the season — against Minnesota, UVa and FSU — Rucker was among those leading the way. In UNC’s defensive meltdowns — giving up 70 points to James Madison, losing a 20-0 second-half lead at Duke, yielding big numbers to Pitt and Georgia Tech — Rucker either played only a handful of snaps or didn’t play at all because of an early season knee problem.
Offensively, meanwhile, All-American running back Omarion Hampton has been a stud all season, and fifth-year senior quarterback Jacolby Criswell — who began this season as the Tar Heels’ third-stringer — gradually has become much more efficient in the passing game behind an inexperienced but improving offensive line.
Wake Forest, meanwhile, is at risk of missing the postseason for the second straight season, immediately after setting a school record with seven consecutive bowl trips under 11th-year coach Dave Clawson.
The Demon Deacons still have to deal with a road trip to Miami, so if they want to get to six wins and automatic bowl eligibility this year, they’re almost certainly going to have to beat both the Tar Heels on Saturday in Chapel Hill and Duke (currently 7-3) in Winston-Salem in their regular-season finale.
The Deacons have had a very capable offense all season, with quality veterans at key positions such as sixth-year quarterback Hank Bachmeier, junior running back Demond Claiborne and fifth-year wide receiver Taylor Morin. Claiborne (fourth in the league in all-purpose yards per game) and Morin (sixth in receiving yards per game and a dangerous punt returner) should be somewhere on the All-ACC teams announced in December.
Wake just hasn’t been able to stop its opponents consistently — the Deacs are next-to-last in the ACC in scoring defense, at 33 points per game — so that unit likely is going to have to create some turnovers, and hope the offense can post a big number, if there’s going to be an upset at Kenan Stadium.
Game Five
East Carolina (5-4) at Tulsa (3-6), Thurs., 7:30 pm (ESPN)
Latest Betting Line: Pirates a 15-point favorite
The Pirates of interim head coach Blake Harrell put on an offensive fireworks display last Thursday, on national television, when they obliterated Florida Atlantic 49-14, and our Old North State Tailgate and Traveling Sports Circus was there in Greenville to be a part of the fun and festivities.
That game was on ESPN2, and this matchup at Tulsa on Thursday night is on the marquee channel, ESPN, with a great possibility of more very entertaining offense for an entire nation of college football fans to enjoy.
After about a year and a half of truly brutal quarterback play, which ultimately got sixth-year coach Mike Houston fired earlier this season, the Pirates seem to have finally found their stride with Michigan State transfer Katin Houser calling the shots. Meanwhile, Tulsa is dead-last in the American Athletic Conference in scoring defense, with the Golden Hurricane yielding an average of 38-plus points per game.
If someone wrote a book about Houston’s roller-coaster-style tenure in Greenville, one of the most important chapters would have to be about the importance — and the Pirates’ ultimate mismanagement — of the all-important quarterback position.
When ECU hired Houston away from James Madison (where he had won an FCS national championship in 2016) before the 2019 season, he and his staff inherited rising sophomore Holton Ahlers, a very good college quarterback who ultimately fell just a hair short of making an NFL regular-season roster.
With Ahlers running the offense, the Pirates kept improving during Houston’s first four seasons, and they earned back-to-back bowl invitations in 2021 and 2022.
Then, the bottom fell out completely. The Pirates had the worst QB play in the entire nation last year, and with Miami/Missouri transfer Jake Garcia at the controls earlier this season, under new offensive coordinator John David Baker, they made some strides but still turned the ball over a lot and just couldn’t seem to hit on all cylinders.
Finally, Houston started Houser — a redshirt sophomore who had been a backup at Michigan State for the past two years — at undefeated Army on Oct. 19. The Pirates lost that game, but that was mainly because they couldn’t stop Army’s triple-option offense.
Houser played fairly well against the nationally ranked Black Knights, and then he threw five touchdown passes in ECU’s 56-34 win over Temple. Most recently, he had by far the best game of his entire college career in last Thursday’s 49-14 victory over FAU, completing 17 of his 22 passing attempts for 343 yards, five TDs and no interceptions.
That’s about as good as it gets, even at a school famous for its prolific passing attacks, and now Houser and the Pirates have another great opportunity to strut their stuff against a Tulsa defense that has been giving up big numbers all season.
Game Six
#19 Carson-Newman (9-1) at #23 Wingate (8-1), Sat., 3 pm (FloSports)
Latest Betting Line: n/a
There are 33 NCAA football programs in North Carolina, and this year Wingate is the only one with a direct path to a conference championship.
There are a couple other teams that could share a regular-season title — aka, a first-place finish in a league that doesn’t have a championship game format — but those squads need someone else to lose to make that even a possibility.
So, rather than dwelling on the negative — how could any state go 0-for-33 on such things? — let’s focus on the positive, and that begins with Wingate’s shot at what would be just its third outright South Atlantic Conference football championship in the history of its program.
Quick side note: Division Two teams complete their regular season in mid-November, and then there’s a 28-team D2 playoff that begins next weekend. So Wingate could be a part of that, too, regardless of what happens in this title game on Saturday.
The Bulldogs’ opponent this Saturday, Carson-Newman, has captured far more South Atlantic football titles than any other program, although this year’s title tilt will be a true road game for the Eagles against a truly stellar Wingate squad.
Carson-Newman (9-1) did hand Wingate (8-1) its only loss of the season. That was a 31-28 overtime thriller played back in September, on the Eagles’ home field in Jefferson City, Tenn.
This week’s rematch is on Wingate’s home field, at Irwin Belk Stadium (a bit east of Charlotte), which hosted our Old North State Tailgate and Traveling Sports Circus earlier this season.
Under first-year head coach Rashaan Jordan, who had been Wingate’s long-time defensive coordinator, the Bulldogs have played some of the best defense in the entire country this season, giving up fewer than 10 points per game, which is just an incredible number at any level of football in the modern era.
Carson-Newman, though, has the highest-scoring offense in the South Atlantic Conference, at about 36 points per game, so it will be strength versus strength when the Eagles have the ball.
Week 12 Bonus Notes!
FBS: Appalachian State (4-5), Duke (7-3) and NC State (5-5) are off this week. … Charlotte (3-6) hosts South Florida (4-5) on Saturday (3:30 pm, ESPN+). If the 49ers can win out against the Bulls, FAU (2-7) and UAB (2-7), they would become bowl-eligible for just the second time in program history.
FCS: NC Central (6-3) hosts Howard (4-6) in a nationally televised game on Friday (8 pm, ESPNU). As the Eagles’ last home game of the season, it’s Senior Night, and especially any senior who spent his entire career at NCCU is worth celebrating. This year’s Eagles still have a shot to tie for what would be the program’s third straight MEAC title (counting ties). That would happen if they beat Howard this week and then lowly Delaware State next week, and South Carolina State loses to someone along the way. Coach Trei Oliver and many of his NCCU seniors have been a part of a very special time in their program’s history, given their HBCU national championship in 2022, their first-ever appearance in the FCS playoffs in 2023, and now at least the possibility of a third straight MEAC championship as well.
D2: #20 Lenoir-Rhyne (8-2) hosts Anderson (3-7) on Saturday in its regular-season finale, with the hope of earning a bid to the Division Two playoffs under first-year head coach Doug Socha. … Johnson C Smith, whose 8-0 start was the best in the history of a program that started way back in 1892, lost its final two regular-season contests and thus fell short of the CIAA championship game and fell out of the national rankings. Virginia Union (7-3) and Virginia State (7-3), which both lost their head-to-head matchup against the Golden Bulls but finished 6-1 in conference competition, will play for the CIAA crown on Saturday in Salem, Va.
NOTE: For the complete Week 12 schedule (including television/streaming options) for all ACC and state of North Carolina teams, please click HERE.
