COLLEGE FOOTBALL WEEK THREE:

UNC, NC State, App State, ECU, Charlotte, D2
Among DG’s ACC/NC “Fun Facts & Shout-Outs”

By David Glenn
North Carolina Sports Network
(last updated Sept. 15, 2025)

While the focus of our “This Week In College Football” show is forward-looking as often as possible, we always take a glance back at the previous weekend in college football, too, and sometimes we’ll offer some quick mentions to those making impactful headlines on the gridiron, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference or across North Carolina.

With that in mind, below are our Week Three “Fun Facts and Shout-Outs,” brought to you by our good friends at Jimmy’s bar and King Neptune restaurant in Wrightsville Beach.

Jimmy’s has a full bar, nightly drink specials and live music 365 days a year(!). (It’s a great place to watch a game, too.) Right next door, King Neptune has become one of the best restaurants in the entire greater Wilmington area.

Week Three “Fun Fact #1”

In UNC’s last two games under first-year head coach Bill Belichick, who earned his reputation as a defensive guru over almost a half-century in the National Football League, the Tar Heels allowed Charlotte and Richmond less than two yards per rushing attempt and did not yield a single touchdown to either team.

The last time a UNC football squad kept its opponents out of the end zone in back-to-back games was in 2012, 13 years ago, in coach Larry Fedora’s first season at Carolina, which ended with an 8-4 record.

Among the standouts for UNC defensively — under coordinator Steve Belichick, Bill’s son, who spent last season with the Washington Huskies in the Big Ten — have been Washington transfer Thaddeus Dixon at cornerback, Delaware transfer Melkart Abou-Jaoude at edge rusher, and three more transfers at linebacker: Khmori House from Washington, Andrew Simpson from Boise State, and Makai Gbayor from Nebraska via Missouri.

Week Three “Fun Fact #2”

NC State coach Dave Doeren, now in his 13th season as the leader of the Pack, is off to a 3-0 start for the fifth time during his lengthy tenure in Raleigh, although once again he’s facing a back-loaded schedule.

In 2014, the Wolfpack started 4-0 but finished only 8-5. In 2015, the Pack started 4-0 but finished just 7-6. In 2018, the Pack started 5-0 but finished 9-4. In 2022, the Pack started 4-0 but again finished 8-5.

Although Doeren is the winningest coach in NC State football history, with 90 victories and counting, he has never reached the magical 10-win mark in a single season — something that’s been done only once in Wolfpack history, in 2002, with a thrilling 11-3 campaign under head coach Chuck Amato and junior quarterback Philip Rivers.

Although a 6-0 start for this year’s Pack seems a realistic possibility, the back half of the team’s regular-season schedule consists of difficult trips to Notre Dame, Pitt and Miami, plus home games against Georgia Tech, Florida State and UNC.

It will be a major challenge for State to avoid yet another fast-start, mediocre-finish scenario this season.

Week Three “Fun Fact #3”

Two of the top six players in rushing yards at the FBS level are playing right here in the Bold North State.

App State senior running back Rashod Dubinion, a transfer from Arkansas, where he was a part-time starter for the Razorbacks of the SEC, already has 400 rushing yards in just his first three games for coach Dowell Loggains and the Mountaineers.

Meanwhile, NC State running back Hollywood Smothers, who is from West Charlotte High School here in North Carolina but spent his first college season at Oklahoma, is now in his second year with the Wolfpack and has emerged as the team’s starter as a redshirt sophomore.

Smothers’ 380 rushing yards — during the Pack’s 3-0 start against ECU, Virginia and Wake Forest — are about two-thirds as many as he had for the entirety of last season.

On to some quick shout-outs as we head into Week Four …

#1—Shout-out to East Carolina head coach Blake Harrell, the team’s former defensive coordinator, and the Pirates’ brand-new defensive coordinator, Josh Aldridge, for the team’s 38-0 victory over Coastal Carolina last Saturday at Brooks Stadium in Conway, as ECU improved its record to 2-1 while continuing to show tremendous improvement on the defensive side of the ball.

That performance against the Chanticleers marked the the Pirates’ first road shutout in 25 years, or since they beat Duke 38-0 in Durham in September 2000, back during ECU’s legendary Steve Logan Era, which was far more famous for great offensive performances.

This year, linebacker Ryheem Craig (a fifth-year senior who was previously a backup at Louisville) and safety Ja’Marley Riddle (a true sophomore who looks like an all-conference candidate) are the only two returning starters on the entire ECU defense, which makes the Pirates’ 9 points per game scoring defense average that much more impressive.

#2—Shout-out to Charlotte 49ers quarterback Conner Harrell, who was absolutely brilliant last week as new coach Tim Albin got his first victory in the Queen City after a very challenging 0-2 start.

Harrell, a redshirt junior who spent the past three seasons at UNC, almost entirely as a backup, left several marks on the 49ers’ all-time record books by completing 26 of 30 passing attempts for 382 yards and three touchdowns and running for 47 yards and two more scores in the 49ers’ 42-35 victory over Monmouth of the FCS ranks.

That’s about as good as it gets against any opponent, and it was by far the best outing of Harrell’s entire college career. Congratulations to a guy who never stopped working over these past four years, before he finally got his chance to shine.

#3—Shout-out, at the Division Two level, to Mars Hill head coach Kevin Barnette, whose first victory as a head coach — after almost four decades as an assistant — came over a nationally ranked opponent, as his Lions beat #23 Carson-Newman in overtime on Saturday.

Barnette, who’s already in the Mars Hill Athletics Hall of Fame because of his success as an All-American defensive back in the 1980s, had been the school’s defensive coordinator for the past 31 seasons, then got promoted to head coach in August after the retirement of legendary coach Tim Clifton, who had been the Lions’ leader for the past 32 years.

Barnette actually grew up in Mars Hill, which is in the North Carolina mountains, just north of Asheville, so last week’s big win could be considered a life-long dream come true in his case.