Bernard's career day helps UNC top Va. Tech

By foxsports
Published

CHAPEL HILL, NC -- Gio Bernard is good. Real good.


And the extremely gifted North Carolina tailback was
at his best Saturday in helping the Tar Heels beat Virginia Tech 48-34
at Kenan Stadium.

For UNC, it was a needed victory
over a program it believes it should annually compete with, but hadn't
yet beaten at home in ACC play until this outing. And for Bernard, it
was a coming out party.

He raised many eyebrows a
year go running for 1,253 yards and 13 touchdowns as a redshirt
freshman. He compiled those numbers despite not owning the starting
tailback job for the first several games.

But the
Bernard on display Saturday versus the Hokies is one of national appeal.
His regional status is set: He's the best tailback in the ACC and maybe
the second-best skill position player in the league behind Clemson wide
receiver Sammy Watkins. But Bernard, who ran for 262 yards on 23
carries, is close. Real close.

"You give him a hole,
give him a crack and he's going to make some plays now," UNC coach Larry
Fedora said. "He's going to make a lot of plays, and you look and some
of those and think, ‘wow.' Four yards here, maybe, and all of a sudden
that turns into eight and that turns into 12 and then it's 30 and 60,
because if you don't get on him right now, he's got a chance to take it
the distance."

What he did to the Hokies wasn't
because the Hokies aren't a strong defensive team. They returned 10
starters from a stout group that won the ACC's Coastal Division and
played in the Sugar Bowl a year ago, and also has won 10 or more games
for eight consecutive seasons.

But Bernard made
minced meat of Virginia Tech (3-3, 1-1 ACC). He made the Hokies look
helpless more often than not. And quite frankly, they were.


Bernard had runs of 10 or more yards on 11
occasions, including two that went for 51 or more yards. Another carry
went for nine yards and two more went for eight each. His 11.4
yards-per-carry average is a single-game best at UNC. Bernard also
caught three passes out of the backfield.

The Tampa,
FL, native shook and juked several Hokies right out of their uniforms,
leaving them on the ground or tumbling off balance reaching toward
Bernard, who was distancing himself from them and their teammates in a
flash.

Bernard's biggest and longest run of the
afternoon came on fourth-and-1 at UNC's own 38-yard-line and the score
tied 14-14 after one quarter of play. On the first snap of the second
period, UNC's No. 26 went off left tackle, got an excellent block from
tight end Jack Tabb, and exploded into VPI's secondary, racing into the
end zone untouched.

It gave UNC (4-2, 1-1) a lead it
would never relinquish, and also served notice that the Tar Heels could
be explosive even versus the nasty, gritty and physical lunch-pail
carrying Hokies.

"They just came in crashing,"
Bernard said, describing the play. "They were expecting a QB sneak
because earlier in the game we did a QB sneak with Bryn. They kind of
jammed it up a little bit, but we knew we had someone off tackle and we
took it 60-some, I don't know how long it was, but we did a good job up
front."

A 51-yard spurt by Bernard set up a 13-yard
scoring run by A.J. Blue that put UNC ahead 45-26 late in the third
quarter. And in between, he darted, scooted, and slipped off of and away
from would-be tacklers for the fifth best rushing game in UNC's storied
tailback history.

Bernard came into the game having
carried the ball just 29 times on the season, in part because UNC blew
out Elon, East Carolina and Idaho, and because he missed two games. The
Tar Heels dropped both of those affairs - at Wake Forest and at
Louisville – basically on the last plays of the game. They could have
used Bernard's services.

So Saturday was the first
truly competitive game Carolina has been in while also having Bernard on
the field. The Tar Heels survived a so-so game from quarterback Bryn
Renner (17-for-30, 194 yards) and on an afternoon they converted only 5
of 14 third-down situations.

The main reason was
Bernard, an equalizer few teams in the college game possess.