University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC Belk Bowl Postgame Notes
December 29, 2013 | Football
• Carolina improved to 14-16 all-time in bowl games and 3-0 all-time against Cincinnati with a 39-17 win in the 2013 Belk Bowl. The Tar Heels have won two of their last three bowl games and their last two in NFL stadiums (2010 Music City Bowl at LP Field in Nashville).
• The Tar Heels won the Charlotte bowl game for the first time in four tries. UNC lost the Continental Tire Bowl to Boston College in 2004 (37-24), the Meineke Car Care Bowl to West Virginia in 2008 (31-30) and the Meineke Car Care Bowl to Pittsburgh in 2009 (19-17). Carolina has played in the Charlotte bowl more often than any other school.
• UNC's 39 points are its second-most in a bowl game and the most since scoring a school-record 42 in the 1998 Gator Bowl, a 42-3 win over Virginia Tech following the 1997 season.
• Carolina finished the 2013 season with a 7-6 record and improved to 15-10 in two seasons under Larry Fedora. In six seasons as a head coach (four at Southern Miss), Fedora has never had a losing record in a season.
• Belk Bowl MVP Ryan Switzer tied an NCAA record and established an ACC record with his fifth punt return touchdown of the season, an 86-yard score in the third quarter. It was the longest return of his career and the fourth-longest in school history. Chad Owens of Hawaii set the NCAA record with five in 2004.
• Switzer now owns the career punt return touchdown mark at UNC, passing Johnny Branch (1929-31) and Charlie Justice (1946-49) who each had four.
• Switzer's 83 return yards give him a school-record 502 for the season, besting Bosley Allen's mark of 421 from 2000.
• Switzer also set the UNC single-season record for punt return average at 20.9 (24 for 502 yards). The previous mark of 17.5 was set by Charlie Justice in 1948 (19 for 332).
• DE Kareem Martin and bandit Brandon Ellerbe combined for a sack of Cincinnati's Brendon Kay in the first quarter for a safety. It was Carolina's first safety since the 2009 game at Connecticut when DE Robert Quinn was held in the end zone.
• Following the safety, TB/KR T.J. Logan returned the ensuing free kick 78 yards for a touchdown. Logan became the second player in school history to return two kickoffs for touchdowns in a season, joining Brandon Tate in 2006. Logan's run to the end zone was also the first kickoff return touchdown in Carolina bowl history.
• OT James Hurst established a new school record with his 49th career start. Hurst passed All-America OG Jonathan Cooper, who started 48 games from 2009-12. Hurst suffered a non-displaced fibula fracture in his left leg in the first half.
• TB Romar Morris scored his fourth and fifth touchdowns of the year but his first since the Georgia Tech game with a 2-yard score in the first quarter and a 1-yard plunge in the third quarter.
• TE Jack Tabb scored his first touchdown of the season in the second quarter. Tabb scored from three yards out on a pass from Marquise Williams.
• TE Eric Ebron, playing in his final college game, had a game-high seven catches for 78 yards. He finished the season with 973 receiving yards, the most by any tight end in ACC history. It is the fourth-highest season total in UNC history behind Hakeem Nicks (1,222 in 2008), Dwight Jones (1,196 in 2011) and Sam Aiken (990 in 2002).
