LSU Tigers

Four Downs: Baylor sets FBS bowl rushing record in win over North Carolina

Published Dec. 29, 2015 10:37 p.m. ET

Zach Dillard

No. 17 Baylor ran roughshod over the 10th-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels in the Russell Athletic Bowl on Tuesday night, winning 49-38 behind a dominant running game. Here are four thoughts on the Power Five showdown:

1. Gene Chizik's season-long turnaround effort comes crashing down

Larry Fedora is an offensive-minded head coach that runs an offensive-minded program. However, the offseason addition of Chizik, a top-of-the-line defensive coordinator with national championship experience, was the major difference in North Carolina's jump from ACC afterthought to darkhorse College Football Playoff contender.

In UNC's 6-7 season in 2014, Fedora's offense ranked 25th in efficiency (S&P+). This season, the Tar Heels' high-powered offense finished the regular season ranked 22nd nationally. Five wins do not magically appear from marginal offensive improvement. Instead, Chizik turned UNC's porous defense (99th nationally in 2014) into a middle-of-the-pack unit capable of complementing a top-10 team.

Until Baylor, that is.

The 17th-ranked Bears entered the Russell Athletic Bowl severely shorthanded, missing Biletnikoff winner Corey Coleman (1,363 yards, 20 touchdowns), their top two quarterbacks, Seth Russell and Jarrett Stidham, and starting running back Shock Linwood due to injury. The result? Offensive guru Art Briles dialed up a run-heavy scheme that outright abused Chizik's front seven, piling up 645 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on the ground — the most rushing yards allowed by any defense in FBS bowl history.

With Linwood, a 1,300-yard rusher himself, sidelined, running back Johnny Jefferson led the effort by racking up 299 yards and three scores. Devin Chafin also eclipsed the 150-yard mark, followed by Terence Williams (97 yards, two touchdowns) and Lynx Hawthorne (63 yards, touchdown). It was a manhandling of historic proportions. Baylor converted on 14 of its 23 third- and fourth-down attempts and held the ball for nearly 15 more minutes.

With the running game clicking, Baylor's aerial attack attempted just 18 passes for 111 yards.

While Briles made it blatantly clear once again that his system will put up points regardless of personnel, it's clear where Chizik's biggest challenge remains. The Tar Heels shored up their problematic pass defense in 2015, cutting back on opponents' big plays, but they still ranked 110th nationally in rush defense ... and that was before Baylor's steamrolling.

All told, it was a successful season for North Carolina. It won 11 games and reached the conference title game for the first time in school history, pushed top-ranked Clemson to a final possession and found itself in the national conversation for the first time since Mack Brown's departure. Still, as Briles and Baylor illustrated, there's still plenty of work to be done.

2. North Carolina's red-zone woes pop back up

Despite the Bears' record-breaking performance, North Carolina was well within striking distance in the third quarter. The Tar Heels opened the second-half with a 75-yard touchdown drive that cut the lead to 28-24 and then failed to immediately take advantage of Baylor's own red-zone mishap, an interception by third-string quarterback Chris Johnson.

The tide turned for good, though, when the Tar Heels drove the ball to the Bears' 2-yard line down 11 points only to fumble the ball into the endzone for their second turnover of the game. On the next play, Jefferson torched the defense for an 80-yard dash that all but sealed the victory. It was a familiar narrative.

Red-zone turnovers played a role in all three UNC losses in 2015.

The Tar Heels dominated South Carolina in the season opener, but costly interceptions from quarterback Marquise Williams nullified the effort. In the ACC title game, Fedora's team had an opportunity to take a second-quarter lead after driving down to Clemson's 16-yard line, but Williams was intercepted once again. That pick allowed Clemson to build a substantial first-half lead.

This time it was junior running back T.J. Logan. Cutting the lead to 35-31 would not have guaranteed the UNC defense could come up with stops, but it would have helped the Tar Heels keep pace.

3. Underutilized Elijah Hood poised for dynamic junior season

Fedora's offense loses a few key pieces, notably school record-holders in Williams and receiver Quinshad Davis and NFL-bound offensive lineman Landon Turner, but the return of rising junior Elijah Hood means the Tar Heels' ground game is in pretty good hands.

Hood finished his sophomore campaign with 1,463 yards and 17 touchdowns on just 219 carries. He eclipsed the 100-yard mark eight times, including his 118 against Baylor, and only one Power Five running back with 200 or more carries (Florida State's Dalvin Cook) averaged more yards per carry.

In an absolutely loaded class of sophomore backs — Cook, Leonard Fournette (LSU), Royce Freeman (Oregon), Wayne Gallman (Clemson), Samaje Perine (Oklahoma), Jalen Hurd (Tennessee) and Heisman finalist Christian McCaffrey, to name a few — Hood finds himself in the mix.

Expect the former high-profile recruit to be a focal point in 2016.

4. Can Larry Fedora maintain in improving Coastal Division?

The ACC Coastal looks loaded in the coaching department.

With Fedora successfully turning around his second program and longtime FBS staples Paul Johnson and David Cutcliffe and impressive first-year Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi already in place, the division added Mark Richt, Justin Fuente and Bronco Mendenhall to the coaching mix this offseason. If the results match the coaching resumes, can Fedora & Co. maintain their place atop the division?

The good news is that the Tar Heels are still separated from the conference's two long-standing recruiting powers, Clemson and Florida State, but as we've learned in recent seasons: Since Virginia Tech's decline, no program has been able to repeat as Coastal champs.

North Carolina has some work to do if it wants to break that trend.