By james art 
North Carolina’s Mack Brown finally got a win over Florida State, and the Tar Heels’ turnaround now includes another emphatic win on the road.
The Tar Heels started Omarion Hampton on offense and continued to rack up sacks on defense in a 35-11 victory Saturday over the Seminoles, whose season went from bad to worse to terrible.
Hampton, the young Bull from Clayton, accounted for five touchdowns, making four and adding a fifth on a 49-yard pass from quarterback Jacoby Criswell in the fourth quarter.
Hampton became the first UNC running back to score five TDs in a game since Kelvin Bryant in 1981 when the Tar Heels followed up their big win at Virginia with another to improve to 5-4 overall and 2-3 in the ACC.
Hampton had a career-high 32 carries for 172 yards and had three receptions for 93 yards before being benched. That’s 35 touches and 265 total yards. It’s to have a day
For the record, Hampton’s scores came on runs of 1, 2, 31 and 1 yard, plus a pass from Criswell, who completed 13 of 17 for 211 yards and a touchdown in another efficient outing.
For the first time in his two coaching starts at UNC, Brown defeated his alma mater. As he said this week, nobody had beaten Bobby Bowden’s teams at Florida State in his first stint at Carolina in the 1990s, and he was 0-8 as UNC’s coach before Saturday.
The Seminoles, the 2023 ACC champions, fell to 1-8 and 1-7 in the ACC, losing their final conference game of the season.
Three takeaways from the game:
Chasing the QB
If the Tar Heels keep chasing and sacking quarterbacks at this rate, someone is going to have to come up with an appropriate nickname for the defensive front.
Consider that the Heels had 15 sacks on the season before the Virginia game. They had 10 last week, the most for UNC since 2000, and then seven against a Seminoles offensive front that seemed unable to sustain blocks — at least not enough.
UNC’s Bo Atkinson was nearly unstoppable in the first half Saturday. The 6-6 sophomore end from Raleigh was aggressive, snapping off the ball quickly and spending plenty of time roaming around FSU’s backfield, coming away with 3.5 sacks in the first half.
The Tar Heels’ D flexes in the third quarter. After quarterback Luke Kromenhoek was sacked to end their first possession of the second half — UNC’s Jahvaree Ritzie and Kaimon Rucker combined for the stop — the Seminoles went back to quarterback Brock Glenn at QB, who had the play but had a poor first down quarter.
Glenn threw a 50-yarder to completion Malik Benson, then had a 28-yard TD toss to Ja’Kee Douglas on a fourth-and-3 play. ‘Knowles added a 2-point conversion and UNC’s 21-3 run was cut to 21-11.
Early in the fourth quarter, after the Heels extended their lead to 28-11, tight end Des Evans broke up a Noles fourth down at midfield when Evans hit Glenn’s hand on a pass attempt — no sack for Evans, but a pass incompletion and a turnover of declines.
Big O delivers
UNC’s Brown said Hampton would love to get the ball on every play, not that offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey is going to do that.
However…
After the Seminoles pulled within 10 points, the Heels drove 75 yards in seven plays for a touchdown. The punt: Hampton for 43 yards, Hampton for 5, Hampton for 7, Hampton for 4, Hampton no score, Hampton no gain and then Hampton for 1 yard and a TD.
At that point in the game, Hampton had 27 carries for 159 yards and three scores — in other words, a full day’s work for most running backs for three quarters.
Hampton was stuffed in the first period on a fourth down play from the FSU 1. But it would not be denied after that.
Hampton went 49 yards on a pass from Criswell in the fourth quarter, weaving his way through the FSU defense as UNC opened up a 35-11 cushion.
Hampton likes the job. He doesn’t like to talk about it — Brown likes to joke that the nod from Hampton is about it, don’t expect a speech — but he likes to do it. The man they call the Big O wants football.
Big second quarter for UNC
The Tar Heels controlled the second quarter. Almost everything, actually.
UNC scored two touchdowns in the quarter. He had 120 total yards to FSU’s 26 and had the ball for 10:24 in the quarter.
Hampton gave the Tar Heels the lead on the third play of the quarter and scored again with another short run late in the period.
Football coaches constantly note that there are fewer possessions in today’s college game. There are when a team runs 16 plays, gains 93 yards and holds the ball for 8:11 – on one possession.
The Heels did so in the second quarter, starting the game 10:08 before halftime and ending it with 1:57 remaining. UNC converted three third down plays as the Heels took advantage of Hampton, brought freshman Darian Gause for several plays and had Criswell mix in some key finishes.
On the drive, Criswell passed Kobe Paysur, John Copenhaver, Christian Hamilton and Paul Billips II. Hampton touched the ball eight times, scoring from the 2 for a 14-3 lead.
The Heels almost scored again before the end of the quarter, but Noah Burnette was just wide of the right on a 55-yard field goal attempt on the final play.