By Shawn Krest

Chapel Hill, NC

In his first game as North Carolina's starting quarterback, Bryn Renner was nearly perfect.

Prior to his third start, he was told not to be.

"Coach Withers sat me down and said, 'Hey, reserve the right to punt,'" Renner said after the Tar Heels moved to 3-0 with a 28-17 win over the University of Virginia.

Against James Madison in the season opener, Renner went 22 of 23, setting school and ACC records for single-game accuracy. The only pass not caught by one of his receivers was intercepted, inspiring a new imaginary record for consecutive passes without one "hitting the ground."

Renner went on to set a school record for consecutive completions in his second game, against Rutgers, but there were red flags amidst the record-setting accuracy.

Rutgers prevented three more errant Renner passes from hitting the turf by intercepting them, giving the redshirt sophomore more interceptions than incompletions through two weeks.

Two of the four picks came on third-and-long plays, where Renner was trying to make something out of nothing. The interceptions were on passes of 12, 24, 31, and 47 yards, as Renner played the lottery, trying for a big play.

Carolina coach Everett Withers simply reminded his quarterback that, given the choice, he'd rather take the incompletion any day.

"All last week, we tried to focus on that," said Renner. "In third down situations, if things aren't there, throw it away. Let our defense get out there."

"The first two games, I didn't do a good job of that," Renner added. "I did a better job against UVa."

Renner was downright scatter-armed on third down Saturday, hitting a mere 50% of his third down passes. One of his three completions was even short of the first-down marker on a third and three.

The lesson was counter-intuitive. Renner was turning the ball over trying to get something productive out of every play. What he learned instead was how to get production by wasting a play from time to time.

"Every play matters," said Renner. "But if you don't take care of the ball, they can turn it around on us."

The conservative approach paid dividends as Carolina's defense held Virginia to three points in the first half and forced three takeaways for the game.

Renner ended up a more human 15 of 21 on Saturday. His completion percentage for the season dropped by 43 points, but more importantly, he posted his first 0 in the interceptions category.

"Just like we talked about last week," said Coach Withers. "I think we went into the game with the mindset that we've got to protect the ball. We've just got to keep protecting the ball. The ball is the issue. If you've got the ball nobody can beat you."

Renner showed he'd learned his lesson. "I made the plays when they were there," he said.

"You just have to keep working on it," Withers said. "Guys got their hands on the ball and you hope they keep getting greedy about wanting to get their hands on the ball."

Greed is good, but Renner just had to learn to be greedy for the right thing.

 

Twitter: @ihavenetnews

 

Copyright © - All Rights Reserved

 

Tar Heels QB Bryn Renner Learns Not to Be Perfect