Gwinnett Daily Post

ATLANTA - While many of Georgia Tech's offensive and defensive questions were alleviated to an extent in Saturday's 24-7 win over North Carolina, at least one more arose.

The kicking game, which had been solid behind Scott Blair through the Yellow Jackets' first three games this season, had a rough day.

Blair, who had connected on 5 of 7 field goal attempts and 9 of 10 extra points coming into the game, missed on two chip shot field goal attempts - one from 27 yards and the other from 37 yards.

He also committed other cardinal sins by sending two kickoffs out of bounds, thus giving the Tar Heels possession at the 40-yard line both times.

Redshirt freshman walk-on Chris Tanner was brought on to kick the point after Tech's final touchdown of the day with 4:10 left to play, and coach Paul Johnson hinted that may not be the last seen of the Norcross grad.

"I don't know. We might (see more of Tanner)," Johnson said. "We've got to be able to make chippy field goals, and we can't be kicking the ball out of bounds."

Revvin' up the Diesel

With a 13-yard run on his first carry of the game, Jonathan Dwyer moved past the 2,000-yard mark for his career.

He is only the 10th running back in Tech history to surpass the 2,000-yard plateau.

His 158 yards for the game moved him past William Bell into ninth place on Tech's all-time rushing list with 2,157 yards.

He needs just 117 more yards to catch eighth-place David Sims, but he still has plenty of work to do before approaching all-time leader Robert Lavette's mark of 4,066 career yards.

Dozen for Burnett

Morgan Burnett's two interceptions were the 12th and 13th of his career, moving him past four other players - including Parkview grad Jeremy Muyres - and into a tie with three more for fourth on Tech's all-time list.

"It feels great," Burnett said. "A lot of good (defensive backs) have come through here like Ken Swilling (one of those tied with Burnett for fourth) and Willie Clay (the leader with 16 career picks). It's a big honor and accomplishment."

Taking their time

The Jackets took a little longer to get on the board Saturday than fans at Bobby Dodd Stadium have become accustomed to.

After scoring on its first offensive snap in the opener against Jacksonville State and on the second snap against Clemson, it took Tech nine whole plays before finding the end zone on Roddy Jones' 13-yard run.

More slow starting

Speaking of slow starts, North Carolina continued its recent history of slow starts in the ACC race.

Saturday's loss was the Tar Heels' ninth straight in conference openers. The last time they won their initial ACC game of a season was in 2000 with a win over Wake Forest.

Help for Bay-Bay

The two receptions for Stephen Hill were the first two to a Tech wide receiver other than Thomas all season.

Hill, a freshman from Miller Grove High School in nearby DeKalb County, finished with 38 yards on the two catches in his first career start.

"It's real big," Hill said. "Bay-Bay (Thomas) is a really good receiver, and (everyone) knows he'll get to the ball. I'm just glad to get some receptions to help get defenders off Bay-Bay."