Ate Em Up Winner vs. Vanderbilt

Since day 1 we've all heard about Nick Emmanwori, but as the season has gone on, there's been another freshman who's name has started being mentioned more and more for making big plays on the Defense.

Similar to Emmanwori, this guy didn't have a ton of offers coming out of High School, but this staff has a tremendous evaluation process, and it looks like they've hit another one out of the park.

Saturday, in the first half, when we needed a play, this man stepped up and made it ... twice.

The lesser talked about play came on 4th and 4 late in the 2nd quarter. Carolina was up 10 with about 3 and a half minutes to play, but Vandy was driving and just outside of the redzone. Vandy's QB dropped back, got presser, scrambled, and then let one fly to a receiver inside the 10.

With the play being as wild as it was, the ball was actually thrown very well, on target, and would have been a huge completion to set up Vandy for a 1st and goal from about the 6. This guy had other plans though. As the receiver was high-pointing the ball, he reached up (without causing pass interference), and knocked the ball away to not only keep Vandy out of the endzone but to give our Offense the ball back.

Then, of course the more talked about play...

With a little over a minute in the 1st, Carolina up a single touchdown. Vandy has the ball on their own 20 on 1st and 10.

The ball was snapped, and he broke down from his CB position to rush the passer. It looked like the QB was going to try to get rid of it, so he stutter stepped a few times, in what looked like a strange bird matting ritual dance. The QB decided to tuck it and try to get some yards ...

... but DQ Smith ATE EM UP for the sack fumble to give our Offense a short field to play.

Two plays early in the game that get a bit lost a lot of times, because it wasn't at the very end, but these two plays took points away from Vandy and resulted in points for us. First on the 4th down break up, and then with the forced fumble giving our Offense less than 20 yards to go to the endzone.

And that's why, DQ Smith is the Ate Em Up winner against Vanderbilt.