The UNC football program was able to escape on Saturday with a wild win over Appalachian State as the game went back and forth and down to the wire. And the Tar Heels did so without their best player.
Wide receiver [autotag]Josh Downs[/autotag] missed the game with a lower-body injury, being officially ruled out just minutes before kickoff. In Downs’ absence, freshman Kobe Paysour came up big for the Tar Heels with 8 catches for 92 yards and a touchdown while J.J. Jones, D.J. Jones, and Bryson Nesbit also had receiving touchdowns in the shootout.
But now the big story going into Week 2 will be the health of Downs as UNC is a few weeks away from a showdown with Notre Dame.
Before the game, national insider Pete Thamel tweeted about Downs’ injury and labeled him ‘week-to-week’:
This is official. Just confirmed from a source that star UNC WR Josh Downs will not play today. He's considered week-to-week. https://t.co/LAULC2jkUO
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) September 3, 2022
North Carolina is set to face Georgia State on the road next week and it’s probably a game in which they can live without Downs for another week.
That would give him two additional weeks before Notre Dame comes into Chapel Hill, setting up a return for the big game. But that’s just us thinking out loud here. We should be getting some updates from Mack Brown and the staff this week.
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