UNC Football: Five things to watch in nighttime rivalry clash with UVA
We’re almost there.
Tomorrow night at 6:30 p.m. on The CW, college football fans will tune in to witness UNC host UVA in its third consecutive home game. The Tar Heels provide offensive fireworks seemingly every game – first, those fireworks came in the forms of running backs British Brooks and Omarion Hampton, while Tar Heel Nation got to experience the Drake Maye-Devontez Walker connection we’ve all been waiting for last weekend.
UNC is also 6-0, which creates a massive target on its back. Outside of App State, the Tar Heels have downed opponents with relative ease. Into Chapel Hill comes a struggling, 1-5 UVA squad that just nabbed its first win two weekends ago.
On paper, tomorrow night should go down as an easy win for the Tar Heels. We said the same thing last year against Georgia Tech – Carolina was ranked, the Yellow Jackets struggled to find consistent rhythm.
Georgia Tech marched right into Kenan Stadium and dealt UNC its first of four straight losses.
If Carolina had taken care of the Yellow Jackets, who knows if the season would’ve ended differently? We could spend all day guessing, but we’re turning our focus over to UVA.
This Tar Heels team is too smart to play down to its competition, but we’ll just have to wait and see. While we wait, let’s look at five areas of focus.
Does UNC assert its dominance early?
Last weekend against Miami, the Tar Heels trailed 17-14 at half.
This was unlike the UNC team we’d watched so far this year, which historically dominated the second quarter.
Would Carolina players allow doubts to creep into their minds? What if they weren’t able to rally?
Whatever head coach Mack Brown said to his players in the locker room must’ve lit a fire, because UNC looked like a much different team in the second half. The Tar Heel scored 24 consecutive points and ended up with a 41-31 victory.
If Carolina fails to get in an offensive rhythm early, UVA could make it pay. After all, the Cavaliers are an angry, 1-5 team looking to prove they’re better than their record shows.
What does Devontez Walker do for an encore?
The Devontez Walker hype is real.
Walker, the Kent State transfer expected to step up as UNC’s top wide receiver, had to wait four games for him to be ruled eligible by the NCAA.
Two weeks ago, Walker caught six passes for 43 yards. Last weekend against Miami (FL), he dominated the receiving game with 132 receiving yards and three touchdowns, on just SIX catches.
What will Walker do this time around?
Can the Carolina defense turn in another strong performance?
The Tar Heels held Miami to just 17 points through three quarters last weekend, mightily impressive considering they faced the likes of Tyler Van Dyke and the Hurricanes’ deep rushing attack.
Miami put a little scare into UNC, scoring 14 fourth-quarter points, but its deficit was too deep to overcome.
Don’t let the Hurricanes’ late outburst detract from how good Carolina’s defense has been. The Tar Heels held Syracuse to just seven points the week prior, Minnesota to just 13 points in Week 3, plus 17 to South Carolina in Week 1.
UVA’s offense is not nearly as high-powered as Miami’s, but that doesn’t mean Carolina can slack off. I fully expect another strong defense outing from UNC, like holding the Cavaliers to under 20 points.
UVA is better than its record shows
Yes, UVA is not a great football team this year.
But they’re also not 1-5 bad.
The Cavaliers got walloped by Tennessee, 49-13, in Week 1, then handled by Maryland, 42-14, two weeks later. Both Tennessee and Maryland are pretty good teams – ones who don’t lose. by four touchdowns.
You take away those two lopsided losses – UVA’s other three losses (James Madison, N.C. State, Boston College) are by a combined eight points.
If UNC wins big, how far will it move up in the rankings?
As the Tar Heels have taken down opponent-after-opponent this season, they seem to move up in the AP Poll.
Last week, UNC made one of the more significant jumps across college football, jumping national power Alabama. The Tar Heels currently sit at 10th, while the Crimson Tide are 11th.
First off, UNC has to take care of Virginia in convincing fashion to have any chance of moving up the polls. The Heels do, however, have the chance to jump several teams in front of them.
Archrival Duke is traveling to Florida State (fourth). Washington State, which was previously ranked, travels to Oregon (ninth). A major game to watch, Ohio State-Penn State, pits the third and seventh-ranked teams against each other. With a Nittany Lions loss and UNC win, the Tar Heels could jump the pride of Happy Valley.
Oklahoma (sixth) hosts UCF, Texas (eighth) travels to Houston and Michigan (second) travels to Michigan State, but the likelihood of the above three teams losing is slim-to-none.
