UNC vs. Syracuse: Game preview, info, prediction and more
As the college football season keeps pressing on, the better UNC is playing.
After narrowly surviving a scare from App State in Week 2, the Heels bounced back with convincing wins against Minnesota and Pitt. Nate McCollum properly introduced himself to the Tar Heel faithful with a 15-catch, 165-yard, 1-touchdown performance against Minnesota, while Drake Maye was the talk of college football highlights with his one-handed touchdown throw vs. Pitt.
UNC, coming off its bye week, will face a Syracuse program recently dealt its first loss by Clemson. ‘Cuse kept it close initally, trailing only 14-7 after the opening quarter, yet the visiting Tigers expanded their lead to 17 entering the fourth quarter. Syracuse quarterback Garrett Shrader was sacked five times, while the Orange fumbled it on three more occasions.
Carolina can attack you in a variety of ways.
Maye can beat you with his strong, accurate arm or escape pressure with his running ability. He has 1,187 passing yards, five passing touchdowns and four interceptions, while adding 119 rushing yards and three ground scores. Omarion Hampton burst onto the scene with his monster performance against App State – he now leads the Heels with 383 rushing yards and seven scores. There’s a new receiver leading the charge every week, whether it be Kobe Paysour, Nate McCollum or J.J. Jones.
Oh, and did we mention the defense isn’t half-bad this year? See the 9-sack performance against South Carolina.
Syracuse has a very similar style of play to UNC – high-scoring and the ability to attack through the air or on the ground. Shrader has 1,148 passing yards, eight passing touchdown and four interceptions, while LeQuint Allen and Shrader give the Orange a pair of 300-yard rushers.
Syracuse only played one Power 5 team before Clemson, when it traveled to Purdue on Saturday, Sept. 16 and won 35-20. Orange victories against Colgate (65-0), Western Michigan (48-7) and Army (29-16) are nonetheless impressive, but those opponents aren’t nearly as challenging as South Carolina, App State, Michigan and Pitt.
Let’s take a deeper dive into Saturday’s matchup, which is set for 3:30 p.m. in Chapel Hill.
Key to victory for UNC
All the talk surrounding UNC’s offense in Weeks 1 and 2 involved running backs British Brooks and Omarion Hampton. Brooks tallied over 100 yards against South Carolina in his first game since 2023, while Hampton followed the next week with a nation-leading 234-yard performance.
Since then, it’s been the Drake Maye show. Maye threw for over 400 yards in a bounceback performance against Minnesota, then nearly hit the 300-yard marker vs. Pitt.
If UNC wants to continue its best start since 1997, it’ll need a balanced attack against a Syracuse team that hasn’t allowed an opponent to score more than 20 points per game. The Orange defense, among the ACC’s leaders with just 297.2 opponent yards per game, can easily play spoiler if the Tar Heels aren’t careful.
Something to watch
You don’t know what you’ll get from UNC’s defense week-to-week, but fans are starting to suddenly feel more confident about this unit.
The Tar Heels sack South Carolina quarterback Spencer Rattler nine times in Week 1, then limited Minnesota’s Athas Kaliakmanis to 11 completions in Week 3. Last weekend against Pitt, UNC didn’t allow a passing touchdown or 100-yard rusher.
Carolina’s lone defensive outlier was against App State, a team starting its then-backup-turned-starting-quarterback Joey Agulilar. The Mountaineers torched UNC’s defense for nearly 500 yards, something concerning with App’s loss of offensive weapons in the offseason.
The Heels are going to have a tough time containing Garrett Shrader, so they’ll need to neutralize him and stop him when they can.
What you need to know
WHAT? North Carolina Tar Heels (4-0) vs. Syracuse University (4-2)
WHEN? Saturday, Oct. 7, 3:30 p.m. EST
WHERE? Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill, NC
TV? ESPN (Watch and stream the game live on WatchESPN)
RADIO? Tar Heel Sports Network
WEATHER? 68 degrees, partly cloudy, 11 mph winds
LINE? UNC -8
LAST MEETING? 2020, UNC 31-6
ALL-TIME SERIES? Tied, 3-3
PREDICTION? UNC 27, Syracuse 25
