North Carolina has not lost since its week 1 stinker against South Carolina.
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As has become the norm this season when the Tar Heels play at home, the fourth quarter was strictly a formality. “I came to practice with a mindset this week that we were going to come out and win this football game”. Last week they defeated Pittsburgh to take sole possession of first place in the Coastal division and will have to do the same to Duke this week to maintain that spot. Coach Cutcliffe should be circling the wagons and letting his team know they are being disrespected following last week’s loss to Miami. From the early looks of it, Williams can really shoot the ball, which is something the Tar Heels have lacked outside of Paige the last few years.
This is the first time this matchup between schools known for their basketball programs has had big time meaning in football in a while. Chizik’s defense has looked so good that suddenly there has been a ton of talk about when and where he will get his next head coaching gig.
Two freshmen were also honored by the ACC with midfielder Taylor Racioppi and forward Kayla McCoy joining the All-ACC Freshman team.
The biggest thing to takeaway from the rebounding was the Tar Heels ability to limit Guilford’s second chances on the offensive end. Defense is, therefore, the key for Duke to put this one in the bag, but the Tar Heels should be talented enough to make that hard.
North Carolina’s quarterback Marquise Williams is similar to Sirk in that he does a little bit of everything. He’s arguably the second-best quarterback in the ACC right now and one of the more underrated signal callers in the country.
The win sends Virginia to the semifinals, where it will face top-seeded Syracuse on Friday at 1 p.m.
It’s no surprise that UNC’s offense has found its groove and is humming along. The Tar Heels enter this one ranked 13th nationally in pass efficiency defense and 16th in scoring defense (17 points per game) in a significant one-year turnaround from last year’s struggles.
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Williams has led a passing attack that ranks 39 in the nation with 259.8 yards per game while joining up with running back Elijah Hood to lead a rushing attack that ranks 25 in the nation with 210.1 yards per game. While many knock the Tar Heels recruiting class, which may be deserved, these two are off to a nice start. What a hard-fought game and a gritty performance by our team, and their team as well.
