North Carolina stumbled out of the gate in ACC play and fell hard last week but will have a second chance to get going today when longtime nemesis Virginia visits Kenan Stadium. Kickoff will be at noon (WXLV Ch. 7).
Cornerback Kendric Burney expects North Carolina to be sharp, motivated and possibly angry after a 24-7 loss at Georgia Tech showed a long list of shortcomings.
"We've got to play with a little bit of a chip on our shoulder," Burney said. "We're not real happy. We know exactly what we've got to do to bounce back."
North Carolina (3-1, 0-1 ACC) will be playing the first of three consecutive home games. Virginia (0-3) will be playing its ACC opener and has had the advantage of an extra week to prepare after an open date last weekend.
Coach Butch Davis of the Tar Heels has told his team to not be misled by the Cavaliers' record.
"I think they're a very dangerous football team," Davis said. "This is one of the things that we try to do with our players: Look at the film. Don't read the newspapers. Don't listen to talk radio.
"Look at the film. The film says that this is a talented, good football team."
The Tar Heels have lost three straight and nine of the past 11 against the Cavaliers.
Burney said he's confident that the Tar Heels won't take a struggling team for granted, not after the thumping it absorbed last week.
"I didn't have my guys ready at Georgia Tech," he said. "We can't blame that on anybody but ourselves. We'll bounce back and we'll fly around the ball this week. We'll definitely be ready."
Virginia has undergone significant change since the start of the season. Coach Al Groh has returned to his old offense, after a no-huddle spread failed. Jameel Sewell is back as the starting quarterback, taking over for injured Vic Hall.
Sewell had 335 yards of offense, including 312 passing, in a 37-34 loss at Southern Mississippi in Virginia's last game. Virginia ran 78 plays, and Sewell passed or ran on 69 of them.
"You have to remember that this is a player who once he did get into that type of rhythm two years ago won nine games for us," Groh said of Sewell. "We can only be positive and think that history might have a chance to continue."
One thing Virginia hasn't changed is its 3-4 defense, a formation more prevalent in the NFL than in college. Davis and Groh are former NFL coaches.
Davis said he' concerned that the Virginia defense could cause problems for a North Carolina offense struggling to run because of blocking problems. Quarterback T.J. Yates also had one of the worst days of his career at Georgia Tech.
"You don't see it," Davis said of the 3-4. "It is unique. And the people that they use to play it are unique.
"It's probably the biggest, strongest, most physical front seven certainly that we've played thus far this season. You look at their guys, and they're all 6-6, 6-7 defensive tackles and nose tackles, and they're all 310 or 315 pounds.
"They play it well. They're so structurally sound that they don't give up a lot of cheap things."
bcole@wsjournal.com
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