UNC Football early opponent preview: Virginia Cavaliers
Keeping It Heel takes a look at each of the UNC Tar Heels football opponents in reverse order. This week we take a look at Virginia.
NC State | Western Carolina | Pittsburgh | Miami | Virginia Tech
The UNC-Virginia game is known as the South’s Oldest Rivalry. The two teams have played each other every year since 1919, an ACC record 117 times.
UNC is 62-54-4 all-time in the rivalry.
Additionally, the Tar Heels have won the last seven meetings against Virginia by an average score of 35-15.
Will UNC be able to make it eight in a row this season?
Head Coach: Bronco Mendenhall. Career Record 101-53 (2-10 at Virginia). This will be his second season at Virginia and his second head coaching stop.
Mendenhall was previously the head coach at BYU where he made a bowl game in each of his 11 seasons with the Cougars. He failed to make a bowl game in his first season with the Cavaliers.
Best Former Player: RB Tiki Barber. Three-time Pro Bowler and one-time All-Pro, Career rushed for 10,449 yards and 55 touchdowns.
Barber holds 16 New York Giants franchise records and is the franchise’s career rushing leader in attempts and yards. Barber’s yardage is good for 26th all-time, just one spot behind fellow Cavaliers running back Thomas Jones.
Second Best Former Player: TE Heath Miller. Two-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champion (Super Bowls XL, XLIII), has 592 receptions for 6,569 yards and 45 touchdowns in his career.
Miller ranks in the top 10 in receiving and top 20 for touchdowns among tight ends.
Last Season: Went 2-10 (1-7 in ACC play) and finished tied for sixth in the Coastal Division. The Cavaliers season highlights include a two-game winning streak that included their second consecutive victory over the Duke Blue Devils.
The season also included a seven-game losing streak to end the season. That streak was emphatically stamped by a 52-10 thudding to rival Virginia Tech. The season also marked the fifth straight year the Cavaliers failed to reach a bowl game.
This Season: Eight of their opponents finished last season with a winning record and nine of them made a bowl game.
Virginia also has some huge questions at running back where 94 percent of their rushing yards graduated. Sound familiar Tar Heels fans.
Last season I predicted three wins for Virginia, and if not for an abysmal showing against UConn that may have been the case. This season should see some improvement but a 4-8 record is probably all the team will have to show for it.
Best Current Player: QB Kurt Benkert. Last season he threw for 2552 yards and 21 touchdowns. Benkert is one of only two returning quarterbacks in the Coastal Division.
He ranked 11th in passing yards and seventh in touchdowns in the ACC for 2016. However, he also ranked second in interceptions thrown.
In the game against the Tar Heels last season, Benkert completed 19 of 32 passes for 126 yards. The 126 yards were the second lowest of the season. The UNC game was also only one of two contests where Benkert failed to throw a touchdown.
Match-up: Saturday, October 14th in Chapel Hill
Prediction: This is the first of four consecutive games against teams in the Coastal for UNC. It is also probably the easiest of the four. With the game at home, there is no reason to expect a different outcome for either the Cavaliers or the Tar Heels.
Final score: UNC 42, Virginia 21.
The only thing Virginia really has going in this game is a returning quarterback. Considering he was only alright last season and played poorly at home against UNC, it is not enough of an edge.
UNC should easily win this game and feel confident going into their toughest stretch of the season. However, if my predictions hold true, this might be the high point of this Tar Heel team.
Of course, that is why they call them predictions, one never knows what might just happen.