2018 UNC Football Early Opponent Preview: Western Carolina
Keeping It Heel takes a look at each of the UNC football opponents in reverse order. This week we take a look at Western Carolina.
Previous Team Previews:
Last season the North Carolina Tar Heels won three games, which resulted in a pretty disappointing season for the faithful fans.
During that 3-9 season, UNC’s only home win came against Western Carolina. Can the Tar Heels make it two seasons in a row against the small FCS school from Cullowhee, North Carolina?
Head Coach: Mark Speir. Career Record 26-43. This will be his seventh season at Western Carolina which is his only head coaching stop.
Speir has won at least seven games in three of his past four seasons as head coach of the Catamounts.
Best Former Player: DE Clyde Simmons, four-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro team member, career 121.5 sacks, three interceptions, and two touchdowns.
Simmons led the NFL in sacks in 1992 with 19. He ranks 20th all time in total sacks in a career.
Second Best Former Player: WR David Patten, three-time Super Bowl Champion with the New England Patriots, career 324 receptions for 4,715 yards and 24 touchdowns.
Last Season: Went 7-5 (5-3 in Southern Conference play). Finished fourth in the Southern Conference behind three teams that were all ranked and made the FCS playoffs.
The Catamounts opened the season winning six of their first seven games including a big home win over a ranked Samford team. They also ranked in the FCS 25 for six-straight weeks reaching as high as 18th.
However, they didn’t finish strong losing three of their last four and failing to make the playoffs (WCU has never made the FCS playoffs). The Catamounts also lost their two FBS games by a combined score of 106-28.
This Season: Only three of their opponents finished last season with a winning record and they only play one FBS opponent this season. However, with only one of their three toughest games at home, they could be looking at yet another season in which they miss the postseason.
Despite that Western Carolina should see some big improvements and have a real shot at finishing 7-4, if not 8-3.
Best Current Player: QB Tyrie Adams. Last season Adams had a pretty good year finishing in the top 50 in FCS in passing yards with 2294 yards and top 25 with 22 touchdowns.
Adams was also a threat on the ground rushing 155 times for 746 yards and two more scores.
Adams gave the Tar Heels trouble early as the game was tied 7-7 after the first quarter, including an early 7-0 lead for the Catamounts. However, he couldn’t sustain that dominance as UNC pulled away with a 35-0 second quarter.
Adams finished the game with 118 total yards and a score before being replaced by Ray Smith in the second half.
Match-up: Saturday, November 17th in Chapel Hill.
Prediction: Last season I picked the Tar Heels to win 56-14. The final score was 65-10. So this year lets split the difference.
Final score: UNC 63, Western Carolina 13.
Larry Fedora may not have the best record against the top teams in the nation, but he finds ways to beat the bad teams, especially FCS squads. In his six seasons, Fedora is 8-0 against FCS schools winning by an average score of 57-15.
There is no reason that this season should be any different for Larry Fedora and the Tar Heels.