UNC Football vs. Miami: Preview, info, prediction and more

The UNC Football program returns to action after their big win over South Carolina as they will take on Miami at home

The North Carolina Tar Heels are hoping to carry over their success from a Week 1 win over South Carolina over to Week 2 when they take on the Miami Hurricanes. This will be UNC’s first Atlantic Coast Conference game of the year and their first home game, so better believe that Kenan Memorial Stadium will be rocking.

With Mack Brown set to play in his first home game in the second stint for the head coach, the Tar Heels are hoping to continue their momentum. It’s still early but going 2-0 and 1-0 in the conference would be huge in their attempt to turn the program around.

But it won’t be easy.

Miami has one of the better defenses in the ACC despite losing to Florida two weeks back at a neutral site. The Hurricanes were plagued by penalties in the loss to the Gators and it ended up costing them.

Freshman quarterback Jarren Williams played well in his debut, throwing for 214 yards and a touchdown while completing 63.3 percent of his passes. The Gators are supposed to have a really good defense and got to Williams for 10 sacks on the game. Still, Williams and the Hurricanes had the chance to win it but couldn’t get it done at the end.

For the Tar Heels, their freshman quarterback Sam Howell played very well especially in the second half where he led two scoring drives of 95-plus yards to help UNC win. Howell will look to build off of that performance and we should expect UNC to open up the playbook a little more.

Let’s get into our keys.

Key to the Game for UNC

Run the football effectively. The Tar Heels have a trio of running backs that showed promise in the win over South Carolina. Michael Carter got the start while Javonte Williams had 18 carries for 102 yards compared to the 16 carries and 77 yards for Carter.

Antonio Williams also saw action in the game, rushing for 53 yards on 4 carries, doing most of his work in the second half. Williams provided a big boost on his limited carries, giving UNC a three-headed monster.

Setting up the run and doing it well will also help take the pressure off of freshman quarterback Sam Howell who is making his second start. It will also help with the play action, getting the passing game going and opening up the field a little more.

It’s very likely that Carter will start again when the Tar Heels take their first snap on offense but it shouldn’t be long before we see Javonte Williams and even Antonio Williams in the backfield during the game.

Let’s see if the running backs can keep the momentum going.

Something to watch

Let’s go with the freshman Howell against Miami’s defense. In the loss to Florida, Miami’s defense created fits for Felipe Franks and probably should have won that game.

Now facing a true freshman in Howell, Miami will likely be blitzing early and often to throw the quarterback off of his game. We saw the Tar Heels keep it simple for Howell early in the game, running the ball on two third downs at the 7 and 8 yard line rather than opting to throw it.

But eventually they opened it up and let Howell throw the ball and it worked.

I’ll be curious to see what the Tar Heels do early on with Howell. Will they keep it simple? Will they open it up more? I think it’s going to depend on what Miami shows on their first drive. If the Hurricanes do blitz a lot look for Phil Longo to draw up some quick plays and get the ball out of Howell’s hands and to his receivers.

What you need to know

WHAT? Miami Hurricanes 0-1 (0-0 in ACC) at North Carolina 1-0 (0-0)
WHEN? Saturday, September 7 at  8 p.m.
WHERE? Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina
TV? ACC Network
RADIO? Tar Heels Sports Network
WEATHER? Clear skies, 79 degrees
LINE? Miami -3
ALL-TIME SERIES? Miami leads 11-9.
PREDICTION? Miami 24, UNC 23