3 Predictions for the UNC Football program's game at Virginia

North Carolina will sell out to stop the run

Mack Brown is on his third defensive coordinator, former Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins. He came in with the pedigree and SEC experience running defenses that gave UNC fans hope that if paired with a typical Tar Heel offense, they could protect leads.

So far, that hasn't been the case and North Carolina is still trying to shake off the "soft" reputation its earned over the years.

Virginia has the running backs and a dual-threat quarterback in sophomore Anthony Colandrea to cause Carolina problems. But the Cavaliers have had tough sledding in their last three games, the two most recent losses. They averaged 2.3 yards per rush against Clemson, 4.1 against Louisville, and 3.3 against Boston College.

If UNC even dreams of winning this game, they need to keep that average to 4 yards per rush or less. The 7.7 ypr against Georgia Tech is an outlier of sorts because of all the long runs, but in their four losses, the lowest average they surrendered was 4.5 against Duke. Victory will be found in the trenches.