3 Predictions for UNC Football program's home game against James Madison

North Carolina will score more than 6.5 points

James Madison has held its opponents to seven and six points, respectively, this season. The Dukes shouldn't get too comfortable with that kind of defensive dominance.

The Tar Heels are averaging 34 points per game, and this is while never playing one quarterback per game. Fortunately, Mack Brown has been able to rely on cheat code Omarion Hampton, as well as Davion Gause during the Charlotte game when Hampton sat. That alone will prevent JMU from holding North Carolina to a single score.

The big kink that the UNC football program needs to sort out before embarking on ACC play is the passing attack. Through three games, North Carolina does not have an authentic touchdown pass to a wide receiver (Christian Hamilton had a touchdown grab on a gimmick play against Charlotte). Bryson Nesbit and John Copenhaver have one each, and that's not nothing, but North Carolina's offense has lost the verticality that made it so dangerous when Sam Howell and Drake Maye were under center.

It's unfair to expect Max Johnson, Conner Harrell, or Jacolby Criswell to step into the quarterback job and just keep throwing bombs like their predecessors, but sooner or later, the offense will suffocate without the deep pass. Better teams in the ACC will stack the box and Omarion Hampton can do a lot, but he can't drag the UNC football program's offense all by himself if the safeties don't respect the deep pass.

Look for North Carolina to start shaking the cobwebs off the deep pass. J.J. Jones has been somewhat anonymous so far this season. It'd be great for the senior wideout to start finding the endzone before the Duke game.