Carolina’s Brown knows it’s not easy to win in Charlottesville

By Jerry Ratcliffe

Don’t tell Mack Brown that his Tar Heels are a 7-point favorite heading into Saturday night’s game in Charlottesville. He’s heard that before.

Brown, who is in his second stint as North Carolina’s coach (the first was from 1988 to 1997), knows that beating Virginia at Scott Stadium isn’t easy. His UNC teams lost all six games they played at UVA during his first tenure in Chapel Hill.

None were more devastating than the 1996 trip to Charlottesville. The No. 6-ranked Tar Heels were seemingly headed to the Fiesta Bowl and took a 17-3 lead over the Cavaliers, but never scored again.

Freshman defensive back Antwan Harris returned a Chris Keldorf interception 95 yards for a touchdown to get within seven points, giving the Cavaliers momentum to pull off a 20-17 upset. Then-UVA defensive coordinator Rick Lantz had scouted the Tar Heels well and had a 100-percent conviction where the pass was going to go. He called over Harris to the sideline and said, “Son, they are going to throw the ball right to this spot (drawn on a chalkboard). Can you be at this spot?”

Harris acknowledged he could and was at the exact spot Lantz told him the pass would be thrown. Harris picked it off and changed the game in the blink of an eye.

“Anybody that says we’re going to go up there and kill Virginia doesn’t know very much about football, No. 1, but they also don’t know very much about Virginia,” Brown said.

The Carolina coach told his team over the weekend to put the rout over rival NC State to rest and to begin focusing on UVA. He asked three questions.

“Are we going to match [Virginia’s] excitement?”

“Are we going to play well at 8 p.m.?”

“Are we going to stop a running quarterback?”

UNC is 4-1 and riding high, while the Cavaliers’ backs are against the wall. UVA has lost four in a row and can’t afford to lose Saturday night.

Brown wasn’t happy that his team didn’t play well in an 8 o’clock start at Florida State two weeks ago. The Seminoles had been simply awful until that game and Brown said his team didn’t respond, didn’t appear focused.

Carolina practices early during the week, so a noon or early afternoon start is much easier to deal with than waiting until 8 p.m. and finishing at 11 o’clock at the earliest.

Then there’s the running quarterback thing. UNC struggled with that aspect last season when Virginia’s Bryce Perkins rushed for more than 100 yards and threw for over 300. It was Perkins’ runs that killed the Tar Heels and Brown hasn’t forgotten that.

Not only did Carolina have a difficult time stopping running quarterbacks last year, it hasn’t managed that situation well this season either. Virginia has three – count ‘em, three – running quarterbacks in starter Brennan Armstrong and backups Keytaon Thompson and Ira Armstead.

Brown also knows that Bronco Mendenhall’s team will be ready for a fight.

“I’ve known Bronco a long time, we served on the AFCA board together and I coached against his BYU teams when I was at Texas,” Brown said. “Bronco’s teams play hard every time I’ve ever seen them, even when I was on TV (Brown was a television football commentator for six years in between Texas and his return to Carolina). That’s the trait of a good coach.”

Virginia’s defense played much better in last Saturday night’s loss at Miami, but still gave up too many explosive plays. In fact, the Cavaliers’ defense has given up the second-most explosive plays in the ACC so far this season (36 plays over 20 yards).

Brown pointed out that his offense scored five times on seven trips inside the red zone against NC State, all five on running plays and boasted two backs with more than 100 yards rushing in that game. He also was pleased that his skill players broke 27 tackles in that game, an impressive figure by any offense.

Still, the Tar Heels have been vulnerable on defense, giving up an average of 25 points and 375 yards of total offense per game. Carolina, which has had a banged up secondary much like Virginia, is ranked No. 59 the country in passing yards allowed, the most concerning aspect of the defense according to Brown.

Mendenhall acknowledged that in his opinion, North Carolina is better, particularly on offense, than it was last year when the Cavaliers upset the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill.

Since 1983, Carolina has only won 4 times in 19 trips to Charlottesville in the South’s Oldest Rivalry.

Brown predicted that the 125th meeting between Carolina and Virginia will be an emotional affair.

The Cavaliers must bring a season-high of intensity into this game if they want to re-establish their home field pride.