North Carolina vs. Notre Dame
Tar Heels - 9 vs. Fighting Irish
Notre Dame rides into Chapel Hill, North Carolina with a large chip on their Irish shoulder. The Irish have started a season with only one loss in five games 27 times before 2008 and each time they reached this feat, they were ranked.
The 4-1 Fighting Irish are still unranked which is causing some to raise their eyebrows. One can only look at Notre Dame’s schedule thus far to cause the eyebrow to fall into line. With the exception of the sub-.500 Michigan Wolverines, the Irish have failed to have a dominating performance this season.
Besides Michigan, the Irish have beaten Stanford 28-21, San Diego State 21-13 and Purdue 38-21. While the Purdue score may seem lopsided, the Irish scored some late points to salt the game away. Lastly, the only team to beat Notre Dame this season is Michigan State who is ranked for the first time this season at number 23.
This clearly leaves no room for Notre Dame. A win over a surprising North Carolina on the road will go along way to achieving a number, however.
North Carolina (4-1) has a number, number 22 to be exact. This is the first time in seven years that the Tar Heels have been in the Top 25. North Carolina claimed their fame with a 38-12 victory over a previously ranked Connecticut last week. 4-1 and number 22 is quite a pair of numbers for the Tar Heels considering they went 4-8 last season.
What is even more amazing is that NC has used a previous third-string signal caller in their success. Cameron Sexton went a modest 9 for 16 for 117 yards and one touchdown. Much like how Ben Rothlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers win, with solid yet unspectacular quarterback play while maintaining a solid defense and special teams, the Tar Heel defense picked three Husky and blocked three punts on special teams.
Notre Dame has had a turnaround of its own in 2008. With the 28-21 victory over Stanford last Saturday, the Irish already surpassed their 2007 win total.
Not only will Notre Dame have to contend with Sexton, they will also attempt to coral Shaun Draughn, who ran for 109 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries, a career high, in the victory over U-Conn.
The Tar Heel’s big concern will be the quarterback play of Jimmy Clausen. The sophomore had one of the better games of his career against the Cardinal last Saturday throwing for 347 yards and three touchdowns. NC can key on the Irish passing game since Notre Dame is averaging only 103.6 per game for the season.
Notre Dame has a comfortable lead, 16-1, in the series. The Tar
Heels lone victory came in 1960 and they have dropped six straight to
the Irish since then. The teams met in 2006 in South Bend, but prior
to that had been strangers since 1975.
InSpin.com
