CHAPEL HILL – Saturday may be just the third game of the season, but it is a huge one for North Carolina if the Tar Heels are going to achieve their stated mission of winning the ACC Coastal Division.
UNC is 0-1 in league play with its season-opening loss at Virginia Tech, so the 21st-ranked Tar Heels must defeat a quality Virginia club that has been dominant through its first two games.
The Cavaliers venture to Kenan Stadium sitting at 2-0 having outscored William & Mary and Illinois by a combined score of 85-14. They have allowed an average of 260 total yards per game and a third-down conversion rate of 29 percent (9-for-31). Quarterback Brennan Armstrong has thrown for 744 yards, seven touchdowns, and an interception.
UVA QB Brennan Armstrong is a tricky player, and not just because he’s lefthanded and can sling the ball around. He is quick, decisive, and is fearless. He ran for 66 yards and a score against the Tar Heels last season and picked up 31 on a handful of attempts last weekend versus Illinois. Five Cavaliers have at least five receptions and three have seven or more. Thompson and Billy Kemp each lead the team with 10 catches.
UNC’s coaches and players were asked a lot of questions this week about the Wahoos, so here is some of what they had to say about the quirky-but-effective UVA club:
Mack Brown
“It’s basically the same team we’ve played for the last two years, with only the quarterback change from last year. Brennan Armstrong played against us last year and did a great job. He’s just a winner. He’s tough, he smart, he can throw the ball well in the pocket, but he can scramble and make plays downfield as well.
“They’ve got all five starters back from an offensive line that has 121 starts, and they rushed for 210 yards against us last year and held us to (93). They were more physical than we were, and we had to battle just to hang in the game. The game for the last two years has been good and it’s come down to the last drive.”
UVA employs a different kind of offense than most teams. It’s excellent in the skill positions and veteran up front.
“They’re very unique in their offense… They do a lot of stuff. I don’t know how they practice it all. We’ve got to be us and just go play. If you spend all your time trying to trace the eye candy and all the stuff moving around, you’re not going to do a very good job. It still gets back to being sound and what they’ve done the last two years. Been more physical than we were last year for sure. And I think it’s more about how you play than all of the things that you’re doing, so you’ve just gotta play.”
On needing to be disciplined versus UVA’s offense
“You’ve got to be really, really careful not to use it as eye candy and get off your fundamentals. You’ve got to still line up and play when the ball is snapped. So don’t get yourself in a position where you’re confused and you’re looking for this and that. There’s still going to be a run or a pass and you still gotta block and you still gotta tackle. Don’t let all the window dressing and the eye candy screw with your mind. Just line up and play, and that’s the most important thing.”
Phil Longo, OC
On how UVA identified some things that needed fixing on defense in the offseason and made some adjustments.
“They’ve done a really good job from a staff standpoint schematically of taking away the things that people were picking on them for last year. Where people had success last year, they’re doing some different things. I don’t know their personnel situation, but typically with that kind of approach with the three down, and you’re more safety heavy, you typically have better personnel at that position.
"I would guess that they are much more talented maybe in the safety room, in the defensive backs room right now than they may be in comparison to the defensive line. They’re approach right now is not only answering some of the weaknesses that they had last year, but also probably playoff towards their strengths.
“We think that their very gifted at safety, they’re very gifted at nickel, they’re stat safety, which is they’re middle safety, number twenty-nine, is a very, very good football player. They’ve got a lot of really good athletes that can close ground and make plays in the open field, they tackle well in the open field. To me, they’ve improved their defense schematically, and I think they’re playing to their strengths personnel-wise.”
Jay Bateman, DC
UVA uses a lot of looks and motions to throw off opposing defenses, including occasionally lining up different players at quarterback.
"I think what you try to do is you try to look and say, 'Okay, we had problems with these things before on defense,' and how does that fit with how they attack us. You try to self-scout yourself a little bit. Obviously, it's going to make you have to try to do less things; I think that's what they do. You look at Illinois, and Illinois quickly got into one call. Virginia's got really good players. They know exactly what call you're in. They can run really good plays, so I think that's gonna be a part of it too."
The Cavaliers have averaged 42.5 points per game so far, with seven TDs coming through the air. They appear more dynamic than last year.
"I think they are throwing it better for sure. (I) think they're a little more talented on the outside at receiver than I remember them. The tight end, the transfer tight end, I think he's a really, really good player. I think on offense when you got a veteran o-line that's physical and does a good job, and I think they do. And then you got a quarterback who I think is a tremendous player who could do everything; that's a pretty way to start. They run a lot of crazy stuff, they got a good plan, and we got to play really, really well to have a chance."
UVA QB Brennan Armstrong has plenty of different skills and is off to a great start to the season.
“I was watching their Illinois game before our game on Saturday and (UVA) Coach (Bronco) Mendenhall said, and this is kind of what I thought about him for a year now. I think probably growing up when you play pickup basketball or, backyard football or whatever sport you wanted to play. Probably if you picked him, your team is going to win. He's that kind of guy, so I think he's a really competitive kid, I think he does everything really well.
“The thing I see from him now versus when you played him a year ago is I do feel like he's got a really complete grasp of where the ball should go in the throw game. Where I feel like last year there were a couple of times, we were able to kind of tilt the coverage a little bit. Maybe he didn't see it as much as he does now, so I think there's that, but he's a tremendous player. They run him, they throw it to him, they do a lot with him. If he got hurt, they couldn’t replace him, he's that kind of guy. So we're going to have to do a really good job of trying to create pressure on with as few players as possible and try to find a way to confuse him a little bit.
“But I think he’s a tremendous player. My first year we played them, and they had (Bryce)Perkins who was a really good player. They're getting all the same run, strength from the quarterback from that, but the throw game is so much better, they have a really good offense.”
Kaimon Rucker, Sophomore OLB
On the need to be disciplined versus UVA’s offense
"For the past couple of years, Virginia's always been like that. They've always been lining up in some funky formations. Just as a defense, we just gotta really lock-in. They give us a lot of eye candy. They give us a lot of formations, a lot of different guys in a lot of different places. They got a lot of guys lining up at quarterback, and wide receiver, and tight ends, and all these different scenarios.
“But really we just gotta focus on ourselves as a defense. We gotta playbook, they gotta playbook and we just got to abide by what we were given. As many different looks, they're gonna give us this week, and as many different looks, they've given other different teams.
“We're just doing it like every other team would if they were facing a funky formation type team. We're watching film, we're getting game plans, we are structuring for each scenario. And we just gonna get after it this weekend."
Myles Murphy, Sophomore DL
UVA ran for 210 yards last season defeating the Tar Heels, it included 66 from QB Brennan Armstrong.
“I think about the things would could have done better. They ran a lot with he quarterbacks last year, and we’ve prepared more for that as we’ve been practicing. We plan to just shut down the run and shut down the pass.”
Sam Howell, Junior QB
UNC has lost close games to UVA the last two years. Howell was asked about that.
“We’ve come up short the past two years. What we’ve learned is they’re a good football team and are going to fight to the end. They’ve got a lot of really good players, and they play really hard from start to finish. We’ve got to be able to sustain a full game and just play consistently.”
