North Carolina Tar Heels: Don’t Sleep on Qadree Ollison
The North Carolina Tar Heels trek up to Heinz Field on Thursday to play the Pitt Panthers. Both teams are undefeated in conference and the result will give the winner a leg up in deciding the Coastal Division race. Both teams are yet to play Duke, the third wheel in the Coastal right now.
The Panthers are an interesting unit. Last year they had Coach Paul Chryst running the Wisconsin offense behind running back James Conner and quarterback Chad Voytik.
Now the faces are different. Coach Pat Narduzzi is at the helm. Injury to Conner has opened the way for Qadree Ollison. Voytik has given way to Nathan Peterman. Pitt still has some of the same principles, but they try to win defense. Tyler Boyd still lurks on the outside.
Conner’s injury was a big blow to Pitt. The big back had a great combination of size and speed. He seemed uniquely designed to wreck the Tar Heels’ old 4-2-5 defensive scheme. I wrote back in September that his injury might have affected the entire Coastal Division race. It really has not played out that way. The Tar Heels should take notice.
The Panthers have merely plugged in Ollison in the gap. Is Ollison dangerous? Well he is 6’2” 230 lbs. Sound familiar? Like Conner he is not small and he is another power back. He has produced similar numbers to Elijah Hood over the course of the season. He had a 207 yard game against Youngstown State and a 122 yard game against the Hokie defense of Virginia Tech. Nine in the box Virginia Tech.
Still not impressed? Remember that the Heels have had trouble with a plethora of running backs this year. Josh Ferguson of Illinois had 133 yards. Thomas Jefferson of Delaware had 163 yards. Taquan Mizzell of Virginia was the most recent and most prevalent example. He had 117 yards on the ground and 67 more in the air. None of the teams mentioned above were above to translate ground success into victory, but they might have lacked the supporting horses.
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Pitt does not. The more Ollison grinds yards, the more likely they are to go over the top to Boyd. The Tar Heels have not seen a receiver like Boyd since Pharoh Cooper at South Carolina. South Carolina marks the season’s only loss by the way.
A rising Tar Heel defense needs to shut down Ollison to handicap the Panthers. They are capable, this is the unit that righted itself after a rough first half against Georgia Tech. Be ready for an ugly game.