North Carolina Tar Heels: Defense vs Chubb is Key
The North Carolina Tar Heels will need their defense to come up big and slowdown Georgia running back Nick Chubb.
This evening the North Carolina Tar Heels play the Georgia Bulldogs in the Atlanta Chick-Fila Kickoff Classic. It is probably the most important opener the Tar Heels have played since their game against LSU in 2011 when the NCAA came visiting for improper benefits and much of the defense was benched for that game.
The Larry Fedora era at North Carolina lacks a true signature win. As things stand right now, his best wins are the Belk Bowl against Cincinnati and probably the 2014 win against Duke. That may be short changing the Gio Bernard era a little bit, but it feels that way.
A win against Georgia would change that. The long hoped for great win could have been Clemson or Baylor, but those games did not pan out. As it is, the Bulldogs mark the foe closest to making it a reality.
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The Tar Heels have the offensive weapons to do it too. Junior Mitch Trubisky can throw the ball to a senior-laden receiver corps or former high school teammate Brandon Fritts. He can hand the ball off to proven running threat Elijah Hood. His linemen are all battle-hardened guys. These are the elements of the Tar Heel scoring machine. However this game is not really about them.
This game will be about the defense. The Tar Heel defense improved mightily last year, but it was not a finished product and was gashed by Baylor in the Russell Athletic Bowl. Those guys mainly return except for two leaders from the linebacking corps. Their strength is in their pass coverage, not the front seven as we currently know them.
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Georgia will know this and one thing that the Bulldogs are good at is recruiting running backs. Nick Chubb was getting Heisman love before his injury last year. He is back. Sony Michel ran for over a thousand yards last year in Chubb’s stead. Michel broke his arm in July and his availability is unknown.
Even if Michel does not play, Chubb is dangerous on his own. The Bulldogs had a quarterback competition that went all the way to Thursday, so a good bet is that Grayson Lambert will be handing the ball off when he can. Then the question will come, can the Tar Heels slow down Chubb? If they can, they will win and it will be a credit to Gene Chizik.
If they cannot then it will be a long day and there will be extra pressure on the offense to score every time that they have the ball.