Liberty @ North Carolina preview
Kenan Memorial Stadium
With the pressure of winning, head coaches don’t usually think so much in the way of having fun, so one will have to excuse North Carolina’s Larry Fedora for getting his kicks in before Saturday's season opener against visiting Liberty. Fedora refused to announce his starting quarterback at a recent news conference "because it bothers everybody and that just gives me pleasure." Despite Fedora’s evasiveness, the likely starter will be junior Marquise Williams, a dual threat who took over a 1-5 team last year and led it to a Belk Bowl victory over Cincinnati.
The Tar Heels have not won an Atlantic Coast Conference title since 1980, but 15 returning starters has created optimism in Chapel Hill usually reserved for the basketball team. North Carolina has qualified for a bowl game five of the past six years and would have been perfect except for a bowl ban in 2012 when it was 8-4. Liberty, which is playing a nationally ranked FBS team for the first time in school history, has won at least a share of the Big South Conference title six of the past seven seasons and has won five straight games since losing 55-52 in double overtime to Coastal Carolina.
TV: 6 p.m. ET, ESPN3. LINE: None
ABOUT LIBERTY (2013: 8-4): The Flames will try to keep pace with North Carolina behind junior quarterback Josh Woodrum, who led the Big South in passing with 2,581 yards and 19 touchdowns, and first-team all-conference wide receiver junior Darrin Peterson (58 catches for 825 yards and seven touchdowns). Liberty lost returning running back Desmond Rice (967 yards and 16 touchdowns in 2013) to a season-ending knee injury in spring practice. Coach Turner Gill is in his third season and is 14-9 and 9-2 in the Big South.
ABOUT NORTH CAROLINA (2013: 7-6): Redshirt sophomore Mitch Trubisky has been impressive and has been battling Williams since spring practice, but it’s hard to envision Fedora not going with the guy who threw for 1,698 yards, ran for 536 and scored 21 touchdowns and has his top-two wide receivers returning in Quinshad Davis (49 catches, 740 yards, 10 touchdowns) and Ryan Switzer (32 for 341). Starting running back T.J. Logan also returns after rushing for 533 yards and four scores on 93 carries. The defense, which is young but talented in the secondary and solid at linebacker, will need to recreate the pressure it put on opposing quarterbacks last season when it had 31 sacks.
EXTRA POINTS
1. North Carolina has just six seniors on its two-deep roster.
2. Underclassmen scored 46 of North Carolina’s 55 touchdowns last season.
3. Gill was drafted by the Cleveland Indians (1979) and New York Yankees (1983) but never advanced past the Double-A level.
PREDICTION: North Carolina 45, Liberty 10