Normally a visit from the Tar Heels would excite Badger fans. This is not, however, the legendary North Carolina basketball team. Rather, on Saturday the Badgers will square off against the football Heels.
Coming in with a 0-2 mark, North Carolina will no doubt be double-digit underdogs, but no one should underestimate them — head coach Barry Alvarez sure isn’t.
“The first thing I’m going to tell my players is don’t let their record lull you to sleep or mislead you,” he said Monday. “As soon as you watch film, you’ll realize that they’re very athletic.”
After studying North Carolina’s first two games, Alvarez recognizes that Carolina possesses a potent offense. Despite being throttled 37-0 and only mustering 295 yards of total offense three weeks ago at home against Florida State, the Tar Heels came back strong a week later against Syracuse. Even though they lost 49-47 in three overtimes, the Heels were ahead by as many as 17 points late in the third quarter.
In that game, Carolina head coach John Bunting showcased some of his weapons. Junior quarterback Darian Durant completed 31 of 44 passes, tossed four touchdowns and ran for another, while throwing only one interception. One of those touchdown passes was to Carolina’s marquee receiver, junior Jarwarski Pollack, who caught ten balls for 95 yards in the game. While he is not a huge threat, Pollack will definitely be a challenge for the Badger corners over the middle and in short yardage situations, two areas the UW corners have had trouble with all season.
The Badger defense cannot afford to concentrate primarily on Carolina’s passing attack, though. If they do, Tar Heel quarterback Darian Durant will run to daylight. The multi-dimensional quarterback leads Carolina’s ground game after rushing for 67 yards against Syracuse. The UW defense has traditionally had trouble with mobile quarterbacks, and the Tar Heels will no doubt try to exploit this apparent weakness. Wisconsin’s defense will also need to watch senior Willie Parker and freshman Ronnie McGill. This running back tandem has speed and, with Durant, adds an extra dimension to the Tar Heel offensive attack.
The Carolina defense is anchored in the defensive backfield. Senior Dexter Reid leads the team with 25 tackles, and sophomore Mahlon Carey has made 13 stops on the year. Also helping the defense is sophomore linebacker Jeff Longhany, who leads the team with four tackles-for-losses on the year. It is never a good sign when players in the defensive backfield are leading a team in tackles, but the Tar Heels are young team that is still learning to play together.
Carolina coach John Bunting knows his team has to go through some growing pains before it can improve, but he believes there is progress on the horizon.
“We want to try and get better with each game,” he said. “[After] the game last time we played, we got a little better. I saw that, a lot of other people saw that. I was encouraged by that.”
Bunting also said that he hoped that his players would play a full 60 minutes of “hard” and “smart” football, something they have not always done in the past. No matter how “hard” or “smart” the Tar Heels play on Saturday, the Badgers will need to come prepared for a balanced passing and running attack that will keep the coaching staff guessing.
Coach Bunting’s team will have a difficult time with the Badgers on Saturday. He is trying to build a winning football program at Chapel Hill, but until the team starts winning consistently, the basketball program will always overshadow any accomplishments of the ‘other’ team wearing Tar Heel blue and white.
