The North Carolina football team, 3-4 overall and 1-2 in the ACC, will travel up the road to Charlottesville and take on the Virginia Cavaliers, 4-3 overall and 2-1 in conference, Saturday at 12:30 p.m. in a pivotal Coastal division matchup.

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UNC head coach Larry Fedora has a secret weapon. He’s been soliciting help from Carolina basketball skipper Roy Williams in recent weeks to get the Tar Heels back on track.

Coach Williams’ call in to the Larry Fedora Live show last week resulted in a UNC victory, so the two linked up again earlier this week in hopes of a similar result at UVA.

“I wasn’t going to call because I’m not superstitious, but Wanda [wife] thought it would be a good thing since I called last week. Since we won last week, she thought it would be a lot better if I called back. Larrry, great job and congratulations. Let’s do it again this weekend,” Coach Williams says.

Norkeithus Otis flattens a Cavalier in 2013 (Elliott Rubin)

Norkeithus Otis flattens a Cavalier in 2013 (Elliott Rubin)

Carolina has dominated the South’s Oldest Rivalry in recent years, having won four straight with an average margin of victory of 25 points.

But Coach Fedora says the Cavaliers are much better team this year thanks to a stingy defense.

“They’re a much improved football team, I can tell you that. I think they’ve got seven seniors over there on the defense. They’ve got confidence over there and are running hard to the ball,” Coach Fedora says.

UVA senior middle linebacker Mike Coley, in particular, has Coach Fedora concerned.

“They’re good up front. They play hard up front. They rotate about eight guys consistently. The Mike backer, No. 44, is a load. He brings it downhill and is going to test your manhood every time,” Coach Fedora says.

One of the more intriguing matchups will be Cavalier running back Kevin Parks, who’s amassed over 500 yards on the ground this year, up against the UNC rush defense.

UVA's Kevin Parks (Virginiasports.com)

UVA’s Kevin Parks (Virginiasports.com)

The Tar Heels successfully held down the Clemson rushing attack earlier in the season. Junior linebacker Jeff Schoettmer is hoping the defense can rekindle that kind of form Saturday at Scott Stadium.

“They’re talented. They have a good running back in Parks, who is one of the better running backs in the ACC. We’ve got to do a good job of tackling him. They run similar schemes as Notre Dame and Clemson. We feel like we did a good job containing the rush against Clemson. Hopefully, we’re going to use some of the similar calls that we did against them and use it versus Virginia,” Schoettmer says.

As for the UNC running game, the Tar Heels received a welcome boost in that department from T.J. Logan and Romar Morris last weekend.

Junior quarterback and ACC Player of the Week Marquise Williams says a more balanced offense is much harder for teams to defend.

Marquise Williams (UNC Athletics)

Marquise Williams (UNC Athletics)

“That helps out. If you’re one-dimensional, it’s not going to work out too well. People can just line up eight in the box. It’s great that we have a two-dimensional style of football. We can run and pass. We’re doing tremendously well on both sides,” Williams says.

On a larger scale, the 119th meeting on the gridiron between two of the top public universities in the nation could go a long way into determining the ACC Coastal division champion.

But Coach Fedora says he’s not thinking about all that. He’s focused on the task at hand.

“I’m aware that it’s wide open. We’ve just got to take care of our business. I’m more worried about us right now than anything else going on. I know if we keep our head down and keep improving, maybe something good will happen,” Coach Fedora says.