The Tar Heels are headed to Greenville to battle the East Carolina Pirates this weekend.

ECU holds a 2-1 record, coming off of an impressive win against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, where the Pirates dominated the Hokies early in the game to pull out a 28-21 victory.

East Carolina is favored by five points over Carolina, but head coach Larry Fedora says the Heels have been preparing for this day during their bye week and are prepared to make some noise in Dowdy-Ficklen.

“I don’t think our guys have to be convinced that it’s going to be intense, I think they understand that,” Fedora said in an ACC teleconference Wednesday. “I think we’re the underdogs going into this game from my understanding and what I hear so we’re going to go into a place where that’s going to be sold out, hostile crowd. There will be some noise and an environment that should be a lot of fun to play in.”

When the Pirates visited Chapel Hill last season, quarterback Shane Carden threw for 376 yards and three touchdowns with three of his own touchdowns rushing. The Pirates possessed the ball for 36 minutes and left with a 55-31 victory over the Heels.

Although Carden has been ECU’s offensive bread and butter so far this season, Fedora says its important not to rule out their underrated defensive strength as well, one that only allowed 2.8 rushing yards per carry against Virginia Tech.

“Defensively I think they’re much, much improved,” Fedora said. “I think they’re much better than they’ve been since I’ve started playing them – about seven years now – they’ve done a great job on the defensive side of the ball. I think that’s the kind of hidden thing people don’t realize is they’re doing a great job of stopping the run, nobody’s really run the ball effectively on them and it’s made teams try to be more one-dimensional.”

You can hear the game live on WCHL at 3:30 p.m. Pregame coverage begins with Countdown to Kickoff with Ron Stutts at 12:00 noon, followed by The Good Sports with Art C. and BobLee at 1:30 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.