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The Carolina-Miami series has featured four straight stunning games.
As the Tar Heels go for a 6-0 record to start the season, you would have to think the Hurricanes are in a great position to beat them for the first time since 2018, before Mack Brown returned to UNC as head coach.
Brown’s public relations penchant sold out Kenan Stadium before the first home game of Mack 2.0. The Heels were coming off a surprise win over South Carolina in Charlotte to mark Brown’s out-of-retirement opener and Sam Howell’s first game as a college quarterback.
Coming home to a jam-packed Kenan, Carolina scored the first 10 points on a Noah Ruggles field goal and Howell’s 62-yard bomb to Dyami Brown. Miami took its first lead late in the fourth quarter before Howell led a one-minute, 75-yard drive kept alive by a 4th-and-17 completion to Rontavius Groves and a 10-yard pass to Dazz Newsome, who made a tightrope TD catch.
In the COVID 2020 season, Michael Carter and Javonte Williams became the first UNC duo to each run for 1,000 yards since Curtis and Leon Johnson in 1993. They combined for 553 and five TDs in the mirror-image 62-26 blowout of the 8-2 Canes and secured UNC’s first-ever bid to the Orange Bowl.
The following year, as crowds returned to college football, freshman Tyler Van Dyke was the new U quarterback who completed only 20 of 45 passes but led two late touchdown drives that cut Carolina’s early lead to three. Miami got the ball back and was driving, but young linebacker Cedric Grey kickstarted his career with a clutch interception.
Last year, back in Coral Gables, the two teams played another memorable game that the Tar Heels led by 14 points before Miami reduced the deficit to 7 by halftime. Van Dyke threw for 496 yards and three touchdowns, the last one for 63 yards that left Carolina ahead by only 27-24 with 1:43 remaining.
Drake Maye, who threw a 74-yard TD pass to J.J. Jones and a 17-yarder to Josh Downs, could not run out the clock, and Van Dyke got the ball back and had the Canes well within field goal range when his 57th pass was picked off by DeAndre Boykins to run UNC’s record to 5-1 on the way to the 9-1 start.
Despite four straight wins by Carolina, remember that three of them were by a field goal. The 12th-ranked Tar Heels are a slight favorite to win again over a No. 25 Miami team that could be either fired up or hung over after a last-second loss to Georgia Tech.
ACC leaders Maye and Van Dyke are each completing 72 per cent of their passes, so into the Carolina night there could be 100 thrown by both 6-4 QBs.
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We win, they lose 🙂
I think the defense is so much better this year, combined with an offense eating up more clock, that we have a chance to win a game against anyone.
“We win, they lose 🙂”
Nice to be right, 12-0 coming up.