How to watch No. 12 North Carolina’s football ‘story’ continue against No. 25 Miami
North Carolina’s Mack Brown, having been in the coaching game a long time, can be a big-picture kind of guy and was that recently with his players.
In talking about this season, about the possibilities, he told them that they’ve “still got a story to tell and the story will be with you the rest of your life.”
Beating Miami, for example. The No. 12 Tar Heels will face No. 25 Miami on Saturday in a game at Kenan Stadium to be shown in prime time by ABC. It could be the kind of game that the UNC players remember and have fun rehashing in the years to come.
Brown said a week ago, before the Heels’ game against Syracuse, ESPN football analyst Dusty Dvoracek happened to mention that when he played at Oklahoma he was 2-1 when Brown was coaching at Texas. That was 20 years ago. Dvoracek remembers.
“I told the players people are going to ask you what was your record against Miami?” Brown said. “They’re not going to ask you how much you played. They’re going to ask you what was your record against Duke, what’s your record against State?
“And it matters. It matters when you’re 40. It matters when you’re 60. You are still building your story.”
Brown would like for the Tar Heels’ “story” to include “Beat Miami at Kenan.” The Tar Heels (5-0, 2-0 ACC) are favored and will be playing at home, but also facing an unpredictable Miami team coming off that stunning 23-20 loss to Georgia Tech last week.
Miami head coach Mario Cristobal and offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson have lived up to the huge mistake at the end of last week’s game: a called running play that resulted in a Miami fumble rather than taking a knee and running out the clock. Georgia Tech recovered and scored with seconds left.
“We shot ourselves in the foot,” Dawson said to the Miami media this week. “Everybody talks about the end. It is what it is. We made the wrong call. We have to live with that.”
The fumble was the Hurricanes’ fifth turnover of the game as quarterback Tyler Van Dyke had three passes picked off. That has to be Dawson’s biggest concern heading into the UNC game: eliminating mistakes and cleaning things up.
The Heels had 644 yards of total offense in their 40-7 win over Syracuse as Drake Maye passed for 442 yards and UNC rushed for 202 – all in all, an impressive display.
Miami has speed, skill and quickness all over its lineup. As Maye said this week, “I watch them on defense and they’re really flying around. We’re going to have our hands full. They have some great young talent.”
The Hurricanes (4-1, 0-1) figure to be the best team the Heels have faced, and the games between the two old Coastal Division rivals haven’t lacked for splashy offensive plays or thrilling finishes.
The Heels held off the Canes 27-24 last season when Kaimon Rucker tipped a Van Dyke pass and DeAndre Boykins came up with a late interception. Maye took a knee and that was that.
There will be no Tez Walker intrigue this week at UNC. The wide receiver is eligible to play, caught some passes last week in his first game of the season and will be in the starting lineup Saturday.
“It’s just more firepower for us,” wide receiver Nate McCollum said Wednesday.
Walker and the NCAA … that’s another part of this year’s football “story” at UNC and the Heels are only halfway through it.
“It’s still being written and unfolding,” Maye said.
Betting odds
ESPN has UNC as a 3.5-point favorite over the Canes and set the over/under at 57.0 points. UNC is set at 61.2% in the FPI (Football Power Index).
How to watch
The 7:30 p.m. game will be shown on ABC. Satellite options include DirecTV and Dish Network or stream it on such services as DIRECTV Stream, fuboTV, Hulu + Live TV, SlingTV and YouTube TV.
This story was originally published October 12, 2023 at 12:28 PM.
