2010 Miami Hurricanes Football: Miami vs North Carolina

Irony, intrigue, curiosity, and a lot of mixed emotions – these will be the ingredients that will be thrown into the pot this Saturday night as the North Carolina Tar Heels travel to South Florida (without agents) to take on the Miami Hurricanes in an ACC Coastal Division duel. The subplots and sidebar stories involved in Heels-Canes will give sportswriters plenty of fodder to examine at Sun Life Stadium in Miami.

North Carolina and Miami are both 4-2 overall and 2-1 in the ACC, but my, what different roads these programs have taken to get to that shared point in the standings. North Carolina has been playing the entire season with at least eight players suspended due to the agent-gate and tutoring-based scandals that have rocked the UNC program to its core. On many occasions, at least 10 Tar Heel players have been ineligible, thereby constraining coach Butch Davis on gamedays. The UNC coaching staff has had to shuffle its lineup and become even more judicious in making substitutions so that bodies can stay fresh. Carolina has had to develop the talent of players that are lower on the depth chart, which has caused the Heels to play a very uneven brand of ball in 2010. A new jolt hit UNC this past week, as tight end Zack Pianalto, a key cog in the passing game and a reliable go-to target for quarterback T.J. Yates, got injured for the rest of the regular season. Pianalto suffered a fractured right fibula in Carolina’s 44-10 win last Saturday at Virginia. Since receiver Greg Little has been suspended for the entire season, the Tar Heels will have to readjust their offensive game plan and look hard for ways to throw the ball with success against Miami.

With that having been said, if you think that Carolina’s injuries and suspensions make this game a cakewalk for the home team, think again.

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Miami – though having few, if any, of the off-field headaches Carolina is currently experiencing – is nevertheless a troubled program in its own right. The Hurricanes just can’t seem to get things right on the field, as shown in a devastating 45-17 loss to Florida State at home on Oct. 9. In that game, Coach Randy Shannon’s team flat quit. The Canes got punched in the mouth by Florida State and spent the entirety of the game drifting through the motions. Miami was listless and disinterested, and if North Carolina can bring the heat on defense for 60 minutes, there’s a perfectly reasonable chance that UM quarterback Jacory Harris, one of the most underachieving and mistake-prone signal callers in the country, will crumble and toss a few more interceptions.

What we ultimately have in this game are two people very closely associated with the proud history of Miami football. Both Davis and Shannon are former defensive coordinators at the school who subsequently took the head-coaching spot at “The U.” Shannon still occupies that seat of authority, but he might not retain it for long if Miami loses this game and finishes the regular season with no more than eight wins. This is a profoundly important night in the lives of both Davis and Shannon, one of the big reasons why this game is a sportswriter’s delight.

Which Miami man will triumph on Saturday? Will Carolina’s thin roster or Miami’s frail psyche prove to be more of an obstacle to victory? Which ACC Coastal squad will get off the dime and make a push toward the top of the division in the second half of the season? The answers to these questions await on an October night in the Sunshine State.

Miami Hurricanes vs North Carolina Tar Heels Football Preview