2010 Virginia Cavaliers: Virginia vs North Carolina

In one of college football’s most amazing losing streaks, the North Carolina Tar Heels have failed to win at Virginia for nearly three decades. They’ll try to get it right on Saturday.

Virginia has struggled demonstrably in recent years. The Cavaliers haven’t made a bowl game the past few seasons and do not offer the kind of offensive firepower that should worry a good defensive team like North Carolina. Virginia has fattened up on cupcakes to get to 2-3 on the season. The Cavaliers beat two FCS teams – Richmond and Virginia Military Institute – and scored a combined total of 82 points against those inferior ballclubs. In UVA’s three games against FBS opponents, the Cavs have mustered an average of just 16.3 points per game and have been handled without too much difficulty. Quarterback Marc Verica is decidedly average, hitting below 60 percent of his passes despite two outings against cupcake schools. Through five games, no Virginia running back has at least 300 yards, and no Cavalier receiver owns at least 400 yards’ worth of receptions. This is a minimalist offense under a first-year coach, Mike London, who is trying to rebuild the program.

With all of this in mind, let’s go back to the beginning: North Carolina has not been able to beat Virginia on the road for almost three decades. The Tar Heels haven’t won in Virginia since 1981. That’s a mind-bending fact when one realizes that UNC had a very good program in the mid-1990s under Mack Brown, now the coach at Texas. Surely, the odds have to line up with Carolina before too long; maybe this will be the year for the Tar Heels in the shadows of Monticello.

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Yet, for all of UVA's woes, there's still a very legitimate reason – other than the crazy 29-year hex against North Carolina at Scott Stadium – to think that the Cavaliers can complete another home-field conquest against their ACC rival. Plainly put, the Tar Heels remain a limited team due to several different lingering suspensions that persist in the midst of North Carolina’s multiple off-field scandals. Yes, it’s true that North Carolina did beat Clemson last week and justified its place as a team that's still in contention for a bowl game, but it has to be said that the Clemson contest said a lot more about the dysfunctionality of Clemson than it did about North Carolina’s strengths. The Tar Heels scored a modest 21 points and gave Clemson chances to come back in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers just couldn’t take advantage. Other teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference have pounded Virginia into submission. North Carolina doesn’t have the offensive firepower to be able to do the same. If this game is close heading into the final minutes, Virginia could definitely find added self-belief and push UNC’s winless drought in Charlottesville to 30 years and counting.

North Carolina doesn’t have the depth or the explosiveness to humiliate Virginia. On the other hand, Virginia is just a very poor football team, while UNC – due to its gut-check win over Clemson last week – should feel very confident heading into Charlottesville.

The question is, "Will that confidence translate into the end of a 29-year nightmare?"

Virginia Cavaliers vs North Carolina Tar Heels Football Preview