UNC vs LSU, the season begins…
The one good thing about North Carolina taking the field against LSU is that the analysts and experts are going to give it a rest with all the off the field stories and actually talk about the game itself. When the line opened for the Chick-Fil-A Kickoff Classic the Heels were a two point favorite in the game, now they are a nine point underdog, and of course it is all due to the fact that 13 players are not going to play for head coach Butch Davis, including the top receiver and the best two running backs on offense. Tonight, on ABC, we are going to see how good our coach can rally the troops and how good the second stringers are on this team. In other words, we are going to see the future now for most of this squad. But there is also the one player in particular that his future has always been here and now, T.J. Yates.
I was hoping that this season the quarterback could rely on the defense to give him short fields and make him sit back and relax as he ran the offense. Now, a couple of months after the whole mess began in Chapel Hill, it is going to be on Yates to pull together an offense missing some key players and that might need to step it up to the point of helping out the defense. Most of us hoped that a healthy offensive line would help out both the running game and the passing game, we have that, but what we don’t have are the top two backs, leaving coach Davis with Johnny White and Anthony Elzy, two players that could be very good or could be not so good, as they have not played enough for anyone to know. Tight end Zach Pianalto will be on the field, and that could help out Yates a lot, as the two seemed to find one another when Pianalto is healthy, after that we have a couple of up and coming wide outs in Erik Highsmith and Jheranie Boyd, both sophomores that saw a bit of playing time last season. As I said a while back in one of my posts it was time for the youngsters to step it up, today is that time!
On D you can look at it in two ways, North Carolina is doomed because they are missing seven players from the starting line up or the Tar Heels can do this because LSU is not as good on offense as some believe. I have to say I am a bit of both, good or bad, LSU can do some damage if UNC’s defense does not shape up in some sort of way. On the other hand, with line backer Quan Sturdivant and line backer Bruce Carter the Heels do have their whole LB core set and that could help out a lot. There is no way that anyone can think that the defense that will step on the field at the Georgia Dome is going to be as good as what we were thinking, but on the other hand, these are the replacements for what should have been one of the top D’s in college football. In the end I think that the battle between LSU’s offense and UNC’s defense is going to be a draw, which again, can be a good thing or a bad one, depending on how Yates and Co. do on the offensive side for OC John Shoop and HC Butch Davis.
As far as the final score? Well, let me begin with this: I doubt either team will reach 24 points, which makes me believe that the 9 point spread is way too big and Carolina will easily cover it. But will the Tar Heels be able to overcome the off the field problems, playing a neutral game that will seem an away game with a lot more LSU fans at it and play as close to perfect as they can? I would love to say yes, but I am going to have to say no (and hope to be wrong). When it’s all said and done it’s going to be LSU winning by 4, with the final score being 21 to 17.
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