UNC vs Virginia: Preview, broadcast information and prediction

North Carolina goes for its second win of the season against the Virginia Cavaliers.

The North Carolina Tar Heels are in the midst of what could very well be a historically bad season.

Six games in, North Carolina sits at just 1-5, and looks incapable of putting together four consecutive quality quarters of football.

This weekend, the Tar Heels face off against the Virginia Cavaliers in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where things haven’t been easy for the home team this season. In fact, the Heels haven’t won a single home game in 2017.

They also haven’t beaten a Power Five team since November of last year. And they haven’t won a game against a ranked opponent since last October when they knocked off No. 16 Miami.

That was a very different North Carolina team, though, that was led by quarterback Mitchell Trubisky and an experienced receiver corps that included Ryan Switzer and Bug Howard. The Tar Heels’ back field also boasted one of the best one-two combinations in the country in running backs T.J. Logan and Elijah Hood.

Those players are all gone now, and the Tar Heels are dealing with the loss of more than a dozen players to season-ending injury. Needless to say, they’ve had a rough go of it this season.

For Virginia, on the other hand, things are looking up.

The Cavaliers are 4-1 on the season, vying for a spot in the upper echelon of the ACC Coastal Division. In comparison to the Tar Heels, the Cavs are averaging more offensive points per game, fewer points allowed on defense, more total yards gained and fewer yards surrendered. Suffice it to say, they’re just playing better football than the Heels.

The Tar Heels have mustered up just 34 combined points in their past three games. Totals of 17, 7 and 10 are all of the points that North Carolina could put on the scoreboard in losses to Duke, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame.

To beat Virginia on Saturday afternoon, they’ll likely have to put together a substantially better showing than they did in any of those games.