Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels were a ball punch away from potentially winning against Cal this past weekend, which is either good or bad depending on how you look at it. For most fans, it felt like a game
that shouldn’t have even been close because the Golden Bears were practically begging UNC to win the game. More optimistic fans, though, would argue that being that close to winning the game is measurable progress. No matter where you land on the spectrum, the fact of the matter is that the Heels are still winless in ACC play, and things only get harder this weekend against an impressive Virginia team.
The Cavaliers have been one of the bigger surprises in college football this season. While they haven’t been exceptionally good at any one particular thing, their key to the season so far has been toughness. They’ve been able to win some close games so far, with Florida State and Louisville being the two most notable. They did drop a game against NC State earlier in the season, but it seems as though they learned their lesson from that experience. It is also worth noting that this will be UNC’s first ranked matchup of the season, so they will have to come ready for a fight if they hope to get this season back on track.
Because this is a ranked matchup, it was surprising to see the opening betting odds for this one. Per Fanduel Sportsbook, Virginia opened as the 10.5 point favorite, which seems like it should be a lot higher. We all knew why the Cal game wasn’t as out of pocket as it could’ve been, but this Cavaliers team is very capable of taking the Heels behind the wood shed. The over/under for this game is set at 52.5, which averages out to approximately 26 points per team in an overtime situation.
This would be a great game for Carolina to earn a statement win, but we just haven’t seen anything from them that indicates that it could happen. Gio Lopez returned to the roster against Cal, but his performance was more of the same that we’ve seen so far. The run game also wasn’t really there, so scoring was a frustrating challenge. On the defensive side of the ball, Cal had a lot of dropped passes, which honestly felt like the only reason they didn’t win by more than they did. Bill Belichick is pushing a boulder up a mountain at this point, and rather than the question being if he can get it to the summit, the question is when will this boulder crush him on the way back to the bottom? It’s a dark time in Chapel Hill, friends.
Anyways, what do you think of the betting odds for Saturday’s game? Let us know in the comments below.
