Submitted by Thomas Eicher (ike)
I just love this saying, I believe it’s a very important life lesson. It goes well with the “Keep your friends close but keep your enemies even closer” so as Jackie Gleason liked to say and here we go..
As we know, PITT will be traveling down to the rain soaked state of North Carolina to play the Tar-Heels coached by Larry Fedora. UNC plays their home games at Kenan Memorial Stadium in the heart of their campus at Chapel Hill NC, This is an old stadium built in 1926-1927. It holds somewhere around 51,000 people. Gee, this joint reminds me of another stadium I use to watch games in.
UNC has only played two games with this past weeks game being canceled against UCF and stand at 0-2. This is bad for two reasons. The most important being PITT coaches will miss a game film with UCF as well as UNC. Some think this also gave UNC more time to study and prepare for PITT, I don’t really buy into that too much.
About the team: I guess the big need to know is that UNC has had as many as 13 players suspended to start their season for selling shoes, nine of which will still be held out this weeks game. This includes their starting QB Chazz Surrat, I looked but couldn’t find if any other important starters remain out. Now I’m not sure about this but I think the starting QB Nathan Elliott was the QB for UNC last year which beat PITT. (remember Henderson’s fumble) So far, Elliott’s numbers don’t stand out. He’s 37-73, 356 yards with 1 TD and 4 picks. Not that great folks.
The starting RB looks to be Antonio Williams who has run for 143 yards on 23 carries. Again, that sounds like one good game but he’s played in two. Their leading receiver is Anthony Williams with 7 catches for 146 yards. Now it’s way too early to see much from these numbers but they are not eye poppers. (Editor: that is over 20 yards per catch and better than Pitt’s leading receiver…pretty eyepopping to me)
On defense, UNC has their leading tackler from the past two years back and his numbers do pop out at you. Last year he had 93 tackles and the year before that…115. Cole Holcomb 6’1″ 235lbs. He looks to be a good one.
UNC played at California first game against the Golden Bears who look to have a decent team this year. UNC played a good game before losing 24-17 on their west coast trip. The Bears are now 3-0 so maybe that was a decent showing? They also lost to East Carolina 41-19, so hold on. So after just two games UNC is averaging 162 yards a game on the ground and 185 yards through the air. They are losing the time of possession battle 24.30 to the opponents 35.30. On offense UNC has averaged 348 yards a game to the opponents 395 yards per game.
Summary, this is a must win for PITT this coming Saturday. No if and’s or buts….


Just a reminder from Reed of what happens when the Pitt team gets cocky. If we remember last season Pitt was riding a two game win streak after beating Duke and Virginia when the Tarheels came to Heinz…
Lets be 3-1 when the whistle blows!