UNC Must Combat High-Flying Offense Fueling Streaking Virginia

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Having reached the midway point in the regular season, North Carolina meets its first ranked opponent of the 2025 campaign on Saturday, when No. 16 Virginia visits Kenan Stadium (noon, ACC Network).

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The Tar Heels (2-4 overall, 0-2 ACC) are in search of their first conference victory, and have dropped four straight league games dating to the end of last season. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers (6-1, 3-0) are off to their best start to a season since 2007, and already have become bowl eligible. Georgia Tech (4-0 ACC), SMU (3-0 ACC) and Virginia are the last remaining unbeaten teams in conference play.

UNC and UVa will square off for the 130th time in the long-running series that began in 1892 and has been nicknamed the “South’s Oldest Rivalry.” Following a two-year hiatus after World War I, the two schools have played in football every year since 1919, with Carolina leading the all-time series 67-58-4.

Virginia is coached by Tony Elliott, who’s in his fourth year in charge. He spent the 11 seasons prior at Clemson as an assistant under Dabo Swinney. There, Elliott coached in four College Football Playoff championship games, as the Tigers claimed national titles in 2016 and 2018. Elliott has compiled a record of 17-24 thus far at Virginia, but this season’s hot start already has earned the Cavaliers their first trip to a bowl since 2021.

Virginia has clicked off five straight victories after suffering a 35-31 loss at NC State in early September, in what was designated as a non-conference matchup. Since then, the Cavaliers got back on track with blowouts of William & Mary and Stanford, before toppling then-No. 8 Florida State 46-38 in a double-overtime thriller. Virginia has gone on the road and defeated Louisville 30-27 in overtime, and rallied in the second half to edge Washington State 22-20 thanks to a game-winning safety. UVa overcame deficits against Wazzu of 17-7 at halftime and 20-10 entering the fourth quarter during the course of last week’s comeback.

Virginia’s ability to squeak out a number of narrow wins has produced its highest AP Top 25 ranking since 2007, while UNC has yet to break through and beat a power-conference opponent. Here are more key areas of note on the Cavaliers, who will face the Tar Heels as a ranked team for the first time since 2005.

High-Flying Offense Leads ACC in Scoring

The fuel for Virginia’s success this season has been its explosive offense, which will arrive here in Chapel Hill averaging an ACC-best 40 points per game, and cranking out 462.3 yards per game to rank No. 20 nationally in total offense on the FBS level.

The Wahoos are led by quarterback Chandler Morris, a sixth-year senior who made stops at Oklahoma, TCU and North Texas, before transferring to Virginia ahead of this season. Morris has thrown for 1,607 yards and 11 touchdowns on a 68.7-percent completion rate. The 6-foot, 192-pound quarterback also has added 191 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

Running back J’Mari Taylor carries the bulk of the workload for Virginia’s rushing attack. The NC Central transfer Taylor has churned out 4.7 yards per carry and run for 512 yards in total, while supplying eight touchdowns this season. The work on the gourd from Morris and Taylor has lifted Virginia over 200 rushing yards per game.

“J’Mari Taylor, excellent running back, really has good vision, great quickness,” UNC coach Bill Belichick said this week. “He can really hit from sideline to sideline on any play with his vision and his ability to jump cut and get into spaces.”

Given the Tar Heels’ sputtering offense, which sits dead last in the ACC at 18.7 points per game, the Cavaliers could leave Carolina in the dust on Saturday.

Turnover Margin Provides Telltale Sign of Success

One reason Virginia has been able to survive so many close games this season has been its advantage in the turnover battle. The Cavaliers have the 14th-best turnover margin in FBS (plus-six on the season), while UNC is in negative territory (minus-2 on the season).

The Cavaliers’ five takeaways on fumbles (the most in the ACC) and six interceptions have created opportunities for their offense. And the experienced Morris has thrown just four interceptions, with three of them coming in the FSU barnburner. UVa also is one of only five FBS teams yet to lose a fumble this season.

“Those guys are very sound, don’t turn the ball over,” Belichick said. “Haven’t lost a fumble all year. Only had a couple of interceptions. So the ball security has been really good, and they’ve made plays on the defensive side of the ball.”

Contrary to Virginia, UNC has struggled with ball security this season. Belichick has further emphasized taking care of the rock this week after a pair of critically costly fumbles plagued the Tar Heels in their 21-18 road loss last week at California. In total, UNC has fumbled the ball away five times, and thrown four interceptions through six games on the season.

Spreading the Wealth with Sack Distribution

A focus of Belichick’s scouting report this week is Virginia’s defensive ability to create negative plays. Defensive coordinator John Rudzinski cycles through several big bodies across the defensive line, a rotation that has allowed 10 different Cavaliers to record at least one sack this season.

Defensive lineman Daniel Rickert leads the pass rush for UVa with 4½ sacks. The Cavaliers have piled up 17 sacks among their 36 tackles for lost yardage on the season, more than doubling UNC’s season sack total of eight, which ranks last in the ACC. And Virginia’s offensive line has protected Morris, allowing only five sacks on the season.

“The defensive line is good, but the ends in particular are very disruptive and create negative plays,” Belichick said, referring to standout Mitchell Melton, sack leader Daniel Rickert and Fisher Camac. “They make plays on long yardage. They score (defensive) touchdowns and tackle guys for safeties and stuff like that. So got to do a good job offensively of keeping the negative plays to a minimum.”

Belichick also mentioned the pass-rush package the Cavaliers like to use on third-down situations. Those fresh bodies have helped Virginia to hold opposing offenses to a third-down success rate of just 28.3 percent the ninth-best mark in the FBS.