*The game will proceed as scheduled Saturday. The forecasts keep getting better. They are supposed to honor Mack’s last two teams from 1996 and 1997 this weekend, so the hope is the weather holds up enough so fans turn out for the game and those players. The game has been sold out for a while.
*Jacolby Criswell has been sick this week, so Conner Harrell has taken most of the QB2 reps.
*With the LB group banged up, Power Echols and Cedric Gray have been taken off of all special teams. They need to stay healthy Saturday for depth reasons.
*October 8, 2016, was the last time there was a hurricane game at Kenan Stadium, and the visitor was Virginia Tech. The Hokies pummeled the Tar Heels, 34-3, holding UNC to 131 total yards. Mitch Trubisky was 13-for-33 passing that day.
*One of the reasons for UNC’s struggles stopping the run and generating a conventional pass rush has been the health of the defensive front. A couple of key interior players (I was asked to not mention them by name) have been dealing with significant lower body injuries all season, one a bit more than the other. This has hampered their ability to explode off the ball and maintain leverage when they get it.
*UNC is 4-14 versus Virginia Tech as ACC foes, and just 2-7 at home against the Hokies. Carolina won two years ago in the Covid season, so theoretically, Tar Heels fans have witnessed in person just one home win over the Hokies since they became members of the ACC. That was a 48-34 UNC win in 2012.
*Tech has won five of the last six meetings overall in the series.
*Drake Maye is tied for the national lead with 16 touchdown passes, and he has just one interception. The pick occurred in the win at Georgia State, but UNC thought the refs missed a defensive penalty on the play that would have nullified the interception. The no-call was sent to the league office for review, and was one of the plays in which the league said the officials made a mistake. So, Maye’s lone pick of the season shouldn’t have counted.
*Slight update on Ja’Qurious Conley: He still isn’t practice and it’s uncertain when he will begin practicing. He is there each day and is in the meetings. But he hasn’t spent one day on the field in the new defense, and as week five is here, and no time table for him getting back on the field, the possibility he misses the entire season is certainly real.
