Syracuse (4-2, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) stays at home this weekend following a bye week to face North Carolina (1-4, 1-2) in the Carrier Dome.

To learn more about the Tar Heels, The Daily Orange spoke with The Daily Tar Heel’s assistant sports editor Jack Frederick about UNC’s suspensions, its quarterback rotation, running back and more.

Read the full conversation, lightly edited for content and clarity, below.

The Daily Orange: Is everyone going to be back from suspension this week except for Tomon Fox?

J.F.: Everyone should be back this week. I think Malik Carney might have one more game to sit out. But because of injuries to the defensive line, the NCAA has OK’d for that to be whatever week UNC decides. As far as the shoe suspensions now, they’re behind the team at this point.

D.O.: What’s been the biggest difficulty for the team this season, coming into this game, with just one win?

J.F.: One of the struggles, even going back to last year, has been inconsistency at the quarterback position. Before 2017 it was very much up in the air. There were three different quarterbacks playing and that has continued into much of this season, where we’ve seen three quarterbacks share some snaps. Nathan Elliott obviously started the season, but he’s been a bit inconsistent, so they’ve thrown Chazz Surratt in there at times, and most recently against Virginia Tech, Cade Fortin also started. The quarterback position is just very much inconsistent. That’s where a lot of the struggles start.

D.O.: What does Michael Carter do well at the running back position?

J.F.: The thing about Michael Carter and the rest of the trio of running backs they have is they all kind of play a different running game. Michael Carter is the smallest of the three, but a bit quicker. Other than the fumble at the end of the game at the 1-yard line (against VT), he had probably his best career game.

D.O.: What does UNC have to do to beat SU this weekend?

J.F.: I think they’ve got to be able to get the passing game going along with the run game. The running game is fairly strong because they’ve got three good running backs. But the running game also doesn’t necessarily find its strength unless there’s a good passing game. And the defensive line really needs to put some pressure against the Syracuse offense as well. Being able to have a little bit of a dimension on the offense and getting some pressure from the defensive line. Those are the two.

D.O.: What’s the deal with the UNC defense, because they’re putting up great statistics in the pass defense but bad efficiencies overall?

J.F.: Teams haven’t had to rely on the pass because they’re able to get so much going in the run game. At this point in the season, the UNC defense is giving up about 200 yards on the ground, so the pass defense looks better just because teams are running the ball so much more than they’re having to pass. The defensive line has kind of been hurt, and they’ve had suspensions with Fox and Carney, so what was expected to be a major strength of this team has really struggled. But now that they’re almost back completely, there should be a change.

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Published on October 17, 2018 at 10:48 pm