Tarheels seek elusive road victory tonight

'08 Football Stat of the Day16

UNC-Chapel Hill’s overhyped 2008 football team travels to Rutgers tonight to battle the Scarlet Knights on ESPN. Although the ACC needs any and every win that we can get…the Tarheels really need this one in order to give them a

As the News & Observer highlighted earlier in the week – Carolina hasn’t won a football game beyond the borders of North Carolina in over five and a half years.

Carolina has not won outside the state since its 38-35 victory at Arizona State on Oct. 5, 2002, a span of 20 games.

Just for fun, we have compiled NC State’s wins outside of the the state since the Tarheels last victory.

10/24/02: NC State 38; Clemson 6
01/01/03: NC State 28; Notre Dame 6 (Gator Bowl)
12/22/03: NC State 56; Kansas 24 (Tangerine Bowl)
09/25/04: NC State 17; Virginia Tech 16
10/16/04: NC State 13; Maryland 3
10/06/05: NC State 17; Georgia Tech 13
11/05/05: NC State 20; Florida State 15
11/03/07: NC State 19; Miami 16 (OT)

Additionally, Joe Giglio at the N&O has compiled some interesting numbers.

• 16-37 on the road since 1998
• 0-6 under Butch Davis
• 5-32 outside the state of North Carolina
• 20 straight road losses outside the state

I could be totally crazy, but I actually think Carolina is going to win tonight. Giglio agreed and says he expects the streak to end. Rutgers may have peaked since their feel-good rise to relevance over the last few years and seem to still be adjusting to some key losses from last year’s squad that included stud running back, Ray Rice. Greg Schiano may live to regret his decision not to upgrade programs while the iron was hot.

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'08 Football Stat of the Day

16 Responses to Tarheels seek elusive road victory tonight

  1. DAMangum 09/11/2008 at 11:36 AM #

    GO SCARLET KNIGHTS!

  2. SuperStuff 09/11/2008 at 11:39 AM #

    I agree they don’t have Ray Rice anymore and UNC is in a good spot to win this.

  3. ChiefJoJo 09/11/2008 at 11:58 AM #

    I don’t know how much of this game I will see, but I would look for the Heels running game (OL) and the defensive line. Coming into this season, I actually agreed with a lot of the media that they had a chance to be good this year, and I still do. (Those 05/06 seasons where we were laying eggs in recruiting, Bunting actually did pretty well.)

    They have some talent, especially at WR and on the DL. I don’t doubt that guys like Nicks will do well, but it will be interesting to see how those young linemen fair on national TV. It was conceivable to compare the UNC ’08 DL to our ’04 DL in terms of potential, where the kids who got pushed around the previous year started to put things together. Whether the UNC DL can produce in college and put a bunch in the NFL remains to be seen.

    In any case, this will be a better predictor for UNC’s season than McNeese State.

  4. b 09/11/2008 at 12:03 PM #

    Fresno is no fluke, they will give the Badgers hell Saturday, and I think Rutgers is better than they looked.

  5. Pack92 09/11/2008 at 12:11 PM #

    Rutgers has Schiano. Nuff said. Rutgers by 10. Mcneese St. putting close to 400 yds total offense on the pansies was no fluke either.

  6. Dr. BadgerPack 09/11/2008 at 12:26 PM #

    “Fresno is no fluke, they will give the Badgers hell Saturday, and I think Rutgers is better than they looked.”

    That game scares the snot out of me. However, when the Badgers struggle against “lesser” opponents, it is usually in the second half. Therefore, Frensno will probably give them hell Sunday. (10:30 ET start). 🙂

  7. Greywolf 09/11/2008 at 12:29 PM #

    I’m going to watch the 9-11 stuff and record the game. If the holes get the heel beat out of them, I’ll watch the replay.

  8. Mike 09/11/2008 at 2:44 PM #

    Go Rutgers, my new favorite team! For tonight anyway they are my favorite.

    Hard to judge from an opening game – lots of factors and variables come into play on a 1st game. Most coaches will say more imprvement happens between weeks 1 and 2 than any other week during the season. But based on first games, UNX looked pretty bad and took a career record settingday from one guy to pull the game out. McNeese had 25 first downs, the Heels only 13. That statistic says a lot about a team. I hope Rutgers improves, and Fresno is better than most people think. I hope the Heels are stuck with no improvement over last week.

    Just a hunch, and while I think UNX could win this one, I give it to the home team in RED 31-24.

  9. graywolf 09/11/2008 at 4:28 PM #

    Go Rutgers

  10. Noah 09/11/2008 at 6:42 PM #

    What’s up with those unis? Did Dook and UNC merge?

  11. Ed89 09/11/2008 at 7:44 PM #

    I was thinking the same thing, Noah…UG!
    Couple of nice hits so far.

  12. haze 09/11/2008 at 8:05 PM #

    Caught a little radio pre-game for UNC and they were commenting on the navy blue pants. Basically, coaches since Dick Crum have been trying to get more navy blue into the unis and have generally been rebuffed by the AD’s. As a quote, one of the guys admitted that the navy is “a meaner, more sinister color.” They didn’t admit the even more obvious… that dark blue make them look too much like Duke.

  13. smile102 09/11/2008 at 9:04 PM #

    38-6. Play like this and they’ll get to wear any color they want….

  14. Ismael 09/12/2008 at 12:54 AM #

    I was a Rutgers fan tonight, but how frustrating must it have been for real Rutgers fans. Moving the ball up and down the field, done in by all kinds of boneheadedness. This was so reminiscent of when UNX and State played in Chapel Hole, what was it, ’04. Except we scored points.

    Observations: Greg Little has no clue what he’s doing. I love how he gets 2inches of open space and then he starts shuffling his feet like he probably did in high school (when that moved worked) thinking he’s gonna confuse a D1 linebacker.

    What was also frustrating was that those deep balls the Holes were throwing are defendable, but that one CB #25, looked like he didn’t care too much all night.

    Shaun Draughn is a much smarter,harder runner than Little. He should start. UNC still can’t really run the ball really. But right now they’ve got a pretty good passing attack. DE should take a long look at someone like Yates and realize you have to have a good arm in order to keep the 2ndary honest.

    Looks like Rutgers played alot of press-man (i think) on D. UNC played great early last year but the difference was when teams started playing zone and daring Yates to pass it knowing they could still stop the run. Yates played terrible pretty much after the Miami game. I am not sure why Rutgers didn’t recognize that, HAD to have been blown assignments especially on the the two Hakeem Nicks touchdowns…any body on a Tarhole blog could make those passes.

  15. primacyone 09/12/2008 at 7:54 AM #

    Rutgers secondary was horrible. But you have to give UNC credit. They did execute their offense well and took advantage of the opportunties Rutgers gave them.

  16. haze 09/12/2008 at 11:25 AM #

    ^ Precisely. Rutgers gave on O and D but UNC took what was given instead of dropping the INT’s and open passes.

    Frankly, it felt a little like a poor-man’s version of our 24-7 win over FSU when Weinke threw 6 INT’s. You don’t have to be great, just don’t screw up when the other team REALLY wants to hand you the ball.

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