North Carolina Football: 3 bold predictions for season-opener vs. Syracuse
By Nick Fiore
3. Sam Howell for Heisman gets off to slow start
I love Sam Howell this year and think he’s primed for a monster season, but in the first game when there could be some rust, he may struggle against a good Syracuse secondary.
The Orange base defensive scheme is a 3-3-5. The original idea behind adding the extra defensive back is to help against the air raid and spread offense; UNC runs a variety of the air raid. This scheme is pretty rare and Howell hasn’t faced it a ton if at all. More than just the different defensive scheme Syracuse runs, their secondary is the strength of the defense and one of the better groups in the ACC.
Andre Cisco is one of the best safeties in the country. He’s great at reading quarterbacks and jumping routes, as the current active interception leader out of all the players in the country. If Howell is a bit rusty to start the game and makes a couple mistakes, Cisco could make him pay.
Safety Eric Coley and corner Trill Williams are both studs and should be great matchups against the Carolina receiving core of Dazz Newsome and Dyami Brown. Granted the best time to face a new or different scheme is when you have the most preparation time, so having the past few weeks since the team’s been allowed to practice to focus on this defense should benefit Howell and the offense.
Over the second half of last season, the Carolina offense turned into a top 10 unit averaging 39 points a game, after struggling to start the season. They could definitely continue that momentum and put up points this Saturday, but I do think it’ll take at least a few drives before that happens.