Associated Press
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. ó Marc Verica and the Virginia football team are feeling a lot better about things now that they’ve ended their inept start by winning two games in a row.
What the Cavaliers can’t do, the sophomore quarterback said this week, is act like they’ve got everything figured out as they prepare for a visit from No. 18 North Carolina today.
Virginia (3-3, 1-1 ACC) has looked like a different team in its past two games.
But the Tar Heels (5-1, 1-1) are also on a roll, having won three in a row to climb to their highest spot in the top 25 since they were No. 12 in the preseason a decade ago.
To keep their winning streak going, North Carolina will not only have to do it without dynamic receiver and kick returner Brandon Tate, who is out for the year, but to end a skid that has seen them drop their last 13 visits to Scott Stadium, a streak stretching to 1981.
It would be the kind of victory the team could build on, UNC linebacker Mark Paschal said.
“That’d be a huge step, just to get that off our back,” he said. “Every year it seems like we play Virginia ó ‘Oh, you haven’t beaten them there in 30 years or whatever.’ I would love for some guys next year to be sitting in this seat not having to answer these questions.”
Quarterback Cameron Sexton notes that the Tar Heels have already ended other droughts.
“We haven’t” won in Charlottesville in a long time, he said, “but we also haven’t had any success on the road before this year,” he said.