University of North Carolina Athletics
Georgia Tech Game Guide
November 16, 2007 | Football
Nov. 16, 2007
By Lauren Brownlow
Every Thursday, check TarHeelBlue.com for the latest edition of the Game Guide, which provides all the information you need to get ready for gameday.
The Basics
North Carolina (3-7, 2-4) is looking to rebound from losing its shot at a bowl game at rival NC State in a 31-27 loss. The loss marked Carolina's fifth loss this season by seven or fewer points and third by four or fewer points. Georgia Tech (6-4, 3-4) is coming off a 41-24 victory at Duke and it needs just one win to secure an above-.500 record this season for the 12th straight year. The Jackets are already bowl-eligible for the 11th straight season. Georgia Tech leads the all-time series 22-17-3 and 14-7 in Atlanta. Georgia Tech has won the last two meetings and eight of the last nine. The last time Carolina won in Atlanta was 1997 and the last time Carolina beat Georgia Tech was 2004 in Chapel Hill.
Game Time: North Carolina at Georgia Tech, 12:00 PM, Raycom/Lincoln Financial Sports.
Carolina's game notes can be here.
Last Time: No. 19 Georgia Tech came into Kenan Stadium last season on November 11th and beat Carolina in a low-scoring affair, 7-0. It was a defensive battle in which Carolina held the Yellow Jackets to the lowest yardage total by a Carolina opponent all season, 221 yards. But Carolina gained just 211 yards. But ultimately it was a Georgia Tech 20-play, 83-yard touchdown drive capped off by a second-quarter touchdown that was the difference.
Joe Dailey completed 13-of-34 passes for 156 yards and two interceptions, but was sacked just once. Ronnie McGill led the Tar Heels in rushing with 73 yards on 20 attempts. Jesse Holley had five catches for 32 yards, but Brooks Foster led the Tar Heels in reception yardage with 57 on three catches. Tashard Choice ran for 119 yards and one touchdown for the game's only score. Reggie Ball completed just 10-of-24 passes for 78 yards and an interception. Star wide receiver Calvin Johnson was held to just three catches for 13 yards.
Gameday Weather: Check the local weather forecast before heading for the game.
Radio Coverage: Tar Heel Sports Network coverage begins at 11:00 AM. The radio broadcast is also available on XM Channel 191 at 12:00 PM. Since it's an away game, the Georgia Tech broadcasters will be heard instead of the Tar Heel Sports Network crew.
TV Coverage: The game will be shown regionally on Raycom/Lincoln Financial Sports.
Game week TV/radio coverage: The Butch Davis Radio Show will be broadcast live from the Top of the Hill restaurant on Franklin Street every Thursday at 7:00. Inside the Huddle with Butch Davis airs Saturday morning at 9 a.m. on FOX Sports, 10 a.m. on MASN and 11 a.m. on WTVD in the Triangle. The Tar Heel Rewind show featuring highlights of the previous week's games will air Tuesday's at 7 p.m. and Thursday's at 8 p.m. in the Triangle and Fayetteville.
Storylines
Running the ball/stopping the run: In the last few games, Carolina's offense and defense have seemed to be going in opposite directions. The defense had shown significant improvement whereas the offense was turning the ball over and having trouble moving the ball. Carolina has been out-rushed by 400 yards this season, 1387 to 937. Carolina is averaging 93.7 yards per game on the ground and allowing 138.7. Carolina has eight rushing touchdowns and has allowed 16. Last week against NC State, Carolina had a season-low 12 yards rushing. "They were doing a good job of shedding blocks, putting a lot of pressure and bringing the blitz. I thought we did a decent job of executing but they just brought it and they fought harder during that first half. I thought we got it together a little bit, starting running on them a little bit in the second half trying to open up our play-action," T.J. Yates said.
Carolina has certainly struggled by putting itself into early holes, turning the ball over and giving the other team either a touchdown or a good chance at one. The offense seems to lack any sort of rhythm when not in the two-minute drill; the last successful quarter Carolina has had running the ball was the first quarter against Maryland. Carolina was able to do just enough rushing in that game to eat up the clock and win. But against NC State, Carolina was just down by too much, too early to try to re-establish the run. "We just haven't been able to establish it early in the game. I think when we come out early in the game - as we've seen in most games that we won or had a chance to win - we came out in the first quarter and we were able to establish some sort of a run. I think we need to be able to do that to give ourselves a chance in these games," center Scott Lenahan said. "Against NC State, obviously we didn't do a very good job of running the ball at all. If you can't run the ball, it makes you susceptible to defenses blitzing you and things like that and it makes the game twice as hard already."
Georgia Tech has the No. 1 rushing offense in the ACC with 211.6 yards per game. Carolina has already faced the No. 2 (Miami), No. 4 (Wake Forest), No. 5 (Maryland) and No. 6 (Virginia Tech) and 7 (Virginia). Carolina is 2-5 in those games and lost only one of those games by more than seven points. Carolina's rushing defense is ninth in the league, allowing 138.7 yards per game. Carolina allowed 167 yards of rushing to NC State last weekend, its most allowed since 194 yards on the ground it gave up at South Florida in the fourth game. Georgia Tech's rushing offense has averaged 168.0 yards in league games (2nd in the league) and Carolina's rushing defense has allowed 144.8 yards in league games (8th in the league).
Georgia Tech has the No. 2 total defense in the league (293.0 yards per game allowed) and the No. 2 rushing defense, allowing 90.5 yards per game. Georgia Tech has held league opponents to 101.6 yards per game (4th in the league). Carolina's rushing offense is 11th in the league with 93.7 yards per game. In league games, Carolina's rushing offense is 10th in the league at 94.3 yards per game. The Yellow Jacket defense has held six out of its ten opponents to under 100 yards rushing and is 4-2 in those games. Last week against Duke, it held the Blue Devils to just 24 yards rushing, the lowest total this season since holding Notre Dame to -8 yards on the ground in the season-opener.
Carolina has not won a game this season in which it rushed for fewer than 100 yards and is 2-3 in games in which it has surpassed that mark. In the two games that it lost when surpassing 100 yards, the margin was a combined 13 points (Virginia Tech and South Carolina). Carolina's highest rushing total of the season was against Miami and it was also Carolina's largest margin of victory against a Division I-A foe (six points). Georgia Tech has had more rushing yards than passing yards in six out of ten games this season and is 5-1 in those games. The Yellow Jackets have rushed for fewer than 100 yards just once this season (a loss to Boston College) and has rushed for fewer than 125 yards three times and is 0-3 in those games. The only game in which Georgia Tech rushed for more than 150 yards and lost was at Maryland (175 yards).
Slow starts: Carolina has had issues starting off games well, especially on offense. Carolina has turned the ball over on its first drive of the game in the last three games. "It's about efficiency. Two of the last three ballgames we've started off with an interception on the second play of the game. That's not the ideal way to start the game. It's an emotional and psychological letdown for the defense. They've got to go out and play in the red zone. For the offense, it's a bummer. And that's just part of the turnover situation. We've got to do a better job protecting the football and trying to create turnovers," Davis said.
Carolina has not scored a touchdown in the first quarter of its last four games. In Carolina's last two losses, Carolina's offense has averaged 2.7 yards per play (at Wake Forest) and 2.6 yards per play (at NC State) in the first half and has scored a combined six points in the first half of both games. Carolina faced a combined 41-13 deficit in its last two losses at halftime and the Tar Heels are 3-0 when leading at the half and 0-7 when tied or trailing.
Carolina has scored an offensive touchdown in the first half of just four games this season and it is 2-2 in those games. Carolina started off the season scoring quickly against James Madison, East Carolina and Virginia but failed to score in the first half until the Miami game. Even against NC State, the lone first-half touchdown was an interception return. In the first half against NC State, Carolina's offense had just three points, one interception, one missed field goal, converted 1-of-6 third downs and averaged 2.6 yards per play. But in the second half, facing a 24-10 deficit, Carolina was able to score ten points offensively (plus another interception return), average 4.7 yards per play, convert 1-of-8 third downs and 2-of-3 fourth downs. It just wasn't enough.
Carolina's defense is not blameless; Carolina has allowed long drives early on to both Wake Forest and NC State for touchdowns. But for the most part, Carolina's defense in the past few games has been doing the best it can when it is put in bad field-position situations. After three straight interceptions on the first drive of the game offensively, Carolina's defense then held the other team to two field goals and a punt. Carolina has been outscored in the first and third quarters of games 142 to 86 but by has outscored opponents by a margin of 123-111 in the second and fourth quarters. The Carolina defense's best quarter has been the fourth, in which it has allowed just 51 points. Georgia Tech has struggled in the first quarter this season more than any other, holding a margin of just +2 points (74-72). But it holds a 64-38 advantage in the second quarter, a 71-38 edge in the third and a 60-27 edge in the fourth.
"I've asked myself probably for the last 8-9 weeks about slow starts. What potentially could be attributed to why do you get off to slow starts some of the time when you're playing? The only thing that I can come up with is that certainly it might be indicative of a young football team with a lot of young players that really don't know. A lot of these guys, they've never played Georgia Tech. They don't know what Georgia Tech did last year. So it's kind of like, `Let's wait and see what they do so we can figure out how we're going to react.' That's the only thing that I can kind of come up with," Davis said.
This team is still young, and youth is definitely a part of the slow starts. However, this team as a whole has played enough games that the young guys need to be able to adjust more quickly and start off well from the beginning. Carolina has had success this season when it is able to do that and it has not when it gets in an early hole. On the road against a tough Georgia Tech defense, that simply cannot happen.
Carolina's road woes: Carolina has not won a game outside the state since 2002 at Arizona State. The Tar Heels have not won a road game this season and the games have either been close losses (3 points to ECU, 7 points to Virginia Tech and 4 points to NC State) or blowout losses (27 points to both South Florida and Wake Forest). Carolina has not won in Atlanta since 1997. Prior to this season's 17-10 loss at Virginia Tech, Carolina's narrowest road loss outside the state was in Atlanta in 2005 when it lost 27-21.
The last road game Carolina won was at Duke in the final game of the 2006 season. In 2005, Carolina's lone road win was at NC State, 31-24. The 2004 Tar Heels won road games at Wake and at Duke. Inside North Carolina in the last four seasons, Carolina is 4-3 on the road. Outside of North Carolina in the last four seasons, the Tar Heels been outscored in road games by a combined margin of 501-170. This season so far, Carolina has been outscored by its fewest margin outside of North Carolina (34 points) in its last four seasons. Carolina was outscored by 107 points last season outside the state and 106 in the 2005 season.
One of the stranger aspects of Carolina's road woes this season is that the two games that the Carolina offense struggled with noise the most - South Florida and Wake Forest - are not widely considered especially loud venues. In contrast, Carolina did fine at Virginia Tech and moved to a silent count at NC State that seemed to work fairly well. "We didn't handle the crowd noise, surprisingly, at South Florida very well. We had some issues down in red zone that really surprised me because the crowd wasn't nearly as large as it was. We did much, much better at Virginia Tech. Wake was somewhat of a loud crowd, even though it wasn't a large crowd. We had some procedure penalties there certainly in the first half and a lot of that was due to the stemming and the jumping and the moving around and I think that they kind of unnerved some of our players," Davis said. "With the Georgia Tech offensive line - 151 starts with your five offensive linemen as compared to I don't know how many with our players, I'd have to count it up - but every time they play they get a chance to deal with crowd noise, deal with stems, deal with guys slanting and stemming around, you expect to hopefully get a little bit better."
Redshirt freshman Kendric Burney returned an interception for a touchdown last week and he was very surprised to hear about Carolina's road woes. "Wow, I didn't know that stat. I have no earthly idea why, but hopefully this weekend the team will get it together and we'll go down to Georgia Tech and pull out a `W'," Burney said. "It just takes trust, and that's the biggest thing about our team this year is trusting each other. So we're just going to bond together this week and these next two weeks, we're going to pull off some `W's."
At The Game
Listening to the Tar Heel Sports Network at the game: The in-stadium feed in Bobby Dodd Stadium will be 87.9 FM.
Tickets: The game is a sellout.
How to get to the game: For parking and traffic flow information, click here. Check the Georgia Tech fan guide for other questions.
What to do in Atlanta: Check out Georgia Tech's Visitor's Guide for a comprehensive list of local attractions, hotels and restaurants.
Watching At Home
Turn down the sound: If you're watching at home while listening to the radio or over the computer via Carolina All-Access, there will inevitably be some delay. For the reason - and a possible solution - click here.
A full list of THSN affiliates can be found here.
Raycom/Lincoln Financial Sports coverage: The game will be shown regionally on Raycom/Lincoln Financial Sports. Check the list of affiliates to see if the game will be shown in your area.
Names To Know
Scott Lenahan: The senior center has struggled with injuries throughout his Carolina career, which is nearing its end. But Lenahan has always been a very intelligent offensive lineman and is very adept at making the calls at the line. He has faced Georgia Tech's defense three times in his career and his calls at the line helping his teammates adjust to the many different looks that defense will throw at them will be important.
"I'm definitely going to have my work cut out for me. They move their defense around a lot, and you just have to keep your eyes up and be ready for the different movement that they bring. They do a great job of giving you different looks on the blitzes and things like that. They blitz more than half the game, so that definitely adds to the complexity of getting ready for a team," Lenahan said. "(It's) just the variety of the blitzes that they bring, and not only that, but also how much they bring them. They blitz up to 55 times in a game, which is a lot of blitzes. So you know you've got your work cut out for you. You've definitely got to keep your head on a swivel, keep your eyes up and looking around. So that makes it harder in that aspect to be ready for whatever is coming, because you never know what's going to come or when it's going to come."
Georgia Tech has 42 sacks on the season, which leads the league. The only team that comes close is Virginia, a team that has played one more game than every other team because they have not yet had a bye week. The Yellow Jackets have 29 sacks in league play in seven games, second only to Carolina's 21 sacks in six league games. Lenahan is a native of Marietta, Georgia and his high school teammate Tyler Evans returns punts for Georgia Tech and he is returning to play in Atlanta for just the second time in his career.
Brandon Tate: Even though Tate has not had more than three catches in any game this season, he is still averaging 41.6 yards per game, god for third on the team behind Nicks and Foster, and is tied with Nicks for the lead in receiving touchdowns with four. He is also third on the team in receptions with 20. His 36 points made him Carolina's second-leading scorer.
In Carolina's first three games, Tate was targeted 14 times and hauled in seven catches for 208 yards and three touchdowns. In the next three games, Tate was targeted 15 times and caught just five passes for 70 yards and no touchdowns. Against Miami, he was targeted seven times and caught three passes for 54 yards and also had two rushes for 64 yards and a touchdown. But in Carolina's three games after that (South Carolina, Wake Forest and Maryland) he was targeted a combined seven times and had just four catches, including no listed targets and no catches against Maryland (the only game without a catch for Tate this season). But against NC State, he was targeted five times for 68 yards and caught a 50-yard pass from Bobby Rome.
Tate leads the ACC in all-purpose yards with 152.3 per game. His 1,523 yards in ten games already ranks sixth on Carolina's single-season all-purpose yardage list. Tate needs just 27 yards to break the ACC record for kickoff return yardage. If Tate returns just four more kickoffs, he will break the all-time record for total kickoff returns. Tate is also close to breaking his own single-season North Carolina records for kickoff returns and kickoff return yardage. Four more returns and 57 more yards this season, he will do just that.
Tate is dangerous every time he touches the ball and he appears to have gotten out of a rhythm with Yates a bit. There have been several almost-touchdowns between the two in the last few weeks, and if any week he is due to finally haul in one of them, this is it.
Connor Barth: This season, Barth is Carolina's leading scorer with 63 points. He is 15-of-17 this season and has made 26 of his last 28. He is 9-9 inside of 40 yards, but has still made 6-8 from 40 or more yards away with a long of 51. Barth has also been giving Carolina's kickoff coverage a chance to improve; on 48 kickoffs this season, he is averaging 62.5 yards and has seven touchbacks. Carolina's opponents have averaged 62.3 yards and have five touchbacks. Before the bye week, Barth was averaging 60.4 yards per kickoff; since then, Barth is averaging 67.6 yards.
Barth has made 50 career field goals and is now just two behind Josh McGee's record of 52. After his nine points against NC State, Barth ranks fourth on Carolina's career scoring list with 250 points. He will not break Leon Johnson's record of 306 points, but it is possible that he could come close to Josh McGee's place-kicker record of 271 points. He will almost certainly pass the third place player, former tailback Mike Voight who had 254 points. Barth is one of 20 semifinalists for the Lou Groza Award.
Barth will likely be important against Georgia Tech because the Yellow Jackets' red zone defense has allowed a league-low 16 scores, five of those on field goals. Georgia Tech is not a team that gives up a lot of points and if Carolina gets to the red zone (the Jackets have allowed opponents there a league-low 21 times), Barth may be Carolina's best chance for points. Carolina threw two red-zone interceptions in last year's loss to Georgia Tech and Barth did not attempt a field goal. As his Carolina career winds down, Barth is eager to continue getting his chances to help put points on the board for the Tar Heels.
Tashard Choice: The senior running back was widely considered to be the best back in the league before the season began, and he has lived up that billing. He is the leading rusher in the ACC with 114.9 yards per game and is the only person averaging over 100 yards in the league. His 5.4 yards per carry average also ranks 2nd in the league. Choice's 126.1 all-purpose yards per game ranks sixth in the league. He is also tied for fourth in scoring touchdowns in the league with nine. Choice's average increases to 117.3 yards in six league games. Last week against Duke, he rushed for 170 yards and two scores.
Choice is the first player to lead the league in rushing in back-to-back seasons since Virginia's Thomas Jones in 1998 and 1999 and the first player in Georgia Tech history have 1,000 yards rushing in two consecutive seasons. He has rushed for 100 yards in six games this season out of nine total (he missed one due to injury). After the huge game Carolina allowed to Jamelle Eugene, who is now the league's third-leading rusher in ACC games, Choice will present an enormous challenge to this defense. "We're definitely going to have to gang-tackle this guy. He runs hard and he's always pumping his legs, so we're definitely going to gang-tackle him because he's one of the top backs in the nation," Kendric Burney said.
Vance Walker: This season has been a coming-out party for the junior defensive tackle. Last week against Duke, he had just two assisted tackles but one of those assists was on a sack. Against Virginia Tech two games ago, Walker had seven solo tackles and a sack. In a loss at Maryland earlier this season, he had just four tackles but 2.0 sacks and 3.5 tackles for loss. In league games only, Walker ranks 4th in sacks (5.5) and eighth in tackles for loss (9.0).
Phillip Wheeler: Georgia Tech's pre-season All-ACC senior linebacker is a big part of the reason that its defense is so fearsome. Wheeler leads the team in tackles and ranks 22nd in the ACC with 62 (27 solo) and is tied for eighth in the league in sacks (6.0). In league games only, Wheeler ranks 19th in tackles with 50 (24 solo) and has 4.5 sacks against ACC foes. Wheeler ranks second on his team in passes defended with five, is tied for first in fumbles recovered with two, ranks third on his team in sacks and fifth in tackles for loss with 8.0. He also has a forced fumble and quarterback hurry on the season. In Georgia Tech's last two games, Wheeler has 14 tackles (six solo) and 1.5 sacks.
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly
