CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — North Carolina hopes to alter the course of its descending season towards Georgia Tech on Saturday at Kenan Stadium (midday, CW Network).
The Yellow Jackets (4-2 general, 2-2 ACC) are guided by coach Brent Key, who's in his second full season. He was named caretaker coach 4 video games into the 2022 season, subsequent to the ousting of Geoff Collins, now the defensive coordinator of the Tar Heels. Key was elevated to the full-time head place after the 2022 season.
Georgia Tech achieved the first shock of this faculty soccer season by upsetting ACC preseason favourite Florida State on Aug. 24 in Ireland. The Yellow Jackets have since secured house victories over VMI (59-7) and Georgia State (35-12), and fought again to defeat Duke (24-14) final week. Saturday marks Georgia Tech's third real street recreation of convention play. Those earlier street duties have concluded in defeats at Syracuse (31-28) and Louisville (31-19).
“They're 4-2, they're much like Pittsburgh,” UNC coach Mack Brown stated this week. “They're physical, they can rush the ball. … They employ a lot of shifting and motion, and they have really good skill players. So they do a good job of getting the ball to their skill individuals in space.”
The triumphant starting of the season for UNC (3-3, 0-2) appears distant, with the Tar Heels slipping and sliding amidst their three-game shedding streak. Carolina has adopted its traditionally disastrous 70-50 loss to James Madison and crumbling 21-20 defeat at Duke, with a 34-24 defeat to Pitt final week. Missed alternatives in essential moments finally sank the Tar Heels. UNC transformed 2-of-6 fourth down makes an attempt. The Tar Heels are tied for final place in the expanded 17-team ACC soccer standings alongside NC State and California.
Georgia Tech has been the bogeyman for the Tar Heels in latest seasons. The Yellow Jackets have gained 5 of the final six encounters between these groups, together with the final three consecutively. Carolina was ranked and closely favored in every of these three losses, labeled a 14½-point favourite in 2021, 21½-point favourite in 2022 and 12½-point favourite in the earlier season. The Tar Heels in 2022, naturally, had been recent off clinching the ACC's Coastal Division crown and had risen to No. 13 in the AP Top 25 ballot, earlier than Georgia Tech entered Kenan Stadium and executed a shock.
UNC hasn't dropped 4 straight regular-season matches since 2018, the program's remaining 12 months underneath former coach Larry Fedora. Here are some notable key areas about the Yellow Jackets, who're off to their finest six-game begin since 2017. Georgia Tech is aiming to improve to 5-2 for the first occasion since 2014.
