Between unsavory academic behavior and improper dealings with student-athletes hiring agents, it has been a shaky boat recently in Chapel Hill. <\/p>\n
ACC 2011-12 Football Previews: North Carolina Tar Heels<\/strong> North Carolina just lately fired head coach Butch Davis and school AD (Athletic Director) Dick Baddour also resigned. <\/p>\n In steps former defensive co-ordinator Everett Withers, who has experience as a position coach in the NFL and as the \u201cD\u201d co-ordinator at Minnesota before Davis brought him in at UNC in 2008.<\/p>\n Amidst all this scandal and bad press, lost is the fact that Davis has been yielding strong recruiting classes for the past several years. The Tar Heels finished 8-5 last year despite having a slew of players suspended, and several former Carolina starters have graced NFL depth charts in the past few years. <\/p>\n If the Tar Heels\u2019 players and coaching staff can put all the nonsense behind them, the talent is still very much present in 2011 –\u00a0 North Carolina could field a highly competitive ACC team.<\/p>\n One thing Davis seemed especially good at was signing defensive players with NFL-calibre tools. There are a few in the 2011 starting lineup who certainly fit the bill: DE Quinton Coples, DT Tydreke Powell, LB Kevin Reddick and CB Charles Brown all have the skill to potentially be first-team ACC players. The \u201cD\u201d should be big, fast, and able to generate turnovers.<\/p>\n On the other side of the ball, there is less star power, but the brightest star is WR Dwight Jones. The senior had 62 receptions last year to lead the team, and nearly cracked 1,000 yards receiving (946).\u00a0 <\/p>\n The offensive line looks decently promising with junior guard Jonathan Cooper and sophomore tackle James Hurst.<\/p>\n Senior K Casey Barth is also a good one.<\/p>\n The Heels must replace veteran pivot T.J. Yates, who departs as the school\u2019s all-time leading passer. There are some highly-touted prospects waiting in the wings, but the likely starter is sophomore Bryn Renner. Renner could be a decent starting QB, but to fill Yates\u2019s shoes is obviously a significant challenge. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n Starting RB Ryan Houston has suffered through injuries and suspensions in his time donning the baby blue, he should be back this year but is a 245-lb slobberknocker who lacks home-run speed. A change of pace in the backfield must be found; perhaps that job can fall to 5\u201d10, 185-lb freshman Romar Morris.<\/p>\n Put simply, after WR Jones, there really isn\u2019t a tremendous amount of talent at the offensive skill positions.<\/p>\n North Carolina has a lot of adversity to overcome and if it didn\u2019t have such a powder-puff schedule this season, I would call for a poorer finish. However, UNC could very well start the season 6-0. <\/p>\n The schedule doesn\u2019t get honest until Oct. 15, when the Heels face Miami and Clemson in consecutive weeks.<\/p>\n Withers must calm his players and provide focus, as this football program desperately needs to restore some integrity. <\/p>\n A nine-win or perhaps a double-digit win season would do wonders to achieve that end \u2013 provided UNC players can start cracking the books and stop hiring agents and scamming people.<\/p>\n 9\/3\/11\t 3:30 PM ET\t JMAD NCAA football preview guide for the 2011 UNC Tar Heels NCAAF betting season. NCAA football gambling guru James Hayes weighs in with his college football picks, and BCS National champion cappers analysis\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":28343,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[50744,44530,50747,16037,11892,49957,51072,51073,51074,2487,51075,18522],"class_list":["post-41337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2011-acc-football-previews","tag-2012-bcs-lines","tag-acc-football-predictions","tag-acc-odds","tag-acc-picks","tag-bcs-sportsbook-odds","tag-north-carolina-football-predictions","tag-north-carolina-gambling-odds","tag-north-carolina-schedule","tag-north-carolina-tar-heels","tag-tar-heels-bcs-futures","tag-tar-heels-predictions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41337"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41473,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41337\/revisions\/41473"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCoach: <\/strong>Everett Withers
\n2010 Record: <\/strong>8-5
\nNorth Carolina Gambling Odds from Sportsbook.com to win BCS: +10000<\/strong>
\nUNC Team Page – Players Stats – Roster – 2011 Schedule –><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nTeam Strengths<\/h3>\n
Team Weaknesses<\/h3>\n
2011-12 North Carolina Football Prediction: 9-4<\/h3>\n
2011 UNC Tar Heels Schedule<\/h3>\n
\n9\/10\/11\t 12:30 PM ET\tRUTG
\n9\/17\/11\t 3:30 PM ET\tVIRG
\n9\/24\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @GATCH
\n10\/1\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @ECAR
\n10\/8\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tLOU
\n10\/15\/11 12:00 PM ET\tMIAMI
\n10\/22\/11 12:00 PM ET\t @CLEM
\n10\/29\/11 12:00 PM ET\tWFRST
\n11\/5\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @NCST
\n11\/17\/11 8:00 PM ET\t @VATCH
\n11\/26\/11 12:00 PM ET\tDUKE<\/p>\nClick here to check out MORE 2011 college football previews for the 2011-2012 NCAA Football Season!<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"