Our next game includes a team that missed the Big East title by one point at home and an ACC team that ended its season with a one point loss to their rival at NC State.
Pittsburgh (9-3, 5-2 Big East) vs. North Carolina (8-4, 4-4 ACC)
December 26, 2009 4:30 PM ET
Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, North Carolina
History
The Meineke Car Care Bowl was originally the Queen City Bowl while it was in the planning stages. When Continental Tire picked up sponsorship, the bowl became the Continental Tire Bowl until 2004. Meineke became the chief sponsor and the Meineke Car Care Bowl was born.
Surprisingly this is one of the bigger drawing bowl games. The game is played in 73,367 seat Bank of America Stadium (home of the Carolina Panthers) and last year drew a crowd of 73,712 for a game between West Virginia and North Carolina. That crowd was the fourth most in the 2008-2009 bowl season, and 2nd most of the non-BCS bowls. Yes, it drew more fans than three BCS bowls that year…may have something to do with it being essentially a home game for UNC.
Both of these teams have played in this game before. Pittsburgh played Virginia in 2003 (while it was the Continental Tire Bowl) and lost 23-16. North Carolina has played in this game twice previously; once in 2004 where they lost to Boston College 37-24 and then again last year in 2008 when West Virginia beat the Tarheels 31-30. One of these teams will finally get the proverbial monkey off their back this year.
Pittsburgh
The Panthers had a decent season – other than a road bump in the middle – before falling apart in their last two games of the season. Pittsburgh did not run a particularly deep gauntlet of teams, though they did beat Navy 27-14. They also defeated Notre Dame 27-22, as useful as that is. They rolled over the majority of the Big Least, though Connecticut and Rutgers gave them a challenge.
The road bump they ran into was the only ACC team that Pitt has faced all season. The Panthers traveled to NC State and lost 38-31. Their second loss came at West Virginia 19-16 in a game that West Virginia felt gave them revenge for Pitt knocking the Mountaineers out of contention for the National Championship two years before. The next week in Pittsburgh undefeated Cincinnati and Pittsburgh did battle on a snowy day. The difference ended up being a missed extra point by Pittsburgh as Cincinnati completed their undefeated regular season.
The Panthers are led by Quarterback Bill Stull. Stull has a very good season throwing for 2470 yards 21 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. He’s a solid passer with a 64.6% completion percentage on 297 attempts. He’s a traditional pocket passer with a limited running threat, though he does have a 16 yard carry to his name.
Pittsburgh plays a more conservative style of game and prefers to run rather than throw. The result is the incredible stats for Freshman (!!) Dion Lewis. In 297 carries (of the 443 total) he has gained 1640 yards and 16 touchdowns. He was the primary reason that Pittsburgh was able to hang with Cincinnati a couple weeks ago as he put up 194 yards on a Pittsburgh record 47 carries and rang up 194 yards running. Those are some pretty good stats against the top team in the Big East. This kid is gonna be good, so don’t be surprised to see his name in the ranks of the Heisman attendee’s in the next couple years.
Stull has 2 favorite receivers and 2 more who make a couple catches every game. The top receiver is Jonathan Baldwin who has an incredible 20 yards per catch average on 54 receptions. He’s scored 8 touchdowns and gained 1080 yards with a 79 yard long score. He is a huge scoring threat on the field, but his partner in crime is pretty good too. Dorin Dickerson has caught 45 passes for 508 yards and 10 touchdowns on the season. The pair of them are probably one of the best receiving tandems in the nation and provide a great counterpoint to Dion Lewis. If all three players return next season, this could be a truly elite offense.
North Carolina
UNC has had an up and down season so far this year. The Heels beat a couple ranked teams this year. In the 8th game of the year, UNC traveled to play #13 Virginia Tech and walked away from Blacksburg with a 20-17 victory. A couple weeks later the #14 Hurricanes came to Chapel Hill and had a rough time in a 33-24 loss. Against Connecticut, the only Big East team UNC faced all season, they won 12-10 (Pittsburgh also beat UConn 24-21).
North Carolina has fallen victim to a loss in four games this season. Early on in the ACC season they lost at Georgia Tech and against Virginia by a combined score of 40-10. What’s worse is that North Carolina lost to Florida State by 3 in the middle of the ACC regular season. We all know how bad Florida State has been the last couple years, so this loss seems ugly – especially in Chapel Hill!
Quarterback TJ Yates is the man under center for the Tarheels . Yates is a literal turnover machine throwing more interceptions than he has touchdowns this year (12 touchdowns, 14 interceptions). In fact he throws 1 interception for every 14 completions on average. If Pittsburgh’s secondary can be opportunistic on Saturday they will be able to take advantage of Yates’ mistakes. On the plus side, Yates does throw a 60% completion percentage and almost 2000 yards on the season so he’s no slouch.
Like Pittsburgh, North Carolina’s offense revolves around their running game. The Tarheels have a pair of runningbacks that have combined for 291 of UNC’s approximately 400 running plays. Ryan Houston has the most carries on the team (167) and gained 630 yards and a team leading 9 touchdowns. His friend in the backfield, Shaun Draughn (his parents hated him), was much more efficient gaining 567 yards on 124 carries, but only scored once for all his attempts. Neither one has had a homerun this season – Houston has only gained a 20 yard long for the season, though Draughn hit a 44 yarder during the year.
UNC has thrown passes to 16 different receivers this year, but only 3 are thrown to with any consistency. Greg Little has 3 touchdowns to his name, most of any of the receivers, on 55 receptions and 637 yards. Erik Highsmith and Zack Pianalto have similar stats at 34 and 31 receptions and 387 and 308 yards respectively. They’ve combined for 3 touchdowns, emphasizing the point that the UNC passing game is not the primary threat on this team.
Who Are We Picking?
Jeff at the BBC: Pittsburgh
Mali: Pittsburgh
Jim: North Carolina
Eric: Pittsburgh
This game has every look of going Pittsburgh’s way. Pittsburgh appears to have the better offense, and the defenses appear to be on equal footing. North Carolina appears to have faced a tougher schedule during the course of the season suggesting that this might be a pretty solid matchup. The ACC has won 6 of the 7 matchups in this bowl game despite being the lower ranked team for their respective conference. The Big East, however, won the last game though only by a single point, so the history of this “series” favors the ACC.
I hope everyone enjoys their weekend of college football!
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
