Cal Hoping to Add to North Carolina's Woes in Belichick Year 1

The North Carolina Tar Heels, known more this season for the off-field chatter chasing first-year coach Bill Belichick’s program, visit Memorial Stadium on Friday night.

Cal and UNC kickoff at 7:30 p.m. in an ESPN nationally televised game.

Are there bigger games in the ACC this week? Sure. Certainly Louisville at No. 2 Miami qualifies. The Cardinals and Hurricanes get start at 4 p.m., also on ESPN.

But for Bay Area fans, the nightcap of the ACC doubleheader is the more tantalizing matchup.

Cal (4-2, 1-1) was picked 15th in the ACC and is a 10-point favorite over the Tar Heels (2-3, 0-1), who landed at No. 8 in the preseason conference poll.

It’s not merely that the Heels have under-achieved but they have been dogged by distractions and controversies, most of them at least tangentially connected to their 73-year-old coaching legend.

The Tar Heels arrived on Friday, sometime after a 3.0-magnitude earthquake lightly shoot the earth 1 mile from Berkeley.

Welcome to the Bay Area.

Here are the Week 8 matchups in the ACC:

(Point spreads provided by DraftKings)

FRIDAY

— Louisville (plus-13.5) at No. 2 Miami, 4 p.m., ESPN

This might be a different game at Louisville, where the Cardinals (4-1, 1-1) gave the Hurricanes a fierce battle last season before losing 52-45. But Miami (5-0, 1-0 ACC) is unbeaten Coral Gables the past two seasons and already has home wins this season vs. Notre Dame, South Florida and Florida. ‘Canes quarterback Carson Beck can build on his Heisman Trophy resume with a strong followup to his four-touchdown performance last week.

— North Carolina (plus-10) at Cal, 7:30 p.m., ESPN

Belichick has won his past five games played in the Bay Area, but he got nine touchdown passes from Tom Brady in the last three of those. The best quarterback on the field in this one will be Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, and the Cal freshman could have a big game against a UNC defense that allowed 906 yards an eight TDs through the air on 76-percent passing accuracy in three losses.

SATURDAY

No. 12 Georgia Tech (plus-1.5) at Duke, 9 a.m., ESPN

This is a duel between two of the three teams who are 3-0 in the ACC. Tech (6-0, 3-0) is 6-0 unbeaten thanks to three games decided by a touchdown or less. Duke (4-2, 3-0) responded from a 34-27 non-conference loss at Tulane by winning its first three conference games by a combined margin of 71 points.

UConn (plus-1.5) at Boston College, 9 a.m., ACC Network

The Eagles, last in the ACC at 0-4 in conference play, should get some confidence from their historic dominance of the Huskies. BC has a 13-1-2 lead in the all-time series. UConn arrives with some momentum, having won three in a row, including a 51-10 rout of FIU last week in which Joe Fagnano threw for 355 yards and four TDs.

SMU (plus-9.5) at Clemson, 12:30 p.m., ACC Network

The Tigers won 34-31 at SMU last season in their first-ever matchup. SMU (4-2, 2-0) already has lost twice to rivals from Texas but quarterback Kevin Jennings has 1,658 passing yards and 15 TDs. Cade Klubnik has completed better than 84 percent of his passes the past two weeks as Clemson (3-3, 2-2) began to find its way with lopsided wins over North Carolina and Boston College.

Washington State (plus-17.5) at No. 18 Virginia, 3:30 p.m., The CW Network

There is no bigger surprise in the ACC than Virginia (5-1, 3-0), which was picked 14th in the preseason media poll but is averaging 43 points a game, is tied for first, riding a four-game win streak and looking like a potential playoff team after its 30-27 win at Louisville. The Cougars (3-3) crushed San Diego State 36-13 in Week 2 and showed some spunk in a 24-21 road defeat to No. 4 Ole Miss last week.

Pittsburgh (plus-10.5) at Syracuse, 4:30 p.m., ACC Network

The oddsmakers apparently still aren’t sold on Pitt freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel. His two-game resume as a starter: Named ACC Rookie of the Week after passing for 323 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions in his debut to power a 48-7 win over Boston College, then ACC Player of the Week after throwing for 321 yards with two TDs and two INTs but also rushing for 64 yards in a 34-31 road win over then-No. 25 Florida State last Saturday. While the Panthers (4-2, 2-1) have found something, Syracuse (3-3, 1-2) has been outscored 69-21 by Duke and SMU since knocking off Clemson.

Florida State (minus-17.5) at Stanford, 7:30 p.m., ESPN

Stanford (2-4, 1-2) can rescue its season with a surprise victory in its first-ever shot at the Seminoles, but its 34-10 loss at SMU last week doesn’t provide much hope. FSU (3-3, 0-3) got a lot of mileage out of its 31-17 season-opening win over Alabama. But the Seminoles have allowed 108 points in conference games vs. Virginia, Miami and Pitt, losing all three despite averaging 30 points over that span.

Follow Jeff Faraudo on Twitter, Facebook and Bluesky

Recent articles:

Our Cal vs. UNC game preview

College Football News publisher says what about the Cal Bears?

Cal golfer sets course record at St. Andrews

We ask a North Carolina beat writer 5 Questions about Cal's next foe

Cal QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele enjoyed 'hairy' candy in a trip to Chinatown