The Chick Fil-A Kick Off Classic: Will UNC Have Enough Defense ?

Two years ago the first Chick Fil-A Kick Off Classic Game was played in The Georgia Dome featuring two of the top teams from The SEC and The ACC.  The first game was between Alabama and Clemson with 'Bama winning by 34-10 and the second Classic between Alabama and Virginia Tech with 'Bama winning by 34-24.  

It is hard to remember when an ACC team has beaten an SEC team at least in this decade. Alabama has certainly not had any problems with the ACC and nor for that matter has LSU, the SEC's next team to play in the Kickoff Classic.  

To make matters worse for UNC, going back to Gerry Dinardo Days 1997, the Tigers are 7-1 in games played in the Georgia Dome or 6-1 since 2000. LSU's only loss in the Dome is to The Georgia Bulldogs in the 2005 SEC Championship Game.  

Against the ACC this decade, LSU has soundly defeated both Miami (40-3) and Georgia Tech (38-3) in the Chick Fil-A bowls (or Peach Bowl)  of 2005 and 2008 respectively. Additionally, in Baton Rouge on Sept of 2007, LSU took on a No. 9 ranked Virginia Tech and soundly trounced them by 48-7.  

The Tigers were called underdogs in the two Bowl Games, and were only slight favorites against Va. Tech.  These games should stand as good examples of why we play games instead of predict winners. 

For this pre-season, The University of North Carolina has been rated as high as #18 in the polls and they have been expected to give The ACC their best opportunity to compete with and win against an SEC opponent. Their defense has received rave reviews and as many as 6 players have been projected to be top NFL Draft picks by ESPN.   

LSU's defense will not return many starters, but they will still have an extremely good mix of young talent with experienced returning players.  

This will be John Chavis's second full year as the Defensive Coordinator, and he plans to open up more and says he will be more aggressive.  

The LSU defense will not be the real concern this year, but it will be the LSU's offense under QB Jordan Jefferson that will be the major question mark that LSU must answer.

Unless The Tigers can solve those offensive problems that plagued them all of last year, there will continue to be skeptics about LSU football out there and Les Miles will continue to be on the Hot Seat.    

However, with  the NCAA investigations that are going on at the University of North Carolina this week, the prospects of The Kickoff Classic game have drastically changed directions. It appears UNC will lose as many as 4-6 starters off of their highly touted defense.   

Unconfirmed reports say that two players have already been suspended or dismissed and four more are likely to be dismissed before the Kickoff classic. This will decimate this Tar Heels defense completely.  

These six are associated with the tutor writing papers for them, but then coupled with the Agent/Assist Coach/Player scandal, it is easy to see that things are rapidly coming unraveled at UNC. Of course there is still two Players going to a Miami party violation that will further rip the Carolina Program.  

If all of these accusations are proven to be true, this could devastate the UNC's football fortunes for years to come, and it could even cost Coach Butch Davis his job.  

Because of these NCAA Investigations, the LSU vs UNC Game will no longer have the competitive flare it once proposed.  Even if these investigations had not come, UNC was going to a face far more formidable foe than they originally expected.  

However, the devastation to the UNC defense will cause The Tar Heels to struggle just to keep the game competitive, and unless LSU does itself in with mistakes, I see LSU cruising with an easy first game victory against an out manned UNC team.

This game was supposed to be an early test for both teams, but more so for LSU and Les Miles as he has a lot to prove to this LSU fan base.    

But, now the NCAA investigations against UNC have put an ugly cloud over this once highly anticipated conference match up.