Mario Cristobal Knows UNC Will Give Miami a Tough Game

North Carolina and Miami will meet for what should be one of the more interesting games of the college football slate this week. 

North Carolina is in a position where it has to impress on both sides of the ball if it wants to come away with a win, though one could also argue this could be a trap game for Miami. 

Miami doesn't have to play a perfect game to beat a squad like North Carolina, as we've seen before, but if the Hurricanes don't come out and do what's needed offensively and defensively, they're not going to be too happy with the results. 

The reality is that Bill Belichick has his guys playing a lot better football than they did during his first season, and some coaches around the country are starting to take notice of that.

North Carolina is still 4-3 and just 2-2 in the ACC, which isn't great, but the Hurricanes have a lot of respect for what Belichick and his team have been able to do this year, even going as far as to say that it's possible that North Carolina could be an undefeated team if a couple of plays went its way.

"He'll go down as the best coach to ever do it," Miami Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said, per the Miami Herald.

"They're a couple plays away from either being a one-loss team or an undefeated team," Cristobal said. "The level of personnel in the building has certainly elevated tremendously. Their style of play, their physicality ... we're expecting a tremendous challenge and opportunity on Saturday."

Outside of that loss against Notre Dame, dropping the contest 37-26, there was a strong argument that North Carolina shouldn't have another loss on the schedule. Losing to Syracuse last week was completely inexcusable, and the same could have been said about Clemson in the middle of September.

I also don't think it's wrong to say that if a couple of things bounced their way, the Tar Heels would have been in a position to win that game against Notre Dame. 

Ultimately, however, they haven't been able to do so in any of those three games, so we have to take North Carolina for what it is. This is a 4-3 team at the moment, and while it might look better on paper, it'll have to show that this week.

Cristobal has been around this game for a very long time and knows better than anyone that North Carolina can win this contest if his guys don't come out and play sound football. If I were North Carolina, I'd expect Miami to come out ready to play.