Surging North Carolina plays host to Miami

College Football Surging North Carolina plays host to Miami North Carolina Tar Heels quarterback Bryn Renner (2) drops back to pass.North Carolina defeats Rutgers 24-22 in the game at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill North Carolina. SHARE: Updated at 2:43 p.m. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. North Carolina is one win away from once again qualifying for a bowl. Cornerback Jabari Price is looking for much more than that. The surprising Tar Heels (5-1, 1-1 ACC) can clinch bowl eligiblity for the fourth straight season by beating Miami (2-3, 0-2) upon Saturday in a Coastal Division matchup. A win would give North Carolina its best start since the 1997 team also opened 6-1 and keep the Tar Heels in contention in the Coastal. "This is a very big deal. We got tired of trying to be 8-5 8-5 is almost a mediocre performance, and this team is far from mediocre," Price said. "So we're shooting for the stars." They can't afford many slip-ups the rest of the way since they're trailing an undefeated Georgia Tech team that gave them their only loss, and now they're taking upon a Miami team that is three plays from being undefeated. The Hurricanes' three losses have come by a combined 15 points, including a 38-35 setback last week at Virginia Tech in which they allowed the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute. They're hoping their first win in Chapel Hill will serve as a springboard to a turnaround, with three straight conference games at home after this. "We know there's a lot of football left. W! e've got six, seven games left, possibly eight," left tackle Brandon Washington said. "You want to come out and play football. You don't want to come out and take attention away from the program and say, we (aren't good) or something like that. With how hard we work, what we've put in, we've worked too hard to lay down like this." Miami coach Al Golden calls North Carolina "the best team we're having to face this year thus far" since of its physical lines, and the production it is receiving from running back Gio Bernard and playmaking receivers Dwight Jones and Erik Highsmith. Jones has an ACC-best seven touchdown catches for a Bryn Renner-led passing game that is the nation's fifth-most efficient, with a rating of 176.65. On the ground, Bernard has four straight 100-yard performances, and his average of 109.5 yards leads the nation's freshmen. They could combine to benefaction problems for a Miami defense that surrendered 482 total yards to the Hokies. "If you get (Bernard) going in other words, if we get knocked off the ball he is tough to bring down," Golden said. "He can make you miss and run you over, so I think our guys understand that. Clearly, it is no secret to anyone in this room we have to do a better job, given what we have, we have to do a better job stopping the run or we are going to continue to remove in the fashion in which we lost (to Virginia Tech)." The Hurricanes counter with a productive rusher of their own: Lamar Miller enters with an ACC-best 135-yard average, is the first Miami running back with at least 100 yards rushing in the first five games of a season and put up 146 of his 166 yards in the second half against Virginia Tech's notoriously tough run defense. "He's able to get the ball to the edges. He's a hard-nosed runner," North Carolina interim coach Everett Withers said. "What we've got to do is do a good job of protecting the edges, and that's something that we've got to continue to work on." ___ AP Sports Writer Tim Reynolds in Coral Gables, Fla., contributed to this !