Boston College seeks win for bowl eligibility against North Carolina

North Carolina (6-4, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference) at Boston College (5-5, 2-4), Saturday, 12 p.m. EST (The CW)

BetMGM College Football Odds: UNC by 3 1/2.

Series record: UNC leads 6-2.

What’s at stake?

North Carolina secured bowl eligibility last weekend against Wake Forest and has gone from having a four-game losing skid at midseason to chasing a fourth straight win coming down the stretch of the regular-season schedule. Boston College needs one more win to be eligible for a bowl for the eighth time in nine years.

Key matchup

UNC RB Omarion Hampton vs BC's run defense. Hampton opened the year as a preseason Associated Press All-American and he's surging into the final weeks of the schedule. He's No. 2 in the Bowl Subdivision ranks in rushing (142.2 yards per game) and has run for 100 yards in all but one game. More impressively, he amassed 265 yards of total offense (172 on the ground) and scored five touchdowns against Florida State, then ran for career highs of 35 carries for 244 yards against Wake Forest. BC enters the game ranked eighth in the 17-team ACC in rushing defense by allowing opponents to run for 130.4 yards per game.

Players to watch

BC: QB Grayson James. The FIU transfer completed 18 of 32 passes for 237 yard and also ran for a 20-yard touchdown in last week’s loss to SMU, his first since being elevated to starter to replaced Thomas Castellanos.

UNC: DE Kaimon Rucker. The pass rusher missed more than a month due to injury but his resurgence has coincided with UNC's three-game winning streak. Rucker had three of UNC's 10 sacks at Virginia, and has tallied a sack in each of the past two games for a defense that now ranks fifth in the FBS by averaging 3.4 sacks per game.

Facts & figures

UNC's 6-2 series record includes wins in 2008 and 2009 later vacated by NCAA penalty. ... The Tar Heels' last visit to Boston College resulted in a 26-22 win played in an empty stadium due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. ... BC has lost five straight meetings and has yet to beat UNC since joining the ACC in 2005. ... DE Donovan Ezeiruaku is fourth in the country and second in the ACC with 11 total sacks. He has 14 tackles for a loss, eighth in FBS. ... RB Kye Robichaux has rushed for 278 yards and four touchdowns while averaging 5.7 yards per carry in the last two games.

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The Associated Press