Posted by ESPN.com’s Heather Dinich

UNC coach Butch Davis isn’t underestimating UConn’s running game just because the Huskies lost leading rusher and first-round NFL draft pick Donald Brown, who had 2,083 yards last year.

In fact, he might be giving them even more respect.

“They’ve got two young men who are very, very talented and probably possess more home run hitting ability than maybe Don Brown did,” Davis said. “They’ve got a lot of speed. [Jordan] Todman and [Andre] Dixon got opportunities to play last week and the challenges their offense poses is they’ve added some elements to their offense that they didn’t have a year ago. They’re running some option offense out of the pistol and they’ve got the ability to run it out of read-option sets, so it poses a lot of practice opportunities for your defense.”

Saturday’s game will pit two teams together that like to run the football and win with defense, and UNC’s front seven, which has drawn rave reviews all preseason, will get a much better test than it did against The Citadel last weekend. Davis called the Huskies a “much much more talented football team.”

Against Ohio last weekend, Todman rushed for a career-high 157 yards on 25 carries with a touchdown. Dixon rushed for 100 yards on 19 carries. It was the first time UConn had two 100-yard rushers in a game since 2006.

UNC’s defense lived up to the hype in Week 1. Carolina had 10 tackles for losses, two sacks, held The Citadel to 30 yards rushing, 153 yards of total offense, forced one fumble and intercepted three passes. UNC’s rushing defense allowed just 139 yards per game last year. After watching film of Connecticut’s offense, Davis said the one thing that stood out to him was the running backs, and he’s done his homework on them.

“As ironic as it is that Donald Brown was a first-round draft choice, he actually wasn’t the starter a couple of years ago, Andre Dixon was the starter ahead of him and he got injured,” Davis said. “It opened the door for Donald Brown to come in. So as recently as two or three years ago their whole coaching staff felt like Andre Dixon was a better running back than a guy who went in the first round last year.

“Most notably Todman and Dixon both, they play significant amounts and alternate going into the game. They’ve got a lot of speed. You could see their ability to run, to change direction, slash, cut back, and they’ve got the ability to turn a minimal gain into a bigger gain just because of their speed.”