North Carolina Will Play Trojans in Pigskin Classic

North Carolina, which went 9-3 and won the Peach Bowl last season, will play USC in the Disneyland Pigskin Classic Aug. 29 in Anaheim Stadium, Orange County Sports Assn. Executive Director Don Andersen said Tuesday.

The Tar Heels have made great strides in Coach Mack Brown’s five-year tenure, achieving three consecutive winning seasons after going 1-10 in each of Brown’s first two seasons (1988 and ‘89).

They were not Disneyland’s first choice--USC accepted an invitation several weeks ago, and Miami, Boston College and Texas turned down offers. But Andersen believes North Carolina will be a worthy opponent.

“I liked the fact they had nine wins last year--it helps maintain the integrity of the game, because we’ve had a wonderful track record of having teams with great records,” Andersen said.

“And because we have USC, which gives us a good anchor team on which we’ll rely for a bulk of the attendance, we can use an Eastern team that we don’t expect will bring a lot of people.”

North Carolina lost its best player from 1992, All-Atlantic Coast Conference running back Natrone Means, a junior who declared himself eligible for the NFL draft.

But the Tar Heels return both quarterbacks--sophomore Mike Thomas and junior Jason Stanicek, from a team that finished third in the conference behind Florida State and North Carolina State. Also back is All-ACC candidate Bucky Brooks at wide receiver.

The Tar Heels trailed Mississippi State, 14-0, at halftime of the Peach Bowl but scored three second-half touchdowns to defeat the Bulldogs, 21-17.

The North Carolina-USC game, which will mark John Robinson’s first game in his second stint as Trojan coach, will be the fourth Pigskin Classic. Previous matchups were Tennessee-Colorado in 1990, Florida State-Brigham Young in 1991 and Stanford-Texas A&M; in 1992.

The presence of North Carolina brings to six the number of conferences that have been represented in the Pigskin Classic. As part of an agreement with Disneyland to stage the game, the NCAA ruled that eight conferences would have to be represented in a five-year period.

Andersen said Brown will fly to Orange County next week and will join Robinson for a coaches’ news conference, either Tuesday or Wednesday.