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Heels A Bit Antsy But Ready To Go In Second 'Opener'

CHAPEL HILL – Mack Brown said Monday his football team is basically starting its season over again because when the Tar Heels run out of the tunnel Saturday at Alumni Stadium in Chestnut Hill, MA, it will have been three weeks since the last time they did so.

That’s the longest in-season stretch without a game for UNC in 68 years and the longest ever for Brown. So, the move to treat this as an opener was crafted and has been widely embraced by the Tar Heels.

And with openers usually comes anxieties, which reveal themselves in a variety of forms. Nervousness is one, getting too hyped up is another, and being generally antsy is also one.

The latter is definitely what some Heels are experiencing.

“Well, I feel like it’s the same energy you would have for a first game,” senior linebacker/defensive end Tomon Fox said, following practice Tuesday morning. “That first game you come out and everybody has a lot of energy, a little bit of antsyness, but it’s more they’re being ready to play. I feel like we have that again, it came back to us like we’re starting the season over again.”

The Tar Heels already had a formal opener, defeating Syracuse, 31-6, at Kenan Stadium on Sept. 12. Boston College, this Saturday’s opponent, didn’t open until a week later but has now played two games, defeating Duke on the road and coming from behind to edge Texas State this past weekend.

The Eagles are in a groove compared to the Tar Heels. For them, the Syracuse game seems like eons ago.

UNC's celebration after beating Syracuse seems like another season in some ways to the Heels.
UNC's celebration after beating Syracuse seems like another season in some ways to the Heels. (ACC Media)

“Just having two weeks off it feels like we’ve had a little mini offseason, so everybody’s got a little anxiety to get back on the field,” senior wide receiver Beau Corrales said. “It’s tough watching two weeks of football and knowing you’re supposed to be out there playing, or should have a chance to be out there playing and not getting it.

“It’s definitely given the guys on the team that sense of this is what football is in 2020.”

Some Tar Heels watched games all day, some watched BC’s win this past weekend, and others got out and did whatever they do to unwind and escape the grind of football.

UNC is slated to play the next seven weekends and the first six of those opponents were in action this past Saturday. Most of the games involving future opponents were later in the day, but Corrales was focused on BC. Junior center Brian Anderson has mixed thoughts about being idle for consecutive weekends.

“It’s very, very bittersweet,” he said. “Obviously, as a player you want to be out there and you want to be playing ball and it hurts when you work so hard for a 12-game season and to know you have a game taken away from youright on the day before you play can be pretty tough. But at the same time, it’s sweet in the fact that it is nice to sometimes just sit down and watch games and stuff.”

All of that comes back to where the Tar Heels are now, just mere days away from what is essentially a second season opener.

As for the mission? The same as it was three weeks ago.

“We’re just trying to come out here 1-0,” Fox said. “Just like we did against Syracuse.”


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