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CHAPEL HILL – The North Carolina Tar Heels could improve to 4-0 on the season this weekend for the first time since 1997, and the significance isn't lost on head coach Mack Brown.

First, the 17th-ranked Tar Heels must win at Pittsburgh on Saturday night. With a win, UNC will move to 4-0.

“We have not been 4-0 since 1997, so this is a huge week for us,” Brown said earlier this week.

The Tar Heels are fresh off a notable victory that further highlights their pursuit of a standout season. For the first time since 1976, UNC has beaten an SEC and a Big Ten team in the same season, when it dispatched Florida, 24-21, and shut out Northwestern 12-0. Perhaps more historical notations will accompany many other wins as the 2023 journey continues.

Despite the strong start, which includes beating South Carolina and Minnesota by a combined score of 62-30, Brown insists the team isn't complacent.

“We don't have anybody we're chasing,” he said. “We're trying to get ourselves better.”

Notably, this year marks the Tar Heels' first back-to-back 3-0 start since the 1996-97 campaigns. However, UNC knows all too well that early season success doesn't guarantee a smooth ride. Last year, the team was also 3-0 before falling to Notre Dame, 45-32, at home. Even back in 2020, they dropped a 31-28 game to a 1-3 Florida State squad after starting 3-0. The lessons are clear, and the coach isn’t letting anyone forget them.

“I want the response to look like you just got beat,” Brown stressed, saying the staff coaches them each Sunday as if they lost the day before. “And that's what I told them. Why did we give up 80 yards in three plays? We didn't coach them right. We didn't have them in the right place. That's on you."

UNC's defense has shown vulnerabilities, something that Brown isn’t shying away from. Brown is just not spearheading the coaching staff but he is ensuring he is holding the players at the same accountability.

“Don't be griping about the defensive call,” he warned, offering examples of this he’s told the players. “You didn't get in your gap. Period.”

Interestingly, this is UNC’s first true road game of the season, and it is facing a Pittsburgh Panthers team that’s 1-2, having suffered losses to Cincinnati and West Virginia. The Tar Heels have arguably faced their toughest first-three opponents in recent memory. With this season’s heightened difficulty level, the fourth game stands as a serious litmus test for the team’s capabilities and aspirations.

Although the Tar Heels have a mixed history when it comes to maintaining initial winning momentum, this year's team is focused solely on the future.

“We've only won three games,” Brown said. “We still have nine more to go.”

The last time UNC started a season 4-0 was in 1997, the last of Brown’s 10 years in his first stint at UNC. They eventually reached 8-0 before falling at home to Florida State in a nationally televised battle at Kenan Stadium. UNC concluded with an 11-1 mark and was ranked No. 6 in the final AP poll and No. 4 in the final Coaches’ poll. As the Tar Heels look to replicate that success, the air is thick with a blend of expectation and caution.

“If you get comfortable in this business, you better look out,” Brown said. “Because about the time you think something's not gonna happen, it does.”

In the world of college football, where a single game can drastically shift the narrative, the Tar Heels are determined to write their own story—one they hope echoes the legacy of their 1997 run.