CHESTNUT HILL, MA – Anyone who is disappointed with North Carolina’s performance in its 26-22 victory over Boston College on Saturday here at Alumni Stadium needs a bucket of perspective dumped over their heads shaking them into reality.

Were there footballesque things that weren’t easy on the eyes in this one? Oh yeah, plenty.

Is there cause for concern about the pass protection? No doubt. Are the penalties, notably the timing of them, gnawing at the guts of UNC fans? Probably. And are Carolina’s faithful waiting for Sam Howell to take the top off a defense erupting in a manner many expected to come with ease this season? Absolutely.

Those things will be addressed, you can be certain, and the Heels will improve in each area. But the single most important thing Carolina needed to do here was earn a victory, and it did.

It wasn’t that long ago that North Carolina was floundering through three and two-win seasons leading to Larry Fedora’s termination in 2018. And before that, UNC hasn’t been what it was for stretches on the 1990s, 80s, 70s, 40, etc., with the exception of one season since Mack Brown bolted for Texas in 1997.

Brown’s last two teams went 10-2 and 11-1, respectively, and finished both seasons ranked in the top 10. He then left and Carolina football has basically been a hot mess ever since. Well, until Brown came back 22 months ago.

Since then, Carolina football has been three years of Carl Torbush – it was going to be two until Dick Baddour rescinded his termination of Torbush following the utterly awful 1999 campaign. Then came John Bunting, whose defenses set records for futility in his six seasons at the helm. Butch Davis was going to bring big-boy football back to Chapel Hill, only that, well, everyone knows the embarrassing course that situation took.

Larry Fedora did some nice things, got UNC through NCAA probation and delivered an 11-win season in 2015, but his defenses were also lit up, the Heels failed to manage winning regular seasons in four of his last six years, and his foot just couldn’t stay out of his mouth.

That long history lesson might be boring to some but it’s totally necessary.

Brown has rebuilt the program’s foundation and so much is going well. But remember, this is year two of a project tasked with making something out of a program with ONE season of more than eight wins since he left 23 years ago.

Clemson wasn’t built in a day. Believe it or not, neither was Alabama, Ohio State or any great program. This stuff takes time and it takes learning how to win. Let’s remember: Entering Saturday’s game, the Tar Heels were 14-27 in their last 41 games dating back to the beginning of the end of the Fedora era.

That was a Thursday night loss at Duke in 2016, so most of the kids in the program haven’t known winning their entire times in Chapel Hill. So, they need to learn how to do this so they can start going into games knowing they can and will win instead of thinking it. And there is a difference.

You know the whole crawling before walking, walking before running deal? It’s right before your eyes right now. And Brown knows it is.

“We have made a tremendous amount of progress,” he said, following the game. “When we won two games two years ago, we won seven games last year, and we can go home a little disappointed in some things that we need to improve. So, man, we are in a better place than we have been. So, I like having things we need to fix and winning…

“I'm proud of the kids, I'm proud of the coaches, I'm proud of the way they fought. This is about winning, it's not about anything else. It's about winning. And our objective was to be 2-0 coming on this trip. We are 2-0.”

And, going back to last season, the Tar Heels have now won five consecutive games.

The Heels did plenty of nice things Saturday, but they were also ugly at times. But they won, and as Brown and company continue building this thing, that’s really all that matters.