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CHAPEL HILL – Mack Brown has told his team to ignore the Associated Press and Coaches polls the last few weeks, but he has a slightly different take with respect to his team being in the initial College Football Playoff rankings this week.
North Carolina is No. 17 in the AP and No. 15 in the Coaches’ polls, but the Tar Heels also came in at No. 17 in the first CFP poll of the season Tuesday night. And Brown sees that as a fairer representation of who they are as a team. It’s far less subjective.
“That one means more. It’s not an opinion,” Brown said via zoom following practice Wednesday morning. “It’s based on a lot of different things that are calculated.”
The Tar Heels are 7-1 overall and 4-0 in the ACC. The visit Virginia (3-5, 1-4) on Saturday for a noon kick on the ACC Network. Carolina is 4-0 on the road this season, but has struggled in Charlottesville most of the time over the last four decades.
None of that history matters heading into this game, Brown has maintained this week, and neither does the CFP ranking. He cited examples from 2020 when the Tar Heels were 3-0 and No. 5 in the nation when they lost at Florida State, and No. 10 to open last season and fell at Virginia Tech.
While those rankings did have much basis, the current one does, but only if the Heels make it matter by taking care of business.
“I feel very uncomfortable with a team being applauded without doing anything,” Brown said. “They have earned this. They have worked really, really hard to go from nowhere to here. And the story isn’t over. You know you’ve got to finish the story.”
Finishing the story means closing out the regular season by continuing to win. UNC has four games remaining in the regular season, and two are against teams that made the CFP Top 25: At Wake Forest on Nov. 12, and at home versus NC State on Nov. 25. Its other game is at home versus Georgia Tech on Nov. 19.
UNC has won four since dropping a 45-32 decision at home to Notre Dame. At 4-0 in ACC play, the Heels have a two-game lead in the loss column over Miami and Duke, and Georgia Tech has three losses with a game left versus UNC. So, a Carolina win in Charlottesville coupled win one more loss by each of those three teams, and North Carolina will win the Coastal Division.
But Brown isn’t talking about that right now, and other than acknowledgement and a congratulations to his players, little other than the next task at hand are being discussed.
“I told them the only way that (CFP ranking) stays is, ‘you keep playing good and you got to win,’” Brown said. ‘“If you win, you keep going up, and if you lose you drop out.’
“I like this team so much and I like these kids so much. I have been brutally honest with them. And I told them we don’t need to talk about this. We still don’t even mention the Coastal. We don’t even mention that conference championship. Those things haven’t been mentioned because you got to win to get to that point. So, let’s talk about if you win enough to clinch it, then you can talk about it.”
If UNC wins the Coastal, it will face the Atlantic Division winner in Charlotte on December 3.
Note: Deana King contrinuted to this report.
