North Carolina will begin the 2021 college football season ranked No. 9 in the coaches’ poll, and it is likely the Tar Heels will open in the top 10 of the Associated Press poll, too. High expectations abound in Chapel Hill.
In fact, this is just the seventh time a Carolina football team has opened the season ranked among the Top 10, so let’s late a look back and see how the previous UNC clubs that started out among the elite fared in those seasons: