9/22/2020 football Edit

Carolina's Search For Another Opponent Continues

Mack Brown says UNC is still hoping to fill a vacancy on its schedule on Nov. 21 with a non-ACC opponent. (Jenna Miller, THI)

Andrew Jones • TarHeelIllustrated

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Andrew Jones has covered sports for 26 years, including all major college & professional sports for daily newspapers & national sites. He's done radio and TV & is entering his seventh year at THI.

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina was unsuccessful in finding an opponent to visit Kenan Stadium for this coming weekend on such short notice, but that doesn’t mean the program’s quest to add a nonconference game to its slate has ended.

Quite the contrary.

The Tar Heels won’t play this weekend, but they do have another open date scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 21, which happens to be six days before Notre Dame’s highly anticipated visit, and UNC Coach Mack Brown would like to fill that slot with a game.

“Rick (Steinbacher) is in the process right now, after he couldn’t find a good combination with them or us, he’s trying to find a game on that Friday or Saturday a week before Notre Dame,” Brown said, following Tuesday morning’s practice. “He’s working on that right now.”

Of course, Steinbacher, UNC's Senior Associate A.D., Capital Projects and Facilities, rolled up his sleeves trying to land an opponent for this upcoming weekend. But, according to UNC Director of Athletics Bubba Cunningham, money was an issue.

“A couple of schools that we talked to were asking for such an outrageous amount of money given that we have no fans, it made no sense at all,” he said Monday on the school’s Carolina Insider Podcast. “It’s a little disingenuous for those people to say, ‘Well jeeze, we should have played.’ It was absurd what they were asking for.”

Mack Brown via zoom following Tuesday morning's practice. (THI)

If the money is right, UNC will make a deal, even if they’re no fans in the stands in November. Brown says his team needs games, period, noting several reasons why the more games they play the better.

Ideally, it would have come before the Tar Heels dive head-first into ACC play with a game at Boston College on Oct. 3. One more game versus a Charlotte or similar team would have afforded the Heels a opportunity to fix some things that didn’t go well in the 31-6 win over Syracuse in the opener, but also get needed reps to the younger players in the program.

So now, the focus is securing an opponent for the week before Thanksgiving.

“We wanted the game because you’ve got 120 players on a team and only 11 play at a time,” Brown said. “So, the more snaps that you get the more opportunities it is for people to play. So, if they would have let us play 12 this year, we would have played 12…

“Plus, we’ve got a really young team and we missed spring practice, so the more snaps that we get is going to help us for the future.”

Among the FBS teams that are playing this season that have open dates for the weekend of Nov. 21 are South Florida and Florid Atlantic plus five schools from the Big 12, but like the ACC, it’s not allowing its teams to play road nonconference games.

A smattering of FCS teams that are playing this fall have open dates that weekend, including Austin Peay, Campbell, The Citadel, Jacksonville State, Chattanooga, Abilene Christian, Houston Baptist, Mercer, Stephen F. Austin and Missouri State.