CHAPEL HILL – The numbers aren’t foreign to North Carolina football fans: 9-1 then 9-5; 6-0 then 8-4.

The last two UNC seasons opened with such promise before both Tar Heel teams fell over a cliff. But might 2024 be different, perhaps a reversal of sorts?

Tar Heels Coach Mack Brown thinks so.

“I’ve told our team we haven’t finished well, I think is one that’s struggled some at the start…,” Brown said. “And is one that’s built to finish stronger and have a great finish at the end, and that’s something that we haven’t done well. So, that’s still out there for us.”

And closing strong would serve as a complete reversal of the last two seasons.

The 2022 team at least got to the ACC Championship game and, with a depleted roster, nearly beat powerhouse Oregon in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Not a great finish at 9-5, but it bred optimism for the following season.

And well into October, that club was following the script. But with a 6-0 mark and ranked tenth in the nation, a so-so crowd showed up to see struggling Virginia inside Kenan Stadium, and the Tar Heels were upset, as the wheels once again came off.

“Everything we’ve done since last year was to try and have a stronger finish,” Brown said. “That doesn’t mean that we didn’t want to win at the beginning, obviously. And two weeks ago we were 3-0 riding high, everything was great and everybody thought we’d be 5-0 with Pitt coming in undefeated at 4-0.”

Initially, rumblings suggested the Heels could have yet another similar season with the schedule backloaded with strength. But the results through September indicate most preseason projections for the ACC were off by a country mile, and one can make the case Carolina is in the midst of its most difficult stretch right now.

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After starting out 3-0, the Heels suffered a humiliating 70-50 loss at home to James Madison before blowing a 20-point lead at Duke last Saturday in falling 21-20. But unbeaten Pittsburgh visits this weekend, Georgia Tech is in the following Saturday. Then an open date, games at struggling Virginia, at a Florida State team that has gone off the rails and then another open date.

Wake Forest visits, the Heels go to Boston College, and NC State closes the regular season in Chapel Hill. The way the schedule lays out, the Tar Heels could close stronger than in previous years, especially if they figure out what and who they are on offense. That quest continues.

“We had five years of Sam (Howell) and Drake (Maye) where we knew who we were offensively, and now we’ve had three quarterbacks in five games,” Brown said. “So, we’ve got to figure out what each quarterback does the best.

“We finally got to where we felt like we had Max (Johnson); in the third quarter in Minnesota, we were who we wanted to be. Then we had Conner (Harrell) come in and now we’ve got Jacolby (Criswell). We’re still trying to figure out our identity on offense.”

The placement of the open dates could be key here.

Two home games and then a bye week to heal, self-analyze, and narrow down what the offense should be given its personnel. Two very winnable road games before another open date. That will be for more self-reflection, but also to refine what they are, entrenching themselves in the offensive identity for the final three contests, two of which are at home.

The tea leaves may not suggest a turnaround leading to a successful close to the season, but they didn’t reflect a collapse was on the horizon the last two seasons, either.