If social media, message boards, Facebook fan pages, and personal messages to sportswriters means anything, most North Carolina fans believe the Tar Heels will challenge for a spot in the College Football Playoff this upcoming season.
It can happen, as Mack Brown’s program has ascended over 32 months from five wins in two seasons to being in this discussion without generating laughter. The CFP I a fairly realistic goal for UNC.
Carolina has some studs on both sides of the ball, a Hall of Fame coach who knows a thing or two about building, running, and sustaining top-five teams, and its trajectory may be steeper than any other program in the nation.
But UNC remains very much in the progression process. College football programs just don’t go from a mess that it was in November of 2018 ago to the CFP in 2021 without conquering all kinds of football demons. And the biggest hurdles remain in front of them, with one of the obstacles being themselves.
Surely Carolina fans remember October 17 last fall. Tallahassee. Twenty-four to zero in the second quarter. Thirty-one to seven at halftime. A 31-28 final in which the Tar Heels battled back only to cut themselves short of an amazing comeback courtesy of three straight dropped Sam Howell passes.
That was part of the process, too, and is something Brown, his staff, senior leaders, and the rest of the Heels must guard against this season and more. UNC is one of the sexy programs nationally as the campaign nears, and that’s not always a great thing, especially for a crew that must learn how to navigate these waters for the first time.
“The first question I got today is, You guys are getting so much hype, everybody expects you to win every game,” Brown said last week at the ACC Kickoff in Charlotte. “How can you talk about one in the middle when you have to go to Virginia Tech in the opener?
“We basically have a three-game season. That's what I've told the players. I'll start talking to you more national after three games if you haven't lost a game. But let's quit talking. We've gotten hype. We've been hugged. We've had sugar thrown all over us. We're all enjoying it, we like it.”
A trip to Blacksburg on September 3 kicks off the season. A home date with Georgia State follows a week later, and then a visit from Virginia on Sept. 18 completes the three games about which Brown is speaking.
You can’t go 12-0 without first being 3-0. But really, the Heels lost nine times the last two seasons, so thinking about going undefeated should be the very last thing on their mental docket, and likely is. At least if the coaches are having their way.
But to eventually be a 12-0 club, a team must fully envelop itself in that mentality long before the 12th game. Wanna be one of the big boys, then understand how to act like one of the big boys. Daily routines, preparation, and game-day focus regardless of the opponent and only zeroing in on that one foe before them.
“Let's clean it off, and let's get back to facts,” Brown said reminding all ears about what happened last October. “We were fifth in the country when we went to Florida State (and) about 25th when we were leaving. That took about three hours to drop that far.
“There were two conferences that weren't playing when we were fifth in the country. I was trying to explain to them, You're not the fifth best team in the country. I tell them you're not the fifth best team in the country, but we got to play. Nobody is good enough anymore to go out there and stand around.”
And that is why opening at a program that has defeated Carolina six of the last eight times they’ve met and in 13 of their last 17 meetings is good for this UNC squad. Nothing like having that challenge to get a club’s mindset right well before the first whistle blows this fall.
An opener versus a lesser opponent, perhaps if the Wofford game was moved from November to the opener, might hinder the Heels. They say facing the Hokies in their raucous house at the season’s outset is alright by them.
“Usually that week one team is a team that gets you warmed up and ready for the season, but guys love it,” senior linebacker Jeremiah Gemmel said. “We’re so anxious to get football rolling again, ready to have the atmosphere back out there again, and the last time we were up there it went to six overtimes and we lost. That gets our juices high, too.”
Maybe it helps that UNC lost in six overtimes the last time it was in Lane Stadium in 2019, but perhaps that won’t and shouldn’t be a factor for the Heels heading into this opener and, as Brown is preaching, that crucial three-game stretch to open the campaign.
Win the game in front of them and then march forward is the mantra. Having older guys communicate the coaching staff’s message is a big part of fulfilling that mission.
“We have some great older players that are leaders…, then we've got a bunch of young guys,” Brown said. “The young guys have to grow up. We've been circled by everybody in this league.”
And by their own fans. Excitement around UNC hasn’t been this high since Brown was head coach of the program in the late 1990s. Optimism is soaring for a team that could turn in a season unlike many or perhaps any in Carolina lore.
But that can only happen if the Heels are in the right frame of mind from before fall camp begins on Aug. 5 until they get off the bus in Blacksburg through the Panthers, Wahoos and beyond.
Tallahassee last fall is a lesson, one that can that aid a growing building splashed with mega hype.
