The Tar Heels had no choice . . . but to kick some butt.

It was going to be a long nine days, in fact a long 29 days before Carolina had a chance to prove it’s a better football team than it showed in Charlotte while losing to South Carolina on September 3. Everyone who watched that game KNEW the Tar Heels were superior to the mediocre Gamecocks, who by the way lost at home Saturday to perennial SEC doormat Kentucky. Everyone saw self-inflicted mistakes cost UNC that golden opportunity.

But, before the next opportunity comes up on October 3 at Coastal Division favorite Georgia Tech, what was, and is, Larry Fedora’s team to do? Go take it out on the next three opponents, all at home, to try to get that bad taste out of its mouth. Demolish FCS opponent North Carolina A&T, defeat Big Ten also-ran Illinois this Saturday and defrock Delaware the following week to go 3-1 and look, if not feel, better.

For openers, Carolina did it, and so did its fans, a surprising showing of an announced 44,000 by braving the rainy forecast and coming to town to commiserate with their football team. At least they got a good show and, whether or not with false confidence, went home believing in Marquise Williams again and feeling even better about Gene Chizik’s defense. That’s what a 53-0 lead after three quarters can do in a slaughter that could have been 70-0 if Fedora hadn’t emptied his bench in the fourth period to play a bunch of talented young guys we’ve never heard of before.

It was a game UNC could not lose, realistically or metaphorically, but it was a well-needed catharsis for the rest of the season. Fedora even played Mitch Trubisky early in a political move he had to make to quell the critics who crowed he should have changed quarterbacks in the second half of the opener. Everyone responded with explosive offense that scored early and often and a shutdown defense against a team that scored 60 points last week, albeit versus Shaw.

Marquise and Mitch hit 20 of 27 passes with NO interceptions, and Elijah Hood led ten different ball carriers with 16 rushes, three or four of which should have come on the last possession in Charlotte. Ten different receivers also caught balls, and the defense thrice turned over the Aggies, which didn’t make up for Des Lawrence dropping the sure pick-6 last Thursday but felt good nonetheless.

Carolina football has been a juggernaut only every 25 years or so, but still can disappoint mightily. It did so in its opener and needs to salve those wounds against an accommodating early schedule. One down, two to go.

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