By the time you read this story, the Tar Heels will already have put the Notre Dame game behind them.
That’s just the way things work in the Kenan Football Center. No matter how competitive Carolina was against the third-ranked Fighting Irish, no matter how much progress the program seems to be making despite still losing games, no matter how much you want to replay that highlight of Jaden Jefferson’s 98-yard kickoff return touchdown — it’s all water under the bridge.
The Tar Heels have eight straight weeks of nonstop football ahead of them. As team captain Jordan Shipp explained, there’s no time to linger.
“The good thing about this team is now that this game is over, we’re gonna go home, we’re gonna watch the film tomorrow, but after that we’re not looking back,” Shipp said after Saturday’s game. “There was no talk about Clemson this week. There’s gonna be no talk about Notre Dame on Monday. 100 percent to Pitt. None of us are looking at the stuff that happened back then. It’s just 1-0 every day.”
Shipp might have felt the temptation to look back at least a little bit. The junior receiver had just posted his first career 100-yard game, complete with a spectacular one-handed diving catch in the first quarter. But he’s hung around Bill Belichick far too much for that. The head coach who went viral for moving “on to Cincinnati” was not in the mood for moral victories or ideas of “progress.” With a visit to undefeated Pittsburgh coming up, he’s got enough on his plate.
“Pitt’s got a good defense, too. They do things differently than Notre Dame does. So we’ll see what happens next week,” Belichick said. “They’re different every week, so we have to play a little bit differently. What works one week may or may not be good the next week. We’ll have to see if we get into that situation. We were able to do some things that we wanted to do [against Notre Dame], and hopefully we can do a few more.”
That’s as close as you’ll get to anything resembling a hopeful aspiration from the curmudgeonly Belichick. Anyone who has followed Belichick’s eventful tenure in Chapel Hill – no matter their personal feelings about the man – can see the Tar Heels are improved from last season. But that doesn’t matter to some: practically half of Kenan Stadium was green and gold Saturday. The 37-26 loss dropped Belichick’s UNC record to 6-10, meaning the university is paying him $5 million of guaranteed money for each win so far.
When will Tar Heel football finally turn the corner? That’s a question that long predates Belichick’s time as head coach. It’s one that pundits and fans have struggled to answer for decades.
But as Shipp said, there’s no time for anybody to ponder big-picture questions about the state of the program right now. Carolina has games against Pittsburgh, Duke and Miami on the docket before the end of the month. All three of those teams are currently undefeated.
A grueling two-month stretch of football awaits. And looking in the mirror will only show what’s behind you.
Featured image via Associated Press/Chris Seward
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