Stroman on Sports: Carolina Football Is Here!

I hope Mack and Sally Brown, after their supporters and naysayers said goodbye in their own ways, found a quiet moment to have a good cry.

Last November, I asked Bubba Cunningham if Mack Brown might retire after the 2023 football season. He said, “It’s up to him.” “I thought you were the athletic director,” I responded, half-jokingly. “It’s up to him,” Bubba repeated, as he smiled and walked away. Then Carolina lost its last three games for the second straight […]

There have been some classic Carolina-Duke football encounters over their 110 games in the last 136 years. Some the Tar Heels deserved to win but lost, like Mack Brown’s first blueblood rivalry game in 1988, when they dropped an interception in the end zone that would have secured a victory. Some they deserved to lose […]

Here is a trivia question for you. When was the last time Carolina started a football season 5-1 before Saturday’s weird and wonderful win at Miami? It was Larry Fedora’s best season in 2015, after the Tar Heels lost the opener to South Carolina in Charlotte and then reeled off 11 straight Ws on the […]

Three take-aways from Carolina’s pleasing 41-10 win over Virginia Tech. The Hokies (along with Commonwealth cousin Virginia) may be the worst team in the ACC, a shadow of what they used to be. The ACC Coastal Division and the mythical “State Championship” are still out there for the Tar Heels to win. Drake Maye has […]

Don’t let the 45-32 final score deceive you: this was one of the most disappointing days in the history of Kenan Stadium and Carolina football. Mack Brown has done a tremendous job reigniting the enthusiasm around his sport, and Saturday was supposed to be the game that proved his program could compete against the best […]

Mack is back, but I’m not sure we can say the Tar Heels are — because they may never have been in this position before. A quarterback who was in high school a year ago. Linebackers who had never played linebacker. Others who had never been in a college game. A new coaching staff that […]

The Hill's Brighton McConnell and Michael Koh discuss UNC football's loss to UCF and level of play by the end of nonconference play.

The 34-9 beatdown of UNC football by UCF on Saturday isn’t helping head coach Bill Belichick's flagging football reputation.

UCF held UNC to just 217 total yards of offense on its way to a 34-9 win over the Tar Heels in Orlando Saturday afternoon. Carolina managed just two total yards in the opening quarter and 97 in the first half, during which time quarterback Gio Lopez threw two interceptions. Both provided major sparks for […]