Chansky's Notebook: Dangerous Opener

Why is Carolina playing Cal in football anyway?

The Tar Heels open the season at the University of California-Berkeley Saturday, the second straight of a two-game series. Larry Fedora said that if his team has to spend 11-plus hours in the air going to and from a game destination, he’d prefer it’s the opener. Wish granted.

Why that series was ever scheduled is a legitimate question. Carolina doesn’t recruit in California much or even the west coast. Fedora lost a key quarterback commit from Arizona, who changed his mind and signed with Oregon. So what is the benefit, which was a more salient question last year after the Bears sprung the 35-30 upset in Kenan Stadium.

After winning its first three games in 2017, Cal went 2-7 in the Pac 12 and finished 5-7 overall. This season, the Bears are picked second-to-last in their six-team division, while the Tar Heels are picked next-to-last in the seven-team ACC Coastal. Yet Cal has been installed as a seven-point favorite.

That has to be because the game is in Berkeley and Cal may have a more experienced team if not coaching staff. Head coach Justin Wilcox is in his second year, while Fedora is in his seventh in Chapel Hill. While the Bears may also have a more talented team on paper, the Tar Heels don’t really know what they have with so many new faces on the field, exacerbated by the suspensions stemming from Shoe-gate.

One Pac 12 story said if Cal wins its first three games against UNC, BYU and Idaho State, the Bears will definitely go bowling in Wilcox’s second season. Their quarterback, Ross Bowers, who threw for 363 yards and four touchdowns in Chapel Hill, turned erratic but gets the nod over Nathan Elliott, unless Elliott developed a stronger arm than last fall.

Fedora is always cagey with his injury report, and this season he says he won’t know his two-deep on both sides of the ball until just before the 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time kickoff Saturday. Winning their first two on the road at Cal and ECU is also UNC’s key to at least a .500 record and return to a bowl.

If the Heels don’t get off on the right foot, the trip out west may seem even longer as the season unfolds.