Three players make Carolina the favorite to meet Clemson again. The Atlantic Coast Conference preseason poll almost slipped by unnoticed because it was so Tiger loaded with Clemson returnees that, seemingly, no one else has a chance to win the ACC football championship. In fact, the ACC has yet to release it preseason all-conference team since that, too, may be all Orange all over again.
The Tar Heels were a slight pick over Miami and Pitt to repeat as Coastal Division champions, which they snatched away by going 8-0 in the league after a preseason fourth-place pick in 2015. Besides losing half their starters on defense and record-setting quarterback Marquise Williams, isn’t there anyone else in the Coastal who can beat Carolina? Apparently not, so say the voters.
Granted, Larry Fedora’s fifth UNC team may be the fastest and most athletic he’s had in Chapel Hill, but there are only a handful of household names ready to defend the division crown. Most of the talk centers on new starting quarterback Mitch Trubisky, his roommate and return-receiver specialist Ryan Switzer and Elijah Hood, who some think could contend for the Heisman Trophy if he played in an offense that gave him the ball 30 times a game.
Despite those playmakers and others like Mack Hollins and a veteran secondary returning, as much concern should be for the names we won’t hear anymore, like linebackers Jeff Schoettmer and Shakeel Rashad and recording breaking wide-out Quinshad Davis plus the rock of the offensive line, Landon Turner. Some players will have to quickly become household names and Trubisky must be at least as good as advertised to give UNC an attack equal to what it had in ‘15.
Is Clemson so much better than the rest of the league that the Tigers easily outpolled Florida State and Louisville in the superior Atlantic Division? All-American QB DeShaun Watson has to play one more season before he can turn pro, and they still have RB Wayne Gallman and WR Artavis Scott among nine returning offensive starters who seemingly make the Tigers unstoppable.
As training camp looms, UNC may indeed be the best in its division, but right now that says a lot more, or less, about the weak Coastal than it does about Carolina.
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