It is time for Carolina football to get back to what and where it is.

So, the Notre Dame game is over, which was our almost annual chance to prove the Tar Heels can compete on a national level.

As with a history dating back to the 1972 Ohio State game (and the unveiling of Archie Griffin) to the 1997 Florida State “Battle of the Unbeatens,” the 45-32 loss to the bigger and better Fighting Irish was a chapter of Carolina’s personal foray into the Myth of Sisyphus.

You know Sisyphus, the figure in Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again.

UNC football, especially with Mack Brown in charge, is good and exciting and wins more games than it loses. But it may never reach the level of men’s basketball here, or many of the Olympic sports that make habit of hoisting ACC and national trophies.

There are many reasons for that, some that Brown himself (who has won a BCS championship at Texas) must acknowledge when he lays his head on the pillow every night. He is positive to a fault, the perfect PR man for a school that will too easily turn its collective head to the roundball sport in mid-October if football is foundering.

Saturday afternoon at 3:30, exactly one week after the ill-fated Notre Dame kickoff, the Tar Heels have a chance to get back on a track where they are more comfortable and have been reasonably successful. Virginia Tech is clearly beatable in the ACC opener and can resume the chase for Brown’s set of “floating goals.”

If you can’t reach the college football playoff, win the Coastal Division and play for the conference title last won by UNC in 1980; if you can’t do that, play for the mythical “state championship” with Duke, Wake Forest and NC State still on the schedule; if not that, have a winning season and go to a decent bowl game.

That is where Carolina football has always been and likely will stay with the rich getting richer over NIL payoffs that UNC seems unwilling to dole out at a high level. Let’s be who we are, the best we can be.

The famous French essay of 1942 written by Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus concludes, “The struggle itself . . . is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Damn straight, beat the Hokies!

 

Featured image via USA Today Sports

Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our biweekly newsletter.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: Keep it Going!
Can North Carolina and the ACC stay bowl unbeaten? After NC Central and East Carolina won their bowl games, the Old North State and the also 2-0 ACC will try to keep their spotless postseasons going. The Big Four of North Carolina all qualified for bowl games from the ACC’s impressive total of nine teams […]
Chansky's Notebook: Whose Hangover?
Guess we could call this game the QB Bowl or the Meltdown Bowl. There are several themes of the Holiday Bowl Wednesday night at 8 when the unranked Tar Heels take on No. 15 Oregon in a game where you could play whoever has the ball last will win. The Ducks have quarterback Bo Nix, […]
Chansky's Notebook: Turnover, Tampering
Mack Brown had his pre-bowl press conference and let it all hang out. The Carolina football coach is excited about his new coaching hires, upset about what the transfer portal and NIL are doing to the game and is glad his team has a chance to beat 15th-ranked Oregon, which is a two-touchdown favorite in […]
Chansky's Notebook: Longo Gonzo
Was Phil Longo looking, hired away or asked to leave? Yesterday, we talked about the Carolina defense and how it could be weakened moving forward by losses to the transfer portal. That unit has been shredded for years, including the four in Mack Brown’s return. Today, it is the offense. Coordinator Phil Longo has taken […]
Chansky's Notebook: Dilemma For Defense
So far, 8 of 11 UNC transfers are from the defense. These are still uncharted waters with the college transfer portal interfacing with NIL payments and how much one has to do with the other. As Carolina announced its wide range of collectives to help athletes, this is more about the football program than profits. […]
Chansky's Notebook: A Different Air
The thirteenth game is a lot different from last year, isn’t it? Sparked by having three players named first-team all-conference, and 11 honored overall, a completely different atmosphere permeated Carolina football as the Tar Heels get ready, in their minds, to win UNC’s fifth ACC championship but the first in 42 years. You remember the […]
Chansky's Notebook: Not Coach-Speak
Does Mack Brown like talking to the media? Sure seems like it. The Carolina football coach must spend more time in press conferences and interviews than any of his compatriots. And he does more of it than his first stint in Chapel Hill, when he gabbed a lot but didn’t show much of himself. On […]
Chansky's Notebook: Just Win, Baby!
Mack Brown calls it a trap game, and indeed it could be. His Tar Heels are a 21-point favorite over 4-6 Georgia Tech Saturday at 5:30 in Kenan Stadium, but while the Carolina coach prefers a blowout, he will take a one-point win since the Jackets lead the ACC in takeaways (forcing turnovers). As the […]
Chansky's Notebook: Downs is Up There
Is Josh Downs the best receiver in Carolina history? No, he doesn’t hold many UNC football records because he is only in his second full-time season. As a true freshman in 2020, he played behind Dazz Newsome who is all over the record book for yards, receptions and touchdowns in four years. Downs appeared in […]
Chansky's Notebook: One for the Books?
Sam Hartman will try to take the mantle away from Drake Maye. The Tar Heels’ headliner at Wake Forest Saturday night in Winston-Salem has a lot of subplots, from team success to individual honors. The Demon Deacons try to stop a late-season swoon that has become all too familiar to their fans in recent years. […]
›