Art Chansky’s Sports Notebook is presented by The Casual Pint. YOUR place for delicious pub food paired with local beer. Choose among 35 rotating taps and 200+ beers in the cooler.
Here comes another hump game Carolina has had so much trouble winning.
The 17th-ranked and 3-0 Tar Heels will be a touchdown favorite at Pitt Saturday night where they take on a 1-2 Panthers team that has close losses to Cincinnati and West Virginia after an opening-day romp over Wofford.
That, and Pitt’s two-game home winning streak over UNC, makes this a trap game without question. And it is also the so-called “hump game” the Tar Heels need to win to go from “good to great,” in Mack Brown’s own words.
In 2019, after upsetting South Carolina and Miami the first two weeks, the Heels lost at Wake Forest and at home to App State and top-ranked Clemson. Call all of them hump games. Brown’s return to UNC was punctuated by a bowl win to finish 7-6.
In his second year back, losses at Florida State and Virginia and at home to Notre Dame left the Heels out of the CFP picture, but they still went 8-3 in the COVID-shortened season before to losing Texas A&M in the Orange Bowl without 1,000-yard rushers Javonte Williams and Michael Carter.
In 2021, losing the opener at Virginia Tech put them on the wrong side of the hump, which got worse as the season went on, culminating with the give-away game at State and embarrassing loss in the Mayo Bowl to the Gamecocks.
A year ago, there were hump games all over the schedule after another 3-0 start; losing badly at home to Notre Dame and at 9-1 dropping four straight that included the ACC championship to Clemson and Holiday Bowl to Oregon.
Brown’s program has taken baby steps, starting 3-0 for the third time in five years, including this season. Carolina last did that in the last two years of his first tour, and before departing for Texas his last team in 1997 won its first four on the way to an 8-0 start.
That is on the radar 26 years later, and the first hump game this season is at Pitt in five days. The Heels last two losses there were both in overtime. Brown and none of his players have ever won a game in Pittsburgh.
Carolina can get over the proverbial hump by beating the Panthers and, during a week off, prepare for home games against Syracuse, Miami and Virginia, with a chance to go 7-0 and be back in the middle of the ACC regular season race. Brown has stiffened his leadership going into his latest hump game.
“I’ve quit talking about great till you start showing me you want to be great,” he said of his team talk Sunday. “I want to see it. I don’t want to hear it.”
Featured image via Associated Press/Reinhold Matay
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
