As we ring in 2023, let’s look back on some past Tar Heel teams.
We’ve all played the game of where we were so many years ago. Why don’t we use the round number 10 and attach it to the 2012-13 school year?
Carolina football was just beginning the Larry Fedora era, after Butch Davis was fired and interim coach Everett Withers did not get the permanent job. Fedora inherited a program serving a one-year NCAA probation, so his inaugural 8-4 season in 2012 did not lead to a bowl bid.
In 2013, Fedora began two regular seasons of playing .500 football, with a 7-6 record capped by a Belk Bowl win over Cincinnati followed by a 6-7 season ending with an embarrassing Quick Lane Bowl loss to Rutgers.
In men’s basketball, Roy Williams had already won NCAA championships in 2005 and 2009. He had the best team in the country in 2012 before injuries to John Henson and Kendall Marshall weakened those Tar Heels who lost in the regional final. In 2013, his Heels began a streak of four straight seasons with double-digit losses before the 2016 team rallied down the stretch to win the ACC championship and return to the Final Four.
In women’s basketball, Sylvia Hatchel ended a run of 10 consecutive NCAA tournaments in 2012 and went only four times in the next seven years before she was replaced by Courtney Banghart, who is rebuilding a power.
And in women’s soccer, Anson Dorrance won his 21st national championship in 2012 and, despite repeated trips back to the College Cup, has not won an NCAA title since. His men’s counterpart Carlos Somoano won the national championship in 2011, but did not get back to their College Cup for five years.
That narrative, comparatively, doesn’t make what has happened in the last few years look that bad.
Mack Brown returned to Chapel Hill in 2019 and took his teams to four straight bowl games that included UNC’s first Orange Bowl in 2020 and its second ACC Coastal title in 2022. Brown does have three losses in those bowl games.
Williams won a third national championship in 2017, and his successor Hubert Davis led his Heels on a magical March rookie run with two upset wins over Duke and a spot in the NCAA championship game.
Add four national titles in field hockey and three in women’s lacrosse, and a trip to the College World Series, and the recent past and immediate future look brighter than a decade ago. Call it a little perspective.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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Mack’s record at UNC this time is 30 & 22, with wins against such powerhouses as Wofford, Georgia State (twice), etc. For a “Hall of Fame” coach with 4 years under his belt, you would expect a little better. But he is a GREAT February coach, so Sam and Drake have bailed him out in at least 15 of those 30 wins. Expect more of the same next year with Drake at the QB position, but Lord only knows what will happen after that. But Mack will still be there and we’ll beat the likes of Wofford and Georgia State and lose to a pile of others and NEVER beat a “great” team. But it’s amazing what a really good coach like Elko can do in no time! But we’ll never know.