The last time UNC won a football game at Pittsburgh, COVID-19 was still three years away from making landfall in the U.S. The last time UNC won its first four football games of the season, Bill Clinton was president.
The years between that season – 1997, head coach Mack Brown’s last before leaving for Texas – and Brown’s return to Carolina four years ago were a wilderness of mostly mediocrity for the Tar Heels on the gridiron.
Now, an opportunity awaits to change that narrative. UNC enters Saturday night’s game against the Panthers as a touchdown favorite to reach that elusive 4-0 mark heading into the bye week. Analytics suggest a Carolina victory is more likely than not, but Brown said he knows recent history isn’t on his team’s side.
“We haven’t handled success very well,” he said. “And that’s part of the growing of your program. We’ve got to get used to winning again. We’ve got to think we’re gonna win and plan on winning, instead of feeling too good about ourselves, getting pats on the back and not being as ready to play the next week.”
Several times last year, especially when Carolina didn’t play in front of large crowds, Brown challenged his team to bring its own energy. That message is likely playing in the locker room again this week, as Pitt’s Acrisure Stadium – also the home of the NFL’s Steelers – is unlikely to be at capacity Saturday night. After playing in front of sellouts or near-sellouts in the first three games of the season, manufacturing that energy again will be of paramount importance if Carolina is to buck its historical precedent.
“Whether we’re playing in a big crowd or not, you have to bring your own energy,” said senior linebacker Cedric Gray. “You have to come ready to play at any time. We play in a competitive league of college football. And you never want to be the team who comes out flat and catch yourself lacking. I think we always try to come out and play hard and play physical and fast and never really try to come out flat, no matter who’s in the stands.”
Gray’s play on defense was one reason the Tar Heels were able to snap their two-game losing streak to the Panthers last year in Chapel Hill. But for defensive lineman Tomari Fox, who sat out all of last season due to a suspension, his last encounter with Pitt was a stinging overtime loss on the road two years ago. Carolina looked ready to pull an upset over the eventual ACC champions with a 1st-and-goal inside the Pitt 5-yard line late in the fourth quarter, but had to settle for a tying field goal instead of a go-ahead touchdown. Brown has said it is one of the most painful losses of his long coaching career.
Fox, who is back to flourishing on Carolina’s revamped defensive line, expressed confidence the Tar Heels wouldn’t let the game slip away from them this week.
“It’s a new team, new year,” Fox said. “Sometimes you’ve got to let go of the past, but you’ve got to remember those scars, so you come out with a whole new fury next time you see those teams. When you get in close situations like that, you’ve got to be able to learn how to finish, and I think we’ve been able to do that. So I’m excited to see how we close the game this week.”
Closing out games with a lead has been a common roadblock for the Tar Heels on their quest to become a national contender. Carolina couldn’t do so in winnable games against Georgia Tech and Oregon last season, the beginning and end of UNC’s four-game losing streak. If the Tar Heels are to go from “good to great,” a goal Brown laid out in the preseason, taking care of business Saturday night would be a start.
Except Brown hasn’t gone to that oft-used phrase lately. The Hall of Famer said he has taken a new route, and that new route is a challenge.
“I quit saying ‘good to great,’” Brown said, “because we didn’t play great against App State. And I said, ‘We should’ve. There wasn’t any reason not to. So I’m gonna quit talking about great until you start showing me you want to be great.’ I want to see it. I don’t want to hear it. So we’ve quit talking about it. I don’t use that anymore.”
Some would argue it’s been nearly three decades since the Tar Heels were truly great, with one anomaly in the 11-win 2015 season. And Brown’s 1997 team did what so many other UNC teams have failed to do: win all the games it was supposed to win. Years later, the Tar Heels and their fans are still chasing that high.
Winning Saturday night in Pittsburgh won’t earn Carolina any trophies, but it will move the team one step closer to shedding the shortcomings of seasons past.
Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Andy Mead
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