Only the most cynical of observers could have watched Saturday’s game at Kenan Stadium and said the Tar Heels are not vastly better than they were just a month ago.
After a disastrous loss against a mediocre Clemson team on the first Saturday of October, Carolina has played competitive, down-to-the-wire games against Cal and Virginia. UNC came less than a yard away from upsetting the No. 16 Cavaliers in Chapel Hill Saturday.
There are several reasons why the Tar Heels have started to actually look like a competent football team. In the trenches, Carolina’s defensive line has been a difference-maker; the Tar Heels sacked Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris six times Saturday, after the Cavaliers had allowed only five in their first seven games. On offense, quarterback Gio Lopez appears to finally be healthy after a dreadful start to the season. But perhaps the foremost reason, according to receiver Jordan Shipp, isn’t related to on-the-field statistics.
“I would just say time,” Shipp said Saturday. “This is a whole new regime. Some of the boys got here in December when Coach [Belichick] got here. And then a whole new team came after that in the next [transfer] portal window. A couple months together. It’s just time. We’re all starting to click. And I said this earlier in the week: it feels like it’s everybody vs. UNC. It’s everybody vs. who’s inside of this building.”
But regardless of the improvement, and the galvanizing effect of Bill Belichick’s name being a staple in the headlines, a loss is a loss. The two heartbreakers against Cal and Virginia have left Carolina at 2-5, where different bounces here and there could’ve seen the Tar Heels with a 4-3 record at this same juncture. It won’t matter in the standings, and it won’t matter in the record books.
Now, Belichick’s team must win at least four out of its last five games to ensure bowl eligibility. Carolina hasn’t missed out on a bowl game since 2018. That season, when the Tar Heels finished 2-9, resulted in the firing of head coach Larry Fedora.
Carolina’s next two games do appear to be winnable. UNC visits a struggling Syracuse team which has lost four straight games this Friday, then will host 3-5 Stanford at Kenan Stadium the following weekend. If the Tar Heels win both, they would need to beat two of Wake Forest, Duke and NC State in the final three weeks. All three of those teams, as of today, would be favored against Carolina.
It’s a challenging gauntlet, but confidence in the Kenan Football Center is high. Defensive end Melkart Abou-Jaoude, who was a force against Virginia with three sacks, said the ability to make a run has always been there.
“We know who we are,” Abou-Jaoude said. “We’ve always been this good and been capable of this. But still, a few mistakes here and there can cost you the game. We’ve gotta clean that up and get better.”
Abou-Jaoude is perhaps being a bit too modest. While the defensive performance wasn’t perfect against the Cavaliers, it was more than enough to give the Tar Heels a chance to win. It was the UNC offense which failed to hold up its end of the bargain. To his credit, Shipp recognized his unit let the defense down.
“It’s up to us to keep [the defense] off the field and keep them looking even better by us putting up points,” he said. “It would’ve been a totally different story if we went out there and put up 40.”
True, it would’ve been a different story had that happened. But Carolina cannot afford any more moral victories and hypothetical situations. If the Tar Heels are to earn one more football game in the 2025 season, they’ll have to start turning those “ifs” into touchdowns. The next chance to do that is Friday night in upstate New York, and Shipp said he can’t wait.
“You lose a game two weeks in a row by a couple inches, that’s not the way we want to go out,” he said. “That feeling makes you want to go play. I wish we could go out there and play again right now. I wish we had Syracuse tomorrow.”
Featured image via Chapel Hill Media Group/Chance Bragg
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