“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work, reporting or approval of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.
Throwing a Flag on Fast-And-Loose Stats
A perspective from John McCann
What we can’t say is on display Monday night in Chapel Hill’s Kenan Stadium was the same ol’ North Carolina Tar Heels who never have been able to play defense.
That’s a lazy take.
There was an expectation from Las Vegas oddsmakers of a competitive game that would have the Tar Heels slow boil the Texas Christian Horned Frogs before losing by a field goal. And North Carolina certainly started out scalding, in 3:59 of the game’s opening drive going 83 yards in seven plays for a touchdown. But the Horned Frogs hopped out of that hot water real quick and steamed the Tar Heels 48-14, generating lazy talk about North Carolina not getting beat by that much since the Miami Hurricanes waxed them 47-10 in 2018.
Uh, why do we do this — trotting out trivial stats, connecting minutia? For real, why do we do it? What does it matter that Texas Christian put up the most points in a season opener against any North Carolina team in the history of Tar Heels football?
It doesn’t matter. But it is redeemable, making the case for penalizing what really should be illegal contact against defenseless data points.
Putting stuff in historical context is common in sports journalism. Nothing wrong with that. But for the love of Butch Davis, Larry Fedora and Mack Brown, what do the teams of those former North Carolina head coaches have to do with Bill Belichick’s? Nothing, but that is the comparison getting made when crunching stale numbers.
Comparing, say, Brown’s teams during his first stint as North Carolina’s head coach with the squads of his second go-around makes sense. It’s putting apples beside apples — sizing up his assistant coaches and recruits from 1988-1997 with his assistant coaches and recruits from 2019-2024.
But flag on the play for looking at the late Carl Torbush’s defensive coordination under Brown in the 1990s and comparing that to what it was like when Fedora from 2012-2018 had revolving doors on the defensive coordinator’s office. It’s different players, different schemes, different circumstances. Fedora found a way to have success despite suiting up as the cleanup man navigating NCAA sanctions after Davis was fired when his players got caught accepting improper benefits and taking fake classes.
So here’s North Carolina in 2025 with a gang of new coaches and 70 new players associated with that creaming Monday night, yet it’s still, “Well, the Tar Heels never have been able to play good defense. Why, even when Lawrence Taylor played linebacker for North Carolina in 1979 …”
Acknowledging the pattern of porous North Carolina defense over the years is one thing. But connecting historical dots to suggest there’s something in the Old Well precluding Tar Heels from getting stops deserves a holding call for illegal use of the stats.
John McCann is a former sportswriter who covered the North Carolina Central Eagles and the North Carolina Tar Heels.
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
