Carolina’s football schedule is becoming its own worst enemy.
I keep reading these stories on various Tar Heel blog sites that say the biggest reason Mack Brown’s team could make the College Football Playoff is because of its weak schedule.
The national site 247 claims Carolina has the third-easiest schedule in the country. The easiest, according to 247, belongs to Clemson, which has won six straight ACC championships.
When your team is supposedly favored to win every game, of course your schedule is going to be rated weaker than others in the country. But you still have to play all the games.
Frankly, the Tar Heels’ schedule scares the hell out of me. Beginning with the September 3 opener at Virginia Tech, where UNC has lost 6 of the last 8 and Justin Fuente’s team will be locked and loaded, Carolina may be favored to win its first seven games but almost all of them are also eminently losable.
Going backward before the October 30 game at Notre Dame, Brown’s team faces Florida State and Miami at home on consecutive Saturdays. FSU is on the way back and now a dangerous underdog under coach Mike Norvell. And Miami is the team pollsters say is most likely to spoil Carolina’s bid to win the Coastal Division and play for the ACC title in Charlotte.
Before those games is Duke at home and at Georgia Tech, the two teams picked to finish at the bottom of the Coastal. On the third week of the season, Virginia comes to Kenan Stadium trying to beat Carolina for the fifth straight year and third time in Chapel Hill.
The CBSSports football blog predicted how many losses each ACC team would have, and it said the Tar Heels would go 10-2, losing at Notre Dame and at Pitt. Since the Fighting Irish return to independent status this year, Carolina could still win the Coastal by going 7-1 in the conference, but two losses overall would probably knock the Heels out of the CFP even if they did win the ACC championship.
You still have to play ’em all, and UNC will be depending on Sam Howell and some unproven teammates to make up for the five stars lost to the NFL. So, anyone, or blog, that says it’s a soft schedule may be unfairly overrating Brown’s third team since he came home.
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