The football selling season officially begins this weekend.

Kickoff may be a month away, but Saturday marks another benchmark for Mack Brown’s 2019 team and new regime. Will hundreds of fans, young and old, still come out to Meet the Heels even though festivities will be at the practice complex and not refurbished Kenan Stadium, which would be a much easier sell?

Will not being able to see the all-blue seats and spectacular synthetic turf keep fans from buying up unsold single game seats, beginning with the Miami home opener, which still has some tickets left? While the ACC Network remains in cable limbo, UNC has been pushing the Hurricanes’ visit hard to sell out Brown’s return.

No one will be counting, whether 500 or 5,000 show up for the grand autograph session, which most SEC schools don’t even offer since it would be a madhouse for their players and coaches. Maybe the band, cheerleaders and mascots can turn it into a pep rally.

Can that atmosphere also help sell more tickets in the UNC section of the Belk kickoff game against South Carolina in Charlotte on Saturday, August 31? The last time that match-up occurred at Bank of America Stadium, Larry Fedora’s team stumbled to what would be the only loss of an 11-1 regular season. After that 17-13 disappointment, it took almost 11 straight wins and one of the nation’s most explosive offenses to win back the full fan base.

Some optimists close to the program predict Carolina will beat the Gamecocks, the U, Wake Forest and App State before defending national champion Clemson comes to Kenan on September 28. They point to offensive returnees who despite three unproven quarterbacks would have scored plenty of points even if Fedora was still coaching.

The problem for this team remains on defense, where there are holes to fill mostly at linebacker. Brown blames the late lapses on defense last season that gave games to Virginia Tech and Syracuse, to name two, and likely cost Fedora his job; if avoided, that would have kept Mack yakking away for ESPN.

Brown said a worn-out team in the fourth quarter caused those losses and pledged his Heels will find enough quality minutes from reserves to keep the starters fresh for the fourth. Can he sell that to them so they can sell it to us, once the real season starts?

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