Covering Carolina athletics beyond men’s basketball and football, with dedicated reporting on women’s basketball and baseball, in addition to covering other sports that rarely draw media attention
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Carolina plays a backup quarterback in his first career start and gets burned in a loss. Carolina is in a close game with Clemson before something strange happens. Carolina has a chance to make a statement and take a big step forward but falls flat in disappointing fashion.
On Saturday in Death Valley, it was all three.
CLEMSON, S.C. — Just when 25 years of Death Valley frustration for Carolina appeared to be over after a dominant start, that was followed by an epic collapse.
Former North Carolina center Maria Gakdeng signed a player-development contract with the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo on Saturday.
CHAPEL HILL — Playing with impressive fight to easily overcome missing five starters, No. 7 North Carolina shot down No. 2 Duke’s unbeaten run. The Blue Devils, coming off a blowout of a then-No. 1 Stanford that was without six players at the U-20 World Cup, couldn’t take advantage of a short-handed Tar Heels team.
It’s a wait-and-hope situation for the No. 11 North Carolina field hockey team, which could get a big boost if three stars from last year can play a fifth season.
North Carolina has concluded its investigation into the football program’s culture and climate, and defensive coordinator Steve Belichick has resigned effective Oct. 27, once his current medical leave ends. In addition, wide receiver Keeyun Chapman has been suspended indefinitely.
Even with the extensive financial investment in the Carolina football program, the amount of money spent on the Tar Heels’ roster is reportedly estimated to be only eighth in the ACC. That’s the conclusion of a story reported in The Athletic, which got “as many independent, trustworthy estimates as possible from people inside and outside” for 68 programs: Notre Dame and the Power Four schools.
North Carolina will be without several players for Saturday’s ACC opener at Clemson, according to the ACC’s first availability report released on Wednesday night. Defensive lineman Melkart Abou Jaoude and linebacker Jordan Avinger are listed as questionable.
North Carolina will play nine ACC games in the 2027 football season after playing only eight this season. The ACC released its 2027 football scheduling matrix on Wednesday, and it has UNC hosting Duke, Florida State, Virginia and Virginia Tech, while traveling to Louisville, N.C. State, Stanford, Syracuse and Wake Fo
Bill Belichick’s major offseason roster reconstruction brought in many newcomers, but it also meant numerous players on the 2025 roster moved on, with two quarterbacks starting at other colleges. Three weeks into the 2026 season, several of those former Tar Heels are making an impact on their new schools. Here’s a rundown of the top performers
CHAPEL HILL — You can never have enough pitching, and UNC coach Scott Forbes hit the transfer portal hard in the offseason to make sure he’ll have plenty next season.
North Carolina stayed at No. 7 in the women’s soccer poll ahead of Thursday’s clash with No. 2 Duke while the Tar Heels fell in the field hockey and volleyball polls. The field hockey team (3–3), No. 2 in the preseason poll, dropped six spots to a season-low No. 11, and the volleyball team (4–2) fell seven spots to No. 15.
Football kicker Rece Verhoff and former field hockey stars Ryleigh Heck, Dani Mendez and Sietske Brüning have all joined an amended complaint filed in Monroe Circuit Court in Indiana seeking a court order that would grant each of them a fifth season of eligibility for this school year.
North Carolina hosted one of its most consequential recruiting weekends in years, with two five-star in-state prospects on campus at the same time that Michael Malone welcomed generations of former Tar Heels back to Chapel Hill for a basketball reunion.
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina heads into its ACC opener at Clemson with a 2–0 record and a coach who isn’t ready to draw sweeping conclusions from either of the wins that got the Tar Heels here. UNC coach Bill Belichick spent much of his weekly press conference Monday breaking down what has and hasn’t changed since UNC’s season-opening win over TCU in Dublin, and the biggest shift, in his eyes, came in how the team prepared for Saturday’s 35–3 win over East Tennessee State.
