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University of North Carolina head football coach Bill Belichick. It is still somewhat surreal to know this is something that exists. It is beyond amazing that the search to replace the most successful coach in Carolina football history ended with arguably the most successful coach in NFL history. In one of the most chaotic years in college football in recent memory, a six-time Super Bowl-winning coach taking his first college job at 72 years old absolutely tracks.
In an amazing bit of sorcery, Carolina broke its losing string with a 41–14 win in Charlottesville against Virginia and followed that up on Saturday with a 35–11 victory that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.
Playing at Virginia, wearing throwback uniforms which were the style that UNC wore in Charlottesville in 1996 for one of their most disappointing losses in program history, on the weekend before Halloween, was a set-up for all the “house of horrors” cliches. Yet in a college football world this season where up is down and down is up, Carolina turned Scott Stadium from a haunted house into a funhouse as the Heels romped to a 41–14 win.
CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina gave fans hope, only to produce more heartbreak that didn’t stop when the game ended.
When things aren’t going well, when a team is struggling to find its footing, it’s the little things that make the difference between winning and losing. In a game that was mostly even on the stat sheet and relatively close on the scoreboard, UNC was unable to do the little things in a disappointing 34–24 homecoming loss to Pitt on Saturday.
CHAPEL HILL — Carolina continues to do enough on offense to give the Tar Heels a chance to win, only for the defense to eliminate that possibility. Unbeaten Pittsburgh feasted on that defense in a 34–24 victory Saturday. It handed the reeling Tar Heels, who failed twice on fourth down near the goalline, their third consecutive defeat.
I tried very hard to not get on the “everything is awful” train after UNC’s record-setting loss to James Madison last week. This is college football. Things happen. The game is weird sometimes. People (and coaches) get emotional. Let’s see what the Duke game brings before overreacting to the JMU debacle. Guess what? Scan my ticket and slide over as I take my seat on that train
DURHAM — For 2½ quarters, North Carolina’s defense made the case that the James Madison debacle was a fluke. That case unraveled in ugly fashion, though, as Duke erased a 20-point deficit in the largest comeback in the rivalry’s history, seized ownership of the Victory Bell and enjoyed a field storming.
Mack Brown admits he doesn’t handle losses very well and said Monday that’s what led him to ask his team a question in the dressing room Saturday after North Carolina’s 70–50 loss to James Madison that he regrets.
There’s really no polishing this lump of coal into anything resembling a diamond, and honestly, it’s hard to find too much to be positive about. With that in mind, this is a special edition of the Good, Bad, and Ugly Report: Ugly, Uglier, and Ugliest.
CHAPEL HILL — It turns out that reports of North Carolina’s defense being much-improved needed a fact-check. James Madison delivered it on Saturday as the common lament since the 1970s about “the friendly skies of Carolina” came to mind.
After three games, Jacolby Criswell is becoming a key part of North Carolina’s offense. Criswell will still share snaps with Conner Harrell for Saturday’s noon game (ACC Network) against James Madison (2–0). At his weekly press conference on Monday, Coach Mack Brown didn’t name a starter and said they would share starting reps in practice.
A state-championship-winning coaching friend once told me you can’t get a team up 12 times a season. Sometimes you’re going to have to grind out a win, particularly over an overmatched opponent. It appeared that North Carolina might have been taking FCS N.C. Central lightly.
The case for Jacolby Criswell was pretty simple but not overwhelming as Carolina deals with life after Drake Maye. The graduate transfer quarterback produced points in his first three drives and junior Conner Harrell struggled to move the ball on his first three drives. However, Criswell may have closed the case when he led UNC to 21 of its 28 fourth-quarter points as the Tar Heels pulled away for a 45–10 victory Saturday at Kenan Stadium over N.C. Central.
CHAPEL HILL — On a December evening as a high school sophomore, Davion “Bullet” Gause already knew where he wanted to play college football. The South Florida kid was in the Hard Rock Stadium when Michael Carter and Javonte Williams combined for 544 rushing yards in the Tar Heels’ 62–26 win at Miami on Dec. 12, 2020. Watching the duo run all over the Hurricanes that night convinced Gause that North Carolina was where he wanted to play.
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