North Carolina Tar Heels College Football Preview 2021: Keys To The Season
North Carolina Tar Heels Biggest Key: Offense
Keep that rushing production going, but first …
Keep The Franchise upright.
The O line should be one of the team’s biggest strengths – especially with so many skill parts gone – but it has to do a far, far better job in pass protection.
The Tar Heels allowed 34 sacks, and while part of that came from Sam Howell waiting to let the big play develop, and part of that was his ability to hang tough and get popped, the line has to keep that No. 7 jersey clean.
Virginia, Notre Dame, Boston College and Texas A&M all came up with four or more sacks – that can’t happen again.
Really, though, it’s about the ground game for his attack. North Carolina ran for 93 yards against Virginia – and lost. It ran for 90 yards against Texas A&M and 87 against Notre Dame – lost and lost. It ran for 184 yards in the loss to Florida State, but it also got hit for way too many plays in the backfield.
Yeah, rushing for 200 yards or more is great for everyone, but North Carolina was 5-0 when it did that last season and is 10-0 in Part 2 of the Mack Brown era when getting there.
North Carolina Tar Heels Biggest Key: Defense
Where are all the takeaways? The Tar Heels were aggressive, they had a whole slew of veteran playmakers, and they had several solid performances, but they also had a bad habit of not forcing turnovers.
They came up with four in the win over NC State, and an underwhelming two against a Duke team that gave away the ball like Halloween candy.
That was about it. Those were the only two games the Tar Heels forced multiple turnovers, and that’s not right.
They spread out five takeaways over the other nine games with just three recovered fumbles all year. How many times did the 2019 defense take the ball away multiple times? Seven.
North Carolina Tar Heels Key Player To A Successful Season
WR Khafre Brown, Soph.
There’s a whole lot of young talent on the Tar Heel receiving corps, but it’s still asking too much to quickly replace the 109 catches and 14 touchdowns from Dyami Brown and Dazz Newsome.
Khafre Brown was the third-leading receiver in yards with 337 on his 15 catches for two scores, but he’s not alone when it comes explosion. Beau Corrales averaged over 18 yards per catch, Josh Downs looks like a keeper with three scores and 17 yards per grabs, and other speedsters are around to stretch the field.
Can any of them grow into a 60-grab volume catcher? If Brown can keep hitting home runs, that’s fine, too.
North Carolina Tar Heels Key Game To The 2021 Season
at Virginia Tech, Sept. 2
Don’t … drop … the opener.
The schedule overall isn’t bad – translation: no Clemson – but there are just enough landmines to potentially screw up any dreams of at least getting to the ACC Championship with a shot at the College Football Playoff.
Lose in Blacksburg to kick things off, and forget it.
The Tar Heels won a wild 56-45 thriller last year to break a run of four straight Hokie wins in the series. This is a good Virginia Tech team that also wants to make an early statement – it needs this home win.
The North Carolina can pull this off, as long as there’s no gag at home against a Virginia, Florida State or Miami, 7-0 is possible before going to Notre Dame.
– North Carolina Football Schedule Breakdown & Analysis
2020 North Carolina Tar Heels Fun Stats
– 1st Quarter Scoring: North Carolina 156 – Opponents 64
– Onside Kicks: Opponents 1-of-7 – North Carolina 0-of-0
– Average Yards Per Carry: North Carolina 5.8 – Opponents 4.3