Tag: North Carolina football

Two former UNC football stars explode in NFL’s Week 4

These former Heels went off at the professional level yesterday.

Despite UNC football having a horrendous weekend losing a 20-point lead against Duke on the road to losing 21-20, two former Tar Heels who are now playing at the next level had great games for their respective teams.

Javonte Williams has had a mediocre season, to say the least, through the first three weeks for the Denver Broncos. However, last week, he ran like the Williams we saw dawning the baby blue in Chapel Hill.

Williams took 16 carries for 77 yards on the ground, averaging 4.8 yards per carry. He also caught two of his three targets for three yards. In a game that saw Denver put up just 10 points, he was the bright spot.

The other Tar Heels that shined was former receiver Josh Downs. Down was injured to start the season up to Week 3 when he made his sophomore debut for the Indianapolis Colts. However, in Week 4, we saw what the receiver is made of.

Despite going from Anthony Richardson to Joe Flacco in the middle of the game, Downs totaled eight receptions on nine targets for 82 yards and his first touchdown of the season. He averaged 10.3 yards per reception.

The current Heels might not be finding a ton of success currently, but the former ones are at the next level.

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UNC apart of the Misery Index for a second straight week

UNC continues in misery after another brutal loss to Duke.

In Week 4, North Carolina brought in James Madison, and it ended up being the game of the week with 120 points put up and UNC losing 70-50. That was the first time this season that the Heels found their way onto USA Today’s “College Football Misery Index.”

After a brilliant first half that made it look like the misery was behind them, the misery found a way. North Carolina went into the halftime break up 17-0 and was up 20-0 in the third quarter at one point.

That’s when it went downhill as Duke scored 21, unanswered points that led to a 21-20 defeat of the Heels on the road. Arguably, a bigger pain than the blowout the week before. Dan Wolken said it best.

Though all the attention for North Carolina’s face-plant will go toward head coach Mack Brown, consider the plight of defensive coordinator Geoff Collins … At Georgia Tech, Collins was famous for walking around with a cup from Waffle House. Brown’s tenure might be smothered, covered, and peppered at this point.

Time will tell if North Carolina can turn this negative attention around and get back on the winning side. They will get Pittsburgh at home in Week 6 as their next attempt to get their fourth win of the season.

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UNC a part of USA Today’s “Winners/Losers” of Week 5

Is Mack Brown a winner or a loser in USA Today’s Week 5 winners/losers?

This weekend was nothing to be proud of for coaches, players, and fans alike of North Carolina Tar Heels football. Not only was it a second straight loss, but it was also a loss that cost the Victory Bell on the road at our archrival.

For the second straight week as well, people are questioning whether Mack Brown is still the best-suited person for the head coaching job at UNC.

In an article released by USA Today, the North Carolina coach makes an appearance as one of the “Winners and Losers” from Week 5 around the nation.

Paul Myerberg explains the following.

The writing is on the wall for Brown’s second tenure at North Carolina after the Tar Heels coughed up a 21-20 loss to rival Duke. You have to wonder which is worse: Last week’s 70-50 loss to James Madison, which dropped 53 points at halftime, or giving away a 20-0 lead to your fiercest rival.

Brown has not stepped down, and the likelihood that he finishes out the season is high as compared to rumors from last week. However, this could likely be the last season that Brown is at the reigns of the Tar Heels.

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PHOTOS: Tar Heels find new low after loss at Duke

The Tar Heels found a way to top last week’s loss, and it’s all photographed.

It was a dream-turned-nightmare in Durham for North Carolina tonight. The Heels looked outstanding in the first half of the game. Nothing like the team that played James Madison and lost 70-50 in the week prior.

They shut Duke down at every turn and held them scoreless through two quarters heading into the break up 17-0. However, that’s when the dream was too good to be true. Duke marched back and North Carolina crumbled.

Maalik Murphy and Duke mounted a 20-point comeback winning 21-20.

Here is what that loss looked like for North Carolina.

 

Angry North Carolina fans demand an end to Mack Brown 2.0 after loss to Duke

Is it time for Mack Brown 2.0 to end in Chapel Hill? Some fans think so after a loss to Manny Diaz’s Duke.

North Carolina led rival Duke 17-0 at halftime on Saturday in Durham.

And in the end, the Tar Heels collapsed and lost, 21-20, relinquishing the Victory Bell to their hated Tobacco Road rivals.

It’s the second straight week where UNC’s football team has done something embarrassingly noteworthy. Last week, it was giving up 70 points at home to James Madison, where afterwards Tar Heels coach Mack Brown seemingly offered to resign in the locker room before walking it back. UNC also didn’t allow players to speak to reporters after that shocking home loss, nor did players talk to the media this past week leading up to teh clash against Duke.

In his career, now spanning two stints in Chapel Hill – the first from 1988 to 1997, and now the second since 2019 – Mack Brown has always been good at two things: Messaging and beating Duke.

Saturday marked the first time Mack had lost to Duke since 1989 – Steve Spurrier was the coach of the Blue Devils then. Mack had won 13 consecutive Victory Bell games.

And since the offseason – when Mack vowed he wasn’t retiring and pointed fingers at those who he accused of negative recruiting against him, when he spent a signing day talking about things N.C. State coach Dave Doeren had said, when he decided to not hold a televised spring game, and when he refused to name a starting quarterback – something seems to be off with his public relations savvy.

And so, it seems like Mack, at the age of 73, has lost his two best fastballs. The Tar Heels’ rivals are 5-0 for the first time since 1994 and are coached by Manny Diaz, whom Mack fired as defensive coordinator at Texas when the Longhorns got slammed by a Taysom Hill-led BYU team in 2013.

With all of this in front of Tar Heels’ fans now, a lot of them are tired of Mack and think it’s time for his 2.0 era in Chapel Hill to end.

When Mack Brown returned to Chapel Hill in 2019 after spending a few years on television, he pulled the program out the gutter that Larry Fedora left it in. Over six seasons in the Mack 2.0 era, the Tar Heels have a winning record. It’s inarguable that he restored the program to competency.

But what do the Tar Heels have to point to as their big success during Mack’s second run? What do they have to show for having produced two NFL quarterbacks in Sam Howell and Drake Maye? A lopsided loss to Clemson in the 2022 ACC title game? A double-digit defeat to Jimbo Fisher’s Texas A&M in the 2021 Orange Bowl?

If we’re to judge the temperature of the UNC fans by their comments on social media, it sure feels like the Tar Heels are tired of underachieving and failing to meet expectations.

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Second half collapse costs North Carolina Victory Bell at Duke

Defense collapses as UNC gives up another win from their hands.

After going up 17 at the halftime break and 20 in the third quarter, UNC failed to put any more points on the board and the defense which held Duke to zero points in the first half, gave up 20+ unanswered points in the last quarter and a half.

Throughout the game, the defensive backs for North Carolina were on different pages every drive. One drive, they have Jordan Moore and Eli Pancol locked down and the next, they are letting Murphy do anything he wants.

For example, in the fourth quarter of the drive by Duke that led to the Star Thomas two-yard touchdown run, the backs had multiple miscues. They gave up a 43-yard pass to Moore from Murphy followed by Kaleb Cost pass interference in the end zone on a 3rd and 5 that gave the Blue Devils first and goal leading to a score that put the game within one score.

https://twitter.com/UNC_TarHeelFan/status/1840171694322798624

On the ensuing drive by Duke after a punt by North Carolina, Murphy had four straight incompletions on great plays by Cost, Alijah Huzzie, and Marcus Allen that had the Duke receivers locked down.

On top of that, the front seven allowed Thomas and Peyton Jones to run all over them totaling 200 yards on the ground between the two of them with two scores.

If this team is going to be successful this season, the defense is going to have to find some sort of consistency. If they come out and shut teams down through the air and upfront, this could be an undefeated team. However, for the second straight week, the defense has cost UNC a win.

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UNC wide receiver among semifinalist for Campbell Trophy

A Tar Heels receiver has made the semifinal list for the Campbell Trophy!

Senior Tar Heel receiver J.J. Jones is up for another award after being named a semifinalist in the Campbell Trophy. This season, Jones has played in four games for North Carolina and has 11 receptions for 175 yards in a slow start to the season. He is still waiting on his first score of the year.

He is coming off of his best season in his junior year where he totaled 46 receptions for 711 yards and three touchdowns in Drake Maye’s final season.

According to the Football Foundation, “Celebrating its 35th year, the Campbell Trophy recognizes an individual as the absolute best football scholar-athlete in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance, and exemplary leadership.”

This year, there was a record number of 203 semifinalists. This number is two more than the previous 201 record.

“The impressive list of candidates, from all NCAA divisions and the NAIA, boasts an impressive 3.63 average GPA, with more than half of the semifinalists having already earned their bachelor’s degrees.”

Jones has plenty of season left to continue to step up after having his best offense game in the 70-50 loss to James Madison. This week, the team will head on the road to take on Duke in the Victory Bell Battle.

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UNC doesn’t have biggest fall in USA Today’s Week 4 CFB re-rank

UNC falls but not as much as some other teams after Week 4 loss to JMU

It is no secret that the North Carolina football team had a rough weekend. The team went in undefeated and not only came out with a loss, but they have been laughed at, mocked, and dismayed since the close of the 70-50 loss to James Madison at home.

Fans left at halftime, the boos rained in, and it was nothing that anyone wanted to be a part of. After the game, turmoil ensued in the locker room surrounding the topic of Mack Brown and his job and potential resignation.

However, despite the misery, North Carolina did not plummet in USA Today’s latest college football re-rank as everyone had anticipated.

They did fall, specifically from No. 36 to No. 50; however, the 13-rank drop was not even the largest of the weekend. Nebraska dropped 13 spots as did Georgia Tech, Memphis, and Minnesota.

There were also plenty of teams that saw a bigger drop than UNC football experienced. Toled dropped 21 spots; TCU dropped 16; Northern Illinois dropped 16, NC State dropped 21; Coastal Carolina dropped 16; Arizona dropped 15; and Kansas dropped 18.

Was last weekend rough on North Carolina? Yes. Was it the end of the season and hope? no. We are not the only program going through tough Week 4 losses.

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UNC football commit almost flawless over weekend

UNC has some high hopes for the future with Bryce Baker coming to town.

While UNC looked anything like a stellar team over the weekend, their Class of 2025 quarterback commit looked the best he has all season. The ironic part about the situation is that UNC has had such a quarterback controversy over the past three weeks of play.

Bryce Baker, a four-star quarterback our of Kernersville, North Carolina, put his talents on display over the weekend as his high school, East Forsyth, took to the road to take on Reagan High School.

They ended up dominating the game, winning 69-21 in a conference matchup. Baker threw for 213 yards and four touchdowns in the win while also running six times for 18 yards.

Baker completed 17 passes seeing just one of his 18 attempts fall to the ground in an incompletion. The near-perfect outing for Baker adds to the stellar play that the quarterback has had to begin his senior year.

Baker is now up to 1,288 yards and 14 touchdowns with one interception this year. He has completed 79% of his passes which is up from 66.6% last season. He is also averaging 65 yards per game more than he did in his junior year.

The future is bright at the quarterback position for North Carolina.

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UNC comes in atop the Misery Index after Week 4 loss

Misery… a word used to describe the state of UNC football following a 70-50 loss in Week 4.

UNC football went into Week 4 of the college football season undefeated and feeling good. It took just one quarter in the home game with James Madison for the Tar Heels to lose that feeling.

Despite bouncing back and forth with some key mistakes on the Heels side, the first quarter was only a 25-14 game. However, the second quarter is where all hope was thrown out of the window as JMU scored 28 points to UNC’s seven in the quarter leading 53-21 at the break.

To add to the mayhem, North Carolina didn’t produce any player for the media after the game and reports swirled after the postgame talk in the locker room of Mack Brown’s status as the head coach at UNC going forward.

With all that emotion and commotion in the air, North Carolina was on top of USA Today’s College Football Misery Index after Week 4.

It’s sad and uncomfortable and uncouth to talk about so bluntly, but even a beloved Hall of Famer like Brown reaches a point where it no longer makes sense to run a college football program that is trying to win at the highest level. Losing in such an awful fashion to James Madison will supercharge that conversation. And that’s why North Carolina is No. 1 in the Misery Index, a weekly measurement of which fan bases are feeling the most angst.

Bubba Cunningham and North Carolina will have decisions moving forward, but foremost of the conversation, Mack Brown needs to find a way to get back on the winning side as the team goes back on the road against a good Duke team to open up ACC play.

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