Week 1 in college football was kind to the Tar Heels. Several factors that could have gone array for the team, didn’t, including the fact that they were on the road and that they were playing a power conference opponent.
The only thing that went wrong for the Heels in Week 1 was the season-ending injury to starting quarterback Max Johnson. However, Conner Harrell took over and it didn’t take long for him to take as much control over the offense as Johnson had.
Despite all of that, UNC football still fell in USA Today’s Paul Myerberg’s re-rank of the Top 134 college football programs in the nation. Preseason, they opened up at No. 32 before dropping to No. 39 after the Week 1 win, a fall of seven rankings.
It marks the biggest fall by a team that won in Week 1 in the Top 50 schools on the list. In fact, the only teams in the Top 40 to drop faster than North Carolina were Clemson (down 19 spots) and LSU (down 10 spots) who both lost their Week 1 opening contest.
North Carolina will have some work to do in the coming weeks to prove to the nation that Conner Harrell can lead a Top 25 offense with Omarion Hampton behind him.
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