The North Carolina Tar Heels’ football season quickly went from unblemished to unpromising.
UNC started the year off with consecutive wins against Minnesota, Charlotte and NC Central, despite struggling for large parts of each. North Carolina did this with new quarterbacks each week, an inexperienced receiving corps, a young offensive line and first-year defensive coordinator.
The Tar Heels were then exposed in a Week 4 loss to James Madison, facing a 31-point halftime deficit en route to a 770-50 loss. UNC gave fans false hope against archrival Duke, shutting out its archrival in the first half and building a 20-point lead, then its defense allowed 21 unanswered points in a devastating loss.
Despite the inconsistencies in its on-field play, North Carolina is still projected to a bowl game.
In its post-Week 5 bowl projections, USA Today has the Tar Heels playing South Florida in the Tampa, Fla.-based Gasparilla Bowl on Friday, Dec. 20. This projection would practically be a home game for USF, which is also located in Tampa.
It wouldn’t be UNC and USF’s first matchup with each other if they end up facing off, as the two programs played in both the 2006 and 2007 seasons. The Bulls beat the Tar Heels in both games: winning 37-20 in Chapel Hill during 2006, then 37-10 the following year in Tampa.
You could make a case for UNC and USF’s current seasons mirroring each other, with each squad losing its last two contests. The Bulls lost by 35 points to Miami (50-15) two weeks ago and at Tulane (45-10) last weekend, though they appeared on the verge of upsetting Alabama in Week 1, before the visiting Crimson Tide pulled away.
If North Carolina wants to even think about playing in a bowl game, it’ll have to start winning – fast. The Tar Heels need three more victories for bowl eligibility, while the Bulls need four more.
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