Ultimate College Football Preview, 130 Teams In A 130 Days: North Carolina

Welcome to the Ultimate College Football Preview for 2023. Every team in FBS Football will be covered in this daily blog release. All of your favorite teams from the ACC, AAC, Big 12, Big 10, C-USA, MAC, Mountain West, PAC 12, SEC, Sun Belt & even every Independent. Think of these daily college football previews as a cheat sheet going into next year.

2022 Recap:

The Tar Heels finished the regular season at 6-2 in the ACC and 9-3 overall and second place in the conference. A pretty damn good season by record but losing its last two games leaves a bad taste in UNC fans mouths. This team was Jeckyll and Hyde. They were scoring over 34 points every game which was top 25 in the country. The problem is there is another side of football and that is defense. The Tar Heels gave up 30 points per game and that was 102nd in the country. Their offense was able to outscore the bad and mediocre teams. But when they stepped up to play good teams they lost like Notre Dame, Clemson and Oregon.

Head Coach:

I mean come on it is Mack Brown, one of the most successful and respected coaches in the game. He does need to help Defensive Coordinator Gene Chizik get the defense just to an average squad. Which he did with promoting Tommy Thigpen to Co-Defensive Coordinator. Mack knows his offense is playoff worthy if he can get his defense to just respectable they can make some noise this year.

Key Players:

When it comes to key players for the Tar Heels it starts and ends with QB Drake Maye. He is a pre-season All-American and Heisman contender and some say number 1 pick in the 2024 NFL draft. They will go as far as he and the offense can take them. He loses his number 1 target from last year Josh Downs and number 2 Antoine Green. Kobe Paysour and J.J. Jones will have to step up into their starting roles this season as both were good contributors last year. The defense is playing a lot of upperclassman that will be better. After last years terrbile showing on defense they can really only go up.

2023 Prediction:

The start of the season is not an easy one playing South Carolina, and App State in back to back weeks. Also they have to travel to Clemson and rival N.C. State this season. All of that coming into play, they are a much better team then most of the ACC. They should run through their conference schedule, I think 9 or 10 wins would be what fans of the Tar Heels should expect. Can they go undefeated and go to the playoff? Yes, if Drake Maye continues to ball out and the defense does improve. Even if it is a bad year for UNC, I don’t see more than 4 loses on this schedule.