Is Belichick Actually...Doing Something?

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Show Me Something, Bill. Carolina Finally Did.

For three weeks, my position on Bill Belichick’s North Carolina experiment has been borrowed from Remember the Titans:

SHOW ME, BILL. SHOW ME!

Saturday, he finally did.

No, Carolina didn’t beat No. 3 Notre Dame. The Irish won 37-26, rolled up 475 yards and eventually imposed the difference between a legitimate national-title contender and a program still learning how to become one. CJ Carr threw four touchdown passes and ran for another. Notre Dame rushed for 241 yards and possessed the football for more than 37 minutes.

That is why Notre Dame is Notre Dame.

But this was also the first time I watched Belichick’s Carolina and thought: there may actually be something here.

Because programs like UNC aren’t required to beat the No. 3 team in America to demonstrate progress. They’re required to make that team earn it.

Carolina did.

The Tar Heels punched first, marching 74 yards for a touchdown. Then came the kind of sequence that would have buried last year’s team: Notre Dame answered, intercepted Billy Edwards Jr. on UNC’s next snap, scored 15 seconds later, picked him off again, and suddenly Carolina trailed 21-7.

That was the moment.

Fold, and everybody gets to make the same old jokes.

Instead, UNC produced perhaps the most important possession of Belichick’s tenure: a 15-play, 97-yard touchdown drive consuming more than seven minutes, completed by Edwards finding Jelani Thurman with 21 seconds before halftime. Carolina then opened the third quarter with Jaden Jefferson’s 98-yard kickoff return (where the heck has he been?) and suddenly the Irish were leading only 21-20.

Notre Dame eventually did what elite teams do. Its offensive line took control. They broke Carolina’s momentum, and the Irish’s superior depth finished the argument.

But Carolina never looked embarrassed.

That matters.

Jordan Shipp looked like a real ACC weapon, catching seven passes for 109 yards. Edwards threw three touchdowns despite his mistakes. The special teams produced a score. The defense produced a goal-line stand. Most importantly the Blue Belichicks  played with enough heart and organization to remain dangerous when a couple of bounces might have made the afternoon very uncomfortable for Notre Dame.

This is what UNC football should look like while it is being built.

Compete. Be organized. Show heart. Make superior programs work for everything. Put yourself close enough that eventually one interception becomes a tipped pass, one fourth down gets stopped, one loose ball lands Carolina’s way and suddenly, you steal one!

Saturday wasn’t a breakthrough.

But it looked like a blueprint.

So, Bill:

You showed me something.

Now show me that it wasn’t an accident.

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Before we get to the college football week 5 recap, a few comments about other news from the sports world. With the Cubs losing to the Tijuana Padres baseball season for all but the unwashed heathen is officially over, and even though a few big market teams are still in contention, I know we’re all really hoping the two most inconsequential teams in all of baseball, the Rays and the White Sox, to face off in the World Series. A series with two teams with smaller fan bases than some Triple A teams would struggle to get higher ratings than the Little League World Series, and that would hopefully put the kibosh on MLB expansion talk for the time being.  

The WNBA season is also over, now that Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham’s team has been eliminated. Quick aside, does this league have the dumbest team names in the history of sports? The Sparks were flying as I gazed across the bar and looked deep into her eyes. Yet in the next morning I awoke in a dumpster behind Denny’s with the Sun beating down on me and a cloudless Sky above. I had a terrible hangover, or maybe it was a Fever, and it felt like my loins were on Fire. Had it all just been a Dream? Clark and Cunningham are the only interesting players in the history of the league, which of course is why everyone else in the league, players, coaches, referees, and management hates them. Sail on, ship of fools

Wake Forest 57 Stanford 3

It was a nice tune up for WFU before going down Tobacco Road this week to face NC State in Raleigh. Wake obviously dominated in all facets of the game, which is what good teams are supposed to do against lesser teams, and even when Wake pulled all the starters in the 4^th quarter, they gave up no more points and scored two more touchdowns.  Solid win, let’s keep rolling.

Minnesota 20 Michigan 14

The best game I saw all weekend was the battle for the Little Brown Jug, which is actually a very large brown jug, and it was won by the Golden Gophers in Minneapolis for the first time since 1977. Michigan has been living on borrowed time all season and they suffered a second straight conference loss with nothing positive to point to about the game. When billionaire Larry Ellison’s sixth wife, a twentysomething Michigan grad, “talked” Larry into ponying up for five star QB Bryce Underwood everyone drew the same conclusion; I hope this guy isn’t an overrated mediocrity like so many five star QB’s turn out to be. The jury is still out, but Underwood has failed to impress midway through his second season, and with Indiana, Oregon and Ohio State left on the schedule it’s looking like the season may already be lost.

#3 Notre Dame 37 North Carolina 26

Continuing our ongoing point counterpoint Carolina coverage, I have to say I pretty much agree with Ed this week. Truthfully, we generally agree on sports on the analytical side, and Carolina did look quite improved against an excellent ND squad. I don’t think Billy Edwards is anything more than a placeholder at QB. He runs quite well and makes some good throws, but he’s just not the guy to win the big game for you; something that his previous two teams concluded as well. I’m still befuddled at some of the offensive play calling and personnel strategies. Demon June is a bruiser who averaged 5.5 yards a carry last season, this year he’s been relegated to the short yardage back and is only getting 8 carries a game, and he’s still averaging over 4 yards a carry. Who was the burner who ran back the 2^nd half kickoff for a TD? I’d never heard of him either, but he needs to get the ball more too.

The Rest

The SEC seems to have a habit of looking great then getting brought back to reality. LSU, Ole Miss and Florida have all been hyped after big wins only to come crashing down the next week. Texas A&M looks mediocre, as does Oklahoma and Mississippi State. Kentucky and Missouri have surprised on the upside, Georgia hasn’t played anybody, and Texas is the least intimidating #1 team we’ve seen since UVA briefly held the ranking in the ‘90’s. No Rand and Tate, I’m not kidding, I saw them play at Groves Stadium at the time.