Don’t look now, but apparently the North Carolina football team is currently the favorite to win the ACC Coastal Division.
No, I’m not lying to you to try to fill up Kenan Memorial Stadium. According to the latest ESPN Football Power Index, your Tar Heels have a 51 percent chance of taking the Coastal Division after Saturday’s 38-31 upset in Atlanta against Georgia Tech.
Which is a bit weird, because normally at this point in the year, we’d already be hearing those self-defeating “just wait until basketball season” quips from the UNC faithful. So far, though, this hasn’t been the case.
Larry Fedora’s team is currently 4-1, the best start to a season since 2011-12.
This is just the second time in the past 15 years the Tar Heels have started conference play 1-0.
And before you say, “Wait, dumb amateur sports writer, we’ve seen this movie before. The one where the football team gets us excited before winding up in the same pit of mediocrity like last year, and 2013, and 2012, and 2011...”
I get that feeling. I understand you, cynical UNC football fan. I truly do. I’m the self-proclaimed cynic of this sports desk, proudly so.
Still, there is something different about this year’s football team. There is a real chance for UNC to take the Coastal Division and challenge for an ACC championship — which UNC hasn’t won since 1980.
Maybe it’s the increased physicality (and, you know, the ability to actually tackle) that we’ve seen with Gene Chizik’s new defense. Maybe it’s the amount of returning talent Fedora has to play with on the offensive side of the ball. Probably, it’s a combination of these things.
