UNC Football: Tar Heels get no love from ACC media members

ACC media members pick UNC football program to finish second-to-last in 2019

Despite the return of head coach Mack Brown, and a freshman class that’s ranked No. 15 in the nation, the North Carolina Tar Heels were picked to finish second-to-last in the ACC Coastal Division in 2019.

According to 173 media members who voted at the 2019 ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina last week, the Tar Heels will finish ahead of just one team in the Coastal, and that’s the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, whose 7-6 record last season propelled them to a second-place finish in the division.

The Tar Heels, however, won only two games in 2018, and just five over the past two seasons under former head coach Larry Fedora. It was four years ago that a Marquise Williams-led UNC team won 11 games, and finished atop the Coastal standings. And they’re now three years removed from their last winning season — an 8-5 mark that earned them a bid to the 2016 Sun Bowl — which obviously shortened the Fedora era in Chapel Hill, and expedited the search for a new head coach.

However excited the Carolina faithful may be about the rebirth of the UNC football program under Brown, the media apparently are not. That’s why the Tar Heels, who received just 463 points — and surprisingly, one first-place vote — are expected to finish behind Virginia (1003), Miami (992), Virginia Tech (827), Pittsburgh (691) and Duke (566).

The Cavaliers received 82 first-place votes to the Hurricanes’ 55, while Clemson took all but two first-place votes in the Atlantic Division. Syracuse got the other two first-place votes in the Atlantic, as well as two votes to win the ACC Championship. Virginia received one such vote, while defending national champion Clemson took the remaining 170.

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