UNC Football: Despite loss, arrow still pointing up for Tar Heels

One loss shouldn’t derail the UNC Football program’s season as their arrow is still pointing up following Week 3

The North Carolina Tar Heels suffered their first loss of the 2019 college football season on Friday, losing to Wake on the road despite an almost heroic fourth-quarter comeback.

UNC got off to a very slow start against Wake Forest, scoring zero points in the first half and failing to reach the 50-yard line. Head coach Mack Brown even replaced freshman starter Sam Howell at quarterback with redshirt sophomore Jace Ruder.

It took a while for UNC to get going but when they did, they made it again.

The Tar Heels scored 18 points in the final two quarters, including 15 in the fourth to pull to within a possession. They would fall short after Wake added a field goal late and then UNC would run out of time. But while it was a loss, this game showed that the arrow is still pointing up for this talented Tar Heels’ team.

After surprising almost everyone by beating South Carolina and Miami, this was UNC’s first true road test of the season. It came against a pretty damn good Wake Forest team that is on the brink of cracking the Top 25. Yeah, UNC laid an egg in that first half and it cost them the game but the way they fought back just shows how close they are and how much this team really does care.

It would have been easy for them to just give up, go through the motions and play out the second half. That wasn’t the case. Instead, this defense went out there and made sure that their offense would have a chance to at least tie it at the end.

Following the game, Brown offered his thoughts on his team’s performance. Here is what he said via Inside Carolina:

"“I learned that we weren’t mature enough,” Brown said, “and our coaches and I didn’t do a good enough job getting through the first two games and getting over the Miami game and preparing well for this one emotionally. I didn’t think we played well enough emotionally in the first quarter and parts of the first half. We talked about it. We knew it was an issue. We knew we weren’t used to this position to be in, we knew Wake Forest would play really hard and we still didn’t come out and play like we need to. So, that’s my fault.”"

The first two wins against the Gamecocks and Hurricanes were huge but the ultimate goal is to win the Coastal Division and get to a Bowl Game. UNC is still in line to have a shot at those goals but they can’t dwell on this well.

At 2-1 and 1-0 in the conference, the schedule gets a little tougher. They welcome in an Appalachian State team that is 2-0 to start the year and will be looking to pull off the upset on the road. UNC can’t look ahead to their matchup with No. 1 Clemson in two weeks and getting a non-conference win will be huge for their bowl chances.

As for the ACC chances, if UNC loses to Clemson it will drop them to 1-1. They still have games against conference leader Virginia left as well as winnable ones vs. Pitt, Duke, NC State, Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech. The Coastal is in a down year and if UNC takes care of business, they can take advantage of that.

This team hasn’t fully clicked yet and there will be mistakes made but all signs are pointing to them being on track.

For more on the UNC Football program, please check back with Keeping It Heel.