UNC Football: Schedule gives Tar Heels a path to College Football Playoffs?

UNC Football’s path to the college football playoffs will be based upon if they can take advantage of their lack luster schedule.

The UNC Football program will begin preparation for the upcoming season in August, with the goal being a college football playoff berth. Carolina has been looked at as a team that could make the playoffs according to a few national media outlets as they are coming off an Orange Bowl appearance a year ago.

The most recent outlet to buy into UNC football making the postseason is 247sports.com, which ranked the team third third among college football programs with the most favorable schedules.

The site credits the fact that Clemson isn’t on the UNC football schedule and only having two possible games that could cause Carolina to fall flat of playoffs, which are facing Notre Dame and the Miami Hurricanes. Both of these teams are true threats to UNC, however, the threat is more like a tornado watch versus a warning.

No matter the year, the Fighting Irish are always expected to be among the elites despite falling short in big games, such as losing to Clemson 34-10 in the Atlantic Coastal Conference championship game then losing 31-14 to Alabama in the Rose Bowl. The narrative that Notre Dame could cause problems for UNC is a fair assessment as even ESPN’s yearly SP+ rankings have the UNC game as a toss-up.

For UNC to beat the Fighting Irish they will have to do what they failed to do in the match-up last season, which is to finish the game. In the game last season, Carolina got off to a hot start scoring 17 points in the first half. A halftime adjustment from Notre Dame and five punts to tag along by Carolina saw that hot start cool off as the Heels failed to put up any points in the second half resulting in a 31-17 loss.

This much-anticipated game will look a lot different especially with the offense expected to be more pass-heavy with the departure of monster running back duo Javonte Williams and Michael Carter. A heavier passing offense could keep star quarterback Sam Howell in a rhythm versus being depended on to play catch-up late in games when the run fails to gain any traction. The expectation is for this game to come down to the wire, so it’s easy to see why many have this game as being a toss-up.

The Miami Hurricanes game is more of a speed bump than a traffic stop as UNC should handle this team in a blowout fashion.

Unlike the Notre Dame game, this ACC match-up will be in front of Tar Heel nation, which adds more pressure for Miami to keep up the scoring pace. When the two teams faced off last December it was as one-sided as it gets with Carolina taking the win in Hard Rock Stadium 62-26. One can expect much of the same, for even without Williams and Carter, who combined for 544 yards on the ground last season, the offense is still light years ahead of Miami’s defense.

I can see why the Hurricanes can look intimidating when you have a guy like D’Eriq King at quarterback scrambling around. King is a threat and can keep up the pace scoring-wise with many teams in college football, however, when it comes to the explosiveness that Carolina brings it becomes just too tall of an order. The hurricanes may look like a danger to UNC playoff hopes, but once arriving it won’t even be looked at as a category 1.

Carolina has enough gas to drive into the playoffs, and the favorable schedule certainly does help. There may be some games that could end up being nail-biters, but that would just make the drive much more special.

Be sure to keep up with keeping it heel for the latest surrounding the UNC football team.