Tar Heel Blog
Tar Heel born, bred, and working on that third thing
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Center Christo Kelly will be key for UNC’s offense to thrive
Two players touch the ball every play: the center and the quarterback. A bad snap can kill a drive, and that assumes the QB or a running back manage to recover it. A bad line call can kill a drive, and that assumes the QB survives the missed assignment. An inability to stand up a […]
The optics for UNC Football this season could be horrible
It was just your basic, boilerplate question at ACC Kickoff. One where a reporter just tries to get the coach to talk positively about their team, and one that just about every coach gets during these types of events. This was the answer Bill Belichick decided to go with. Not “a much better commitment on […]
Bill Belichick is talking a better game in 2026, but he and UNC still need to prove it
Earlier this week, the annual ACC Kickoff media days event was held and, as all coaches are, Bill Belichick was in attendance. Following his infamously bad debut season in charge of North Carolina, Belichick was talking up improvements the team has made going in 2026, saying they were “night and day” ahead of where the […]
Is Pat Narduzzi right about the ACC?
There’s a healthy debate to be had about the usefulness of conference media days. Yes, they give outlets a chance to generate fresh content ahead of the season, but so many coaches and players fall back on the same generic soundbites each year that we rarely learn anything of value. Every now and then, though, […]
A 24-team College Football Playoff could be cool, but the system they’re going to pick won’t be
Basically ever since the first ever edition of the College Football Playoff, the powers that be have been plotting — secretly and sometimes not so secretly — on how to make it bigger. They eventually succeeded a few years ago when it went from four to 12 teams, and in the past couple months, the […]
What should UNC do if the SEC breaks off from the NCAA?
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported on Friday that the SEC is considering breaking off from the NCAA and operating as its own entity if the conference isn’t satisfied with legislative action to regulate the college sports landscape. Dellenger writes: “Plan B,” as some have referred to it, is a self-governance model in which the conference […]
Tar Heels in the NBA: Las Vegas Summer League Recap 2.0
The Las Vegas Summer League has finished its “regular” season, and all that is left is the four-team playoff and a bunch of consolation games for the other 26 squads. As mentioned after the weekend, the North Carolina has quite a few players represented, so lets take a look at Tar Heels (and former Tar […]
ABS Coming to College Baseball?
The thing about technology is that when one entity sees something work well, then everyone wants it. For a few years Major League Baseball has been experimenting with Automated Balls and Strikes — some call them Robo-umps — to try and figure out a way to create consistency throughout a sport where subjectivity can creep […]
How UNC’s football schedule looks through the lens of the predictive metrics
You’d think computers, looking at the same set of returning and departing players, production gained and production lost, would tend to agree on the prospects of a team heading into a season. For example, the three most prominent predictive metrics, SP+, FPI, and FEI, all rank Louisville at 27th preseason. Not so with UNC football. […]
ACC changes up football tiebreakers
Think back to last football season. Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to think about North Carolina’s season, which was somehow both unforgettable and very forgettable. I’m more asking you to think about what happened in the ACC as a whole. As you might remember, a very weird conference season ended with a […]
Jim Phillips speaks at ACC Kickoff
The vibe around the ACC’s annual summer kickoff event is very different than last year. The best way to describe the 2025 ACC Kickoff was “all Belichick all the time.” The rooms in Charlotte were teeming with anticipation over the Super Bowl winner’s arrival into college football, and it created arguably the largest press conference […]
What Tar Heel story do you want to see told next?
I’m going to say something maybe a little controversial: most sports documentaries are really, really bad. It’s nobody’s fault in particular, and maybe I’m a little too exacting because I’m a writer who loves a well-told story, but it’s true nonetheless that while sports are chock-full of great stories at every level, the people who […]
Caleb Wilson is proving he’s a winner on and off the court at NBA Summer League
It’s no secret that former UNC star Caleb Wilson is a winner. We’ve knew that before he committed to UNC, we knew that while he was at UNC, and now he is proving it at the next level. Setting aside the Chicago Bulls win/loss column in the NBA Summer League (seriously, you don’t want me […]
Looking ahead to 2027’s men’s professional drafts for UNC athletics
In the past, especially for the NFL Draft, I’ve written look-ahead articles that preview the pro prospects still on UNC rosters and what their outlook is for the next 365 days. With no UNC players picked in the 2026 NFL Draft, such an article didn’t make sense, but now that UNC has produced 2 NBA […]
Should Drake Powell have stayed at UNC?
First things first: this sort of question tends to generate answers based on one of two perspectives: what we as fans would prefer for our own viewing pleasure versus what we as fans think is the best outcome for one of our own. Both are valid perspectives, up to a point. Last season as a […]
2026 Preseason rankings don’t know what to make of UNC football
Whatever your hopes and expectations for next season, there’s a respected preseason ranking out there for you. Last week, we reviewed the first two sets of power rankings to drop, Phil Steele’s and Bill Connelly’s SP+. Steele and Connelly are in rough agreement on UNC’s preseason ranking, both in the ACC and the FBS division. […]
Two more Tar Heels selected on Day Two of the MLB Draft
Day two of the 2026 MLB draft kicked off on Sunday morning. Four Tar Heels baseball players were selected on Saturday, highlighted by Jake Schaffner’s surprising selection as the 20th overall pick by the Boston Red Sox. Carolina fans didn’t have to wait long before seeing another UNC player taken off the board. Macon Winslow […]
Tar Heels in the NBA: Las Vegas Summer League Recap
We are now through the first weekend of the Las Vegas Summer League and after a couple opening summer leagues in California and Utah respectively, all 30 NBA teams have shown up for the main event. The University of North Carolina has quite a few players represented, so let’s take a look at Tar Heels […]
Four Tar Heels selected on Day 1 of the MLB Draft
After helping guide Carolina to one of the best seasons in program history, Jake Schaffner, Owen Hull, Jason DeCaro, and Ryan Lynch will get a chance to climb the ladder to the big leagues. All four of them were selected in the MLB Draft on Saturday, the first time UNC has had that many players […]
What UNC baseball player will have the best MLB career?
Saturday saw the beginning of the 2026 MLB Draft. After a season that saw them get a win away from a national championship, the North Carolina Tar Heels baseball team are likely to see several players picked in this year’s edition. For example, Owen Hull (#67), Jake Schaffner (#75), Ryan Lynch (#98), Jason DeCaro (#133), […]
Which great UNC games do you wish you had attended?
We’ve reached the offseason in college sports, which means we’ll probably have less and less topical stuff to go over in our questions of the day. For today’s question, we have a bit of an evergreen one. You can probably name the best ever North Carolina Tar Heels’ sporting event that you’ve ever been too. […]
Caleb Wilson breaks NBA Summer League debut record in Bulls loss to the Grizzlies
If there’s one thing that UNC fans learned about Caleb Wilson immediately, it is that he takes slights very personally. Ever since his UNC career abruptly ended, media outlets twisted themselves into pretzels finding ways to claim that he did not have what it takes to be drafted higher than Cameron Boozer, AJ Dybantsa, and […]
UNC baseball set to add 10 transfers
As the Carolina baseball team embarked on a run to the College World Series finals last month, Scott Forbes and his staff were also building a strong class of transfers. A total of 10 players have committed to join the Tar Heels out of the portal, most of whom did so in June. Since you […]
Phil Steele and Bill Connelly reveal their rankings for UNC football
This week, college sports writers Phil Steele and Bill Connelly revealed their team rankings for the 2026 college football season. Steele authors the annual publication of Phil Steele’s College Football Preview since 1995, a 350+ page behemoth that does a deep dive into every team’s two deep and the challenges of their coming season. Connelly’s […]
What UNC player or team blew away your low expectations?
UNC fans have a split personality when it comes to expectations and men’s revenue sports. Basketball: “We only won by 20 because the damn coach put in the subs too early.” Football: “I hope we win seven games next season.” So, when it comes to a player or team exceeding expectations, some UNC sports will […]
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