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Tar Heel Blog

https://www.tarheelblog.com/ | 432 entries published

Tar Heel born, bred, and working on that third thing

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UNC vs Virginia Player of the Game: The Defense Rises.

Much of the blame (that’s not already attributed to the coaches) for UNC’s poor start to the season has been laid to rest at feet of the offense. And rightfully so; UNC’s offense ranked 132nd out of 136 FBS Division 1 schools in yards per game coming into the matchup against Virginia. They only fare […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

Three Takeaways in another UNC loss to Virginia

For the second week in a row, the Tar Heels had a chance to win the game late and were right at the edge of the goal line with it in their hands. Also for the second week in a row, they failed to get across the line, causing their opponent to win. For the […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

UNC falls short in overtime loss to Virginia

Today’s UNC game could have easily been a blowout with Virginia coming in ranked as the 16th best team in the nation and Carolina riding a three-game losing streak. The game was anything but a blowout, but it also never felt like either of the teams really wanted to win the game. Each side left […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

The Tar Heels seek their first ACC win of the season against Virginia

The North Carolina Tar Heels are just moments away from facing off against Virginia in what is bound to be a game that could either be really interesting or really awful. The Cavaliers have looked really good so far this season, and UNC has looked, well, the exact opposite. Anybody that didn’t watch the game […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

How to Watch: UNC vs Virginia

It’s been a bit of an odd stretch for Carolina fans with the Tar Heels having byes in two of the past four weeks (not to mention a Friday night game that kicked off at 10:30 PM ET), but today marks a return to a more normal schedule as UNC hosts the South’s Oldest Rivalry.  […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Takeaways from UNC basketball’s exhibition game against BYU

The rise of televised exhibition games has made it easy to overreact to a contest that doesn’t actually count for anything. For example: based on UNC’s exhibition win over Memphis last season, Jalen Washington was going to be a dominant post player, Seth Trimble the team’s leading scorer, and Elliot Cadeau one of the top […]

4 months ago | 3 reads

UNC Basketball vs BYU: How to watch their exhibition game

For the first time in the 2025-26 season, the Tar Heels will play a game against another team, and they’ll do so in a way that’ll be available for us to see. Ever since the NCAA got rid of the so-called “secret scrimmages,” schools have taken advantage of having exhibition games against other big schools […]

4 months ago | 1 read

2025-26 Carolina Basketball Preview: Seniors

As we continue with our preview of the 2025-26 North Carolina Tar Heels’ basketball roster, we’ve come to the final group of players: the seniors/graduate students. While there are plenty of experienced players on this year’s team, there aren’t a ton that are seniors. There are just two official seniors on this year’s roster, and […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Inside the Numbers: Cavaliers vs Tar Heels Preview

UNC faces Virginia at home in an ACC tilt Saturday, with kick-off set for noon. Let’s look inside the numbers for these two programs this year and see if we find a plausible path to victory for our Tar Heels. 2025 Season So Far: Edge Virginia The Cal loss moved UNC up from 101st to […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Can UNC upset Virginia?

The 2025 North Carolina football team has not been the most fun watch to this point in the season, but guess what: there’s another game to watch this Saturday. This weekend, the Tar Heels will take on Virginia in the latest edition of the “South’s Oldest Rivalry.” Whereaas UNC has really struggled this season, the […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Bill Belichick Pre-Virginia Press Conference

Belichick addressed the media Tuesday in his weekly pre-game conference. This week Belichick discussed the aftermath of the California game and the challenges presented by Virginia. Belichick also addressed a couple of lingering program questions. The most notable new information: Armand Hawkins has returned to active status. UNC Compliance has cleared the cornerbacks coach, and […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

Carolina Football: Second Quarter Review and Grades

The North Carolina Tar Heels football season is now half over and a lot has changed in the three games since the last time we did this (mainly a bunch of losing). That recap came right before the UCF game when the team looked to be moving upward at 2-1 and a convincing win over […]

4 months ago | 6 reads

2025-26 Carolina Basketball Preview: Juniors

We continue our journey through the UNC men’s basketball roster with a look at this year’s junior class. The class designation is a little arbitrary this year, because of the six players listed as juniors on UNC’s roster, one is a former walk-on and the other five are transfers. I don’t think it’s incorrect to […]

4 months ago | 3 reads

Four Tar Heels have announced that they are leaving the program

This week saw three more players leave the football program: The 4 prior departures: Pryce Yates, a transfer from UConn prior to the season, was expected to be a starter on the defensive line. Yates has a concussion history, and it appears another one has hampered him this season. He’s played one game for the […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

2025-26 Carolina Basketball Sophomore Preview

With Ian Jackson transferring to St. John’s and Drake Powell getting drafted by the Brooklyn Nets, the sophomore class is a little uncharted and a lot unfamiliar. There are two new arrivals, two returnees from last year and one player who sat last year out. It’s not the most exciting group, but you never know […]

4 months ago | 1 read

UVA’s Chandler Morris is the X-factor in this weekend’s game

While they did play a bit better, UNC football’s struggles continued last weekend. A trip out west to play Cal ended in a loss after Nathan Leacock had a potential go-ahead touchdown punched out of his hands and out of the back of the endzone for a touchback and a turnover. Now, Bill Belichick’s squad […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

UNC Women’s Basketball: 2025-2026 Season Preview

This season marks the beginning of a new chapter for UNC women’s basketball. That core recruiting class from five years ago that included Kennedy Todd-Williams for three years, Deja Kelly for four, and Alyssa Ustby for five has left college after playing a huge role in stabilizing and rebuilding the program under head coach Courtney […]

4 months ago | 1 read

Opening odds for this weekend’s UNC vs. Virginia game

Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels were a ball punch away from potentially winning against Cal this past weekend, which is either good or bad depending on how you look at it. For most fans, it felt like a game that shouldn’t have even been close because the Golden Bears were practically begging UNC to win the […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

2025-26 Carolina Basketball Freshmen Preview

Believe it or not, the 2025-26 Carolina basketball season is just around the corner. It feels like it has been quite a while since we were sweating out the Heels making it to the NCAA Tournament, which is likely because of all of the football distractions that took place since then. While the football distractions […]

4 months ago | 1 read

ACC Power Rankings: Coastal Chaos Edition

Back when the ACC use to be in two divisions there was a yearly thing known as Coastal Chaos. Basically the Atlantic side of the conference was always pretty straight forward with Clemson or Florida State usually coming out on top fairly easily (those two won it 13 out of 17 times), while the Coastal […]

4 months ago | 5 reads

UNC vs California: Winners, Losers, & Honorable Mentions

The last two weeks have been more of the circus in Chapel Hill. Somehow through all that, though, a football game was played that didn’t end till after 2 AM Eastern Saturday morning, and people that went to bed early woke up to the highlight of being able to once again laugh at UNC’s struggles. […]

4 months ago | 1 read

The ACC adds a ranked team after top 25 upheaval

When your team struggles through a season, it can be easy to get caught up in that at the expense of enjoying some of the fun things happening elsewhere in the sport. That’s why I’m really hoping Carolina fans are able to zoom out from the mess unfolding in Chapel Hill enough to recognize that […]

4 months ago | 1 read

The Sunset Beckons

Not all exits are made equal. We see it time and again; veteran players losing a step, or veteran coaches watching the game pass them by. The more graceful among them transition easily into other roles, refusing to chase the limelight that had so effortlessly followed them in their prime. Vince Carter, for example, easily […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

Carolina Basketball Preseason Updates

We’re hitting that time of year where sports start to overlap. The fall sports are deep as they approach the end of their regular seasons, and the winter sports are gearing up to get going. We even had some baseball this past week. So you’d be excused if not everything that came out this week […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

Position grades for UNC’s disappointing loss to Cal

Well, just your average 10:30pm ET kickoff since Cal’s on the Atlantic Coast now (I know, with the current conference realignment, geography doesn’t matter). It was at least a good game even if it was UNC’s third straight loss. At least they were competitive in this one. Quarterbacks: D+ Gio Lopez returned with some poor […]

4 months ago | 1 read