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UNC Football 2026 Position Preview: Coaching
After three weeks of deep dives into every position group that will take the field for the University of North Carolina, it’s game week, and it’s finally time to finish by getting into the straw that will be stirring the drink. The crew on the sidelines. The Carolina coaching staff, led by a guy with […]
UNC women’s soccer drops top 10 matchup with Michigan State
The seventh-ranked UNC women’s soccer team lost its first nonconference home game since 2022 on Sunday, as fifth-ranked Michigan State held on for a 3-2 win. The Spartans opened the scoring just over 20 minutes into the first half, with senior Kennedy Bell scoring on a solo run to the penalty area. The Tar Heels […]
How will UNC’s offense look against TCU?
Game week! Game week! Game week! Hallelujah. Bobby Petrino isn’t Freddie Kitchens, and Freddie Kitchens isn’t Bobby Petrino. If for no other reason than that, UNC’s offense will probably have more teeth than what Tar Heel fans saw last season. If Petrino had been last season’s offensive coordinator, the results may well look very different. […]
What’s your favorite UNC-NC State basketball memory?
A couple days ago, North Carolina and NC State announced that their men’s basketball teams were going to play a neutral site, non-conference game in Greensboro. This game comes in addition to the regularly scheduled game in ACC play. The need to do this comes about after recent changes to the ACC schedule dictated that […]
What’s your favorite UNC season opener?
Today marks the one week warning until the North Carolina Tar Heels open the 2026 football season against TCU in Dublin, Ireland. While your mileage may vary on how you think that game — and the season as a whole — is going to go, the first game of a new season is always exciting. […]
A closer look a UNC basketball’s 2026-2027 non-conference schedule
UNC basketball released their full non-conference schedule yesterday, and it’s clear Michael Malone’s first Carolina squad will be tested before he even gets into ACC play. The schedule features several big names, a couple good rivalry games, and ample opportunities to catch the Heels in person without having to leave the state of North Carolina. […]
UNC’s defense must improve this season on 3rd and 4th downs
UNC’s defense hopes to take big steps forward this season, despite the turnover. Last season saw seven starters depart, six by graduation and one by transfer. Four more players with significant roles also transferred. Back to front, that’s four starting defensive backs, both starting linebackers plus the first guy off the bench, and a starting […]
UNC Football 2026 Position Preview: Special Teams
Bill Belichick’s primary claim to excellence, other than the hardware, is probably being known as perhaps the greatest defensive mind that the game of football has ever seen. But among fans, he might be even better known as an absolute junkie for special teams. His first coaching job was as a special teams assistant for […]
Has Bill Belichick’s failures turned people off from Michael Malone?
Carolina Basketball is in a really weird position right now, one that is familiar to what the football program went through. When UNC decided to hire Bill Belichick, there was a lot of excitement about who the man was mixed with a lot of question about what he could be at the college level. We […]
UNC Basketball to face NC State in December event in Greensboro
One of the byproducts of NC State and others voting to allow SMU, California, and Stanford into the ACC was the 18-team conference becoming pretty unwieldy. The conference tried a 20-game conference schedule in the beginning, but it ultimately became too much for schools and cost valuable out-of-conference matchups that would help both the bottom […]
SB Nation Reacts: Who will win the 2026 ACC Championship?
Ready or not, the 2026 ACC football season kicks off next weekend. For some fans, it is an exciting time because their squad is poised to compete for the 2026 ACC Championship. For other teams (cough cough, UNC, cough), the best they can ask for is to finish the season above .500 and potentially make […]
Are there any college sports you think are in the wrong season?
The news slipped my eye when it was announced, but I happened to see in Al’s preview of the first week of UNC sports this academic year a nugget about men’s college soccer: namely, that starting in 2027, the sport’s season will likely be extended over the course of two semesters to better align with […]
UNC women’s soccer off to dominant start to new season
The 2026-27 college sports seasons is officially underway and one of the first sports to get going was women’s soccer. This past Thursday, the North Carolina Tar Heels got their season going. So far, they’re two games in, and things have gone quite well. It’s only been two games, and neither of which came against […]
UNC Football 2026 Position Preview: Defensive Backs
Previous previews: Quarterbacks, Running Backs, Wide Receivers, Tight Ends, Offensive Line, Defensive Line, Linebackers If there’s one thing most Carolina fans agreed upon when UNC hired Bill Belichick, it was the likelihood of significant defensive improvement. That did not happen. Depending on what one values in defensive football, one could make the argument the defense either slightly improved or slightly regressed. […]
How much success will UNC running back Demon June have this season?
The Doak Walker Award released their preseason watch list today, and UNC running back Demon June was featured on it. While this in itself isn’t a huge honor (60 running backs made the list, or almost half of the position’s starters in FBS football), it does solidify the idea that much is expected out of […]
Billy Edwards Jr. will reportedly start for UNC Football against TCU
Perhaps the foremost question on the minds of North Carolina football fans going into this season has been who will start at quarterback for the Tar Heels. The program was in obvious need of better play at the position than they got in 2025, and Bill Belichick, Mike Lombardi, and their staff attacked the position […]
What’s your fondest UNC football memory?
UNC football watercooler conversations have gone remote. My UNC football text chain has been chirping more lately, and it’s been a litany of profound sadness. Wallowing in woe. Someone brought up UNC’s collapse against State in 2021, followed by game clips, followed by a therapy session. That triggered a string of infamous drops and overthrows […]
The UNC Sports Week Ahead: August 17-23
Welcome, welcome, welcome one and all to the 2026-27 UNC Sports year! We made it! Students are back on the campus at Chapel Hill, the First Day of Class is today, and this time next week we’ll be talking about the start of the football season! Whoah, whoah there, don’t get all excited at once […]
UNC Football 2026 Position Preview: Linebackers
Previous previews: Quarterbacks, Running Backs, Wide Receivers, Tight Ends, Offensive Line, Defensive Line With the first game of the season now just a week away, we continue our position previews this week starting with the linebacker group. This may be the most unknown unit on the team thanks to the loss of the top three […]
Sayon Keita reportedly gets Visa cleared; will join UNC Basketball
Sunday 2 PM update: Following the report by McMillan, Inside Carolina’s Spencer Haskell shared a picture at around 9 PM Saturday Night of Keita arriving at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and meeting with head coach Michael Malone and assistant Chuck Martin. This does confirm the earlier report, and shows that Keita will be present for the […]
UNC Golfers compete at US Amateur championship
Throughout this past week, the US Amateur golf championship was held at Merion Golf Club just outside Philadelphia. Once upon a time, the US Amateur was considering one of the “majors” in the golf world, but as you can probably guess from the name, it is only for amateur players. Considering that all the big-name […]
How should college sports teams handle jersey retirements?
With a vote on the Protect College Sports Act delayed until at least September, we needed something to fill the drama void in the last couple of weeks before the first college football games of the season. Enter Jayden Daniels. In case you missed it, ESPN’s Mark Schlabach reported late Wednesday night that Daniels’ attorney […]
What’s your dream destination for a neutral site game?
Two weeks from today, we’ll be watching UNC football open the season against TCU in Dublin. It will be the first time the program has played a game outside the United States, and it should be noted that the Carolina women’s soccer team will be tagging along for an exhibition against Irish pro team Shelbourne […]
UNC Football 2026 Position Group Reviews: Offense
Catching up? Here are Tar Heel Blog’s position group reviews for the offense: quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, tight ends, offensive line. By now, if you’ve been following things over the past couple of weeks, the emerging theme across the position group reviews seems clear: question marks everywhere. Bold text denotes players coming off of […]
UNC Football 2026 Position Preview: Defensive Line
A theme across most of our position previews thus far has been a need for groups to improve after being somewhere between bad and awful in 2025. As we shift to defense, that changes a little bit. While last year’s offense was putrid no matter how you look at it, Bill and Steve Belichick’s defense […]
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