UNC’s game against Clemson in Kenan Stadium last season – played almost exactly one year ago – marked the lowest low point in a year filled with them for Bill Belichick and the Tar Heels. That day, a Tiger team which ended the year 7-6 took Carolina behind the woodshed, racing out to a 28-3 lead before the end of the first quarter. Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, a longtime admirer of Belichick’s, mercifully called off the dogs after that.
That loss, made all the uglier by an ill-timed letter to supporters from now-deposed GM Michael Lombardi urging patience, led to a bye week full of speculation that Chapel Bill was on his way out. That was obviously not the case, and Belichick’s Tar Heels did play better in their remaining games while finishing 4-8.
Now comes an opportunity for Carolina to flip the script. This year, it’s Swinney who finds himself at odds with his fanbase after a blowout loss to LSU in Week 1 and an uneven win in Week 2.
“We’re gonna try to find a way to play our best game this week to this point,” Swinney said earlier this week. “That’s really what our goal is. The crowd is a huge part of it. We’ve won three in a row at home, and we want to keep building that.”
Death Valley is a place where UNC hasn’t won in 25 years, and where teams featuring stars like Drake Maye and Ryan Switzer met a grisly end.
So how can the Tar Heels finally manage to catch the Tigers by their toes? To find out, let’s go back to that surreal afternoon last October, when cornerback Jaiden Patterson gallantly made his way to the podium after the embarrassing loss.
“We just really needed to do our job,” Patterson said. “As a whole, we weren’t as locked in. We’ve gotta just keep working at doing our job and executing throughout the game.”
Whether Patterson knew it or not, he was falling back on one of his head coach’s most famed mantras from his time with the Patriots. Belichick’s New England teams were rarely ever on the bad side of a blowout, but one notable exception saw them get hammered on Monday Night Football in Kansas City in 2014. The loss dropped the Pats to 2-2, and ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer was emboldened enough to say on the air that New England wasn’t good anymore.
The following week, while fielding questions about whether the sun had set on the Patriots’ dynasty ahead of a game against the Bengals, Belichick invented another one of his famous slogans: “We’re on to Cincinnati.”
The Patriots ended that season hoisting the Lombardi Trophy as Super Bowl champions, then won two more after that. The Tar Heels are unlikely to be hanging any banners after the 2026 season, but it does appear that Belichick’s unwavering focus on the next obstacle down the line, no matter what happened before, has rubbed off on his players.
Receiver Jordan Shipp, who grew up a few hours from Death Valley in Charlotte and attended Clemson games as a child, is one of those players. He expressed confidence that the Tar Heels wouldn’t be ambushed like they were in Chapel Hill last year.
“We’re gonna come out and we’re gonna be ready to play at 12:00,” Shipp said Monday. “We’re not gonna be ready to play at 1:30. We’re gonna come out and if the game starts at 12, we’re gonna be ready to play at 12. We’re gonna make sure everything is locked and loaded at 12:00. And when the ball kicks off, we’re gonna play our best football from the first play to the last play.”
With another national TV audience tuning in and a restless Clemson crowd filling Memorial Stadium, Carolina has been provided yet another chance to shift the narrative around its program. The win against TCU in Ireland moved the needle a bit, but especially after what happened last October, a victory in Death Valley would carry a different kind of weight.
The Tar Heels are on to Clemson.
Featured image via UNC-Chapel Hill
Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
Opportunity Awaits UNC Football at Clemson. Can the Tar Heels Capitalize? Chapelboro.com.
Hence then, the article about opportunity awaits unc football at clemson can the tar heels capitalize was published today ( ) and is available on chapelboro ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Opportunity Awaits UNC Football at Clemson. Can the Tar Heels Capitalize? )
Also on site :
- Zara Larsson Talks Macklemore Speaking Out, Her Workout Routine & Viral Concert Moments .. Billboard News Interview
- Paranormal Comedy ‘Don’t F — k With Ghosts’ Premieres On Demand, Launches Original YouTube Channel (EXCLUSIVE)
- INVESTOR ALERT: Pomerantz Law Firm Investigates Claims On Behalf of Investors of NuScale Power Corporation - SMR