Only 66 days remain until the Minnesota Golden Gophers welcome the North Carolina Tar Heels to Huntington Bank Stadium on August 29 to open up the 2024 season. The two teams met last year in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels getting the better of the Golden Gophers 31-13.
For the Tar Heels it was a third straight win to start the season and it appeared that Mack Brown's program was on track for a special season. They would win their first six games but struggle the remainder of the season, going 2-5 including a Duke Mayo's Bowl loss to West Virginia.
That being said, quite a bit has changed for the Tar Heels since the conclusion of last season. Below, Gophers Nation offers an early preview of North Carolina including key departures, key additions, questions that need to be answered before August 29 and more.
2023 RESULTS
HEAD COACH PROFILE - Mack Brown (34th overall ; 15th at UNC)
Brown is about to enter year six of his second stint with North Carolina. He previously served as the program's head coach from 1988 through 1997 before taking over at the University of Texas in 1998. Overall with the Tar Heels, Brown holds a 107-73-1 record across 181 games. In his current stint, the Tar Heels are 38-27 in 65 games, a 58.4% winning percentage.
During his illustrious 34-year coaching career, Brown has coached 22 All-Americans, has won three conference coach of the Year awards, one national coach of the year award, coached in 26 bowl games, winning 14 and of course won a national championship with Texas in 2005. He has also won four of the six New Year's Six games with just the Orange and Sugar Bowls missing from his resume.
The 72-year old Brown is currently under contract with North Carolina through the 2028 season.
NOTABLE PERSONNEL LOSSES
The biggest loss for the Tar Heels is starting quarterback Drake Maye who was the No. 3 pick in this spring's NFL Draft to the New England Patriots. For the Tar Heels, Maye was fantastic, throwing for over 8,000 yards in 30 career games and 63 touchdowns to just 16 interceptions.
Walker finished up his collegiate career last year with the Tar Heels playing in eight games. He recorded 41 receptions for 699 yards and seven touchdowns. He was drafted in the fourth round of this year's NFL Draft by the Baltimore Ravens.
NOTABLE PERSONNEL ADDITIONS
This offseason, Texas A&M quarterback Max Johnson transferred into the Tar Heels program. He's two years removed from his best season with the Aggies, completing 60.3% of his passes for 2,815 yards and 27 touchdowns to six interceptions. Last season, he was up-and-down with a 62.1% completion percentage, 1,452 yards and nine passing touchdowns to five interceptions.
Max's brother, Jake is coming off a solid season for Texas A&M recording 24 receptions for 235 yards and four touchdowns.
Harris joins the Tar Heels after missing most of last season with an injury. He was productive for the Wolfpack over his career prior to last season's injury suffered in the season opener against UConn. In his four previous seasons he recorded 164 career tackles.
There is still an ongoing quarterback competition in Chapel Hill and Criswell is among its competitors. After originally signing with North Carolina out of high school, Criswell spent one season with Arkansas before finding his way back to Chapel Hill this offseason.
Blaske put together a good career at Georgia but never got much starting time with the Bulldogs. With the Tar Heels, he'll be able to step right into a starting spot and will be a key offensive lineman for them this season.
QUESTIONS HEADING INTO THE FALL
1. WHO WILL BE THE STARTING QUARTERBACK?
As mentioned above, the Tar Heels have an ongoing quarterback battle that will carry over into the fall and it's unclear right now who really has the edge in the competition if anyone does. Max Johnson and Jacolby Criswell are the top two likely options but don't be surprised if the Gophers end up seeing both quarterbacks on August 29. Either way, no matter who is under center for the Tar Heels, they'll have a tough time trying to fit the shadow left by Drake Maye.
2. CAN THE TAR HEELS DEFENSE TAKE A STEP FORWARD?
The Tar Heels defense last season was simply atrocious, allowing 27.3 points per game and over 400 total yards per game. The defense has been a severe weakness for the program since the 2020 season. Since 2020, the Tar Heels defense has finished 65, 105, 102, and 75 in points allowed per game. This offseason, Mack Brown tabbed former Georgia Tech head coach Geoff Collins to take over the North Carolina defense after parting ways with former defensive coordinator Gene Chizik.
3. WILL THE OFFENSIVE LINE BE ABLE TO PROTECT THE QUARTERBACK?
While it is still up for debate of who will be North Carolina's starting quarterback this upcoming season, one thing that isn't up for debate is that the Tar Heels must protect the quarterback better in 2024. Last season, the Tar Heels offensive line allowed 37 sacks, or about 2.85 sacks per game which ranks 108 out of 130 teams nationally. Now, part of the sack issue was that Drake Maye isn't a terribly mobile quarterback, but it's far from the only reason that Tar Heels have offensive line at times over the last few seasons has been swiss cheese like.
WHAT OUR NORTH CAROLINA FRIENDS ARE SAYING:
Our friends down at Tar Heels Illustrated recently discussed the realistic expectations for UNC Football in 2024.
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