In football, this is what rock bottom feels like.
A strong argument could be made that the first half against JMU was the worst half of football in Carolina history. To allow a blocked punt for a touchdown and an onside kick within the first 15 minutes is shocking enough, but it got worse. With UNC up three, JMU proceeded to score touchdowns on five straight possessions, going through Carolina’s defense like a hot knife through butter. Receivers streaking wide open without a player in Carolina blue in sight, again and again. To give up 53 points in a half, against a Group of Five team, that two weeks ago beat Gardner-Webb 13-6, is an embarrassment. This Carolina team got ran out of the building, its own building, at that.
I was on the UNC team that gave up 70 points at ECU and that was our rock bottom moment. We peered across the sideline to a group that looked confident, back to our sideline where everybody looked lost. That’s what I saw on Saturday. In the moment, I would’ve swapped everybody — coaches and players included — because, despite star rankings, it was visible early: one side knew they were going to win and the other side knew they were in trouble. I’ll let you guess who was who. Our fix, back in 2014, was we needed a new defensive coordinator that could come in and command the locker room. This iteration of Carolina football has tried that already — twice — and is now on its third coordinator…