North Carolina is back on the field this week with a mountain in front of it: Notre Dame, a team ranked third nationally and rolling through the season with very little resistance. The Tar Heels are trying to snap a five-game losing streak and beat the Fighting Irish for only the third time in program history.
Notre Dame’s overall football history is massive, too. The Irish are 974-341-42 all-time, with a 22-21 bowl record and a 3-3 mark in the CFP.
Marcus Freeman is the man steering the program now, and he has spent his entire head-coaching career at Notre Dame. In four seasons, he has gone 47-12, and he already guided the Irish to the national championship game in just his third year.
Last season brought a different kind of frustration. Notre Dame finished 10-2 and was the final team left out of the College Football Playoff after Miami passed them on Championship weekend, even though neither team played that day. The Irish chose not to take part in any postseason play after that.
If you’re looking at the all-time greats who have worn the Notre Dame uniform, the list is loaded. Tim Brown, Jerome Bettis, Joe Theisman and Curly Lambeau all get a mention.
But the choice here is Joe Montana. He won four Super Bowls with the San Francisco 49ers, was named NFL MVP twice and Super Bowl MVP three times, owns four NFL passing records, made the Hall of Fame and also delivered a national championship for Notre Dame in 1977.
For North Carolina, the formula on offense has to be simple: shorten the game and drain the clock. That sounds good in theory, but Notre Dame has already shown how hard it is to stay on schedule against it.
Michigan State’s closest game against the Irish came in a 17-point loss at home, and even though the Spartans managed only 167 total yards and 44 rushing yards while turning it over twice, they were still down just 7 at halftime. The lesson is clear: long drives only matter if they end with points.
Purdue owned the ball for long stretches against Notre Dame, but the Boilermakers managed just 10 points, all of them coming after the Irish were already up 35-0 on the road.
Defensively, North Carolina has to get off the field fast. The Tar Heels need to slow the run and get pressure on quarterback CJ Carr, who has been difficult to sack so far with only two sacks taken on 95 pass attempts.
Carr has also been sharp with the football, throwing nine touchdowns against just one interception. If UNC can force a mistake or two, it might be able to create the short fields it needs.
That’s the path, and it’s a narrow one. For North Carolina to end its series drought, this has to turn into a low-scoring fight decided by kicking and a little bit of luck. If Notre Dame keeps stacking long drives and scoring early, the way it has against most opponents this season, this one could be decided before halftime.
In Other News...
UNC Suddenly Has A Billy Edwards Problem It Cant Ignore
The night at Notre Dame laid bare a few issues North Carolina can no longer treat as one-off problems. Billy Edwards was under constant pressure, the Tar Heels struggled to protect him, and early turnovers helped tilt the game before it ever settled in. With the rushing attack limited and the defense stretched, it was the kind of performance that can leave a coach sorting through more than one concern at once.
Bill Belichick pointed straight at the passing game and the offensive line afterward, and it was hard to argue with the diagnosis. The Tar Heels need cleaner pockets and a steadier start from their quarterback, but they also need the offense to give the defense some help after a night when both sides were exposed. What happened against a top-three opponent may end up looking less like a bad loss than a warning about what still has to be fixed. [Read more 🡒]
UNC Just Changed The Season Debate In A Way Fans Noticed
North Carolinas loss to Notre Dame still left room for a different kind of takeaway. The Tar Heels were beaten 37-26, but for long stretches they were more competitive with the third-ranked Irish than many expected, giving the game a very different feel than a routine blowout against a top-tier opponent.
For a team trying to steady its season, that matters. Even with the mistakes that surfaced along the way, this was the kind of showing that can change how the rest of the schedule is viewed, with the conversation shifting toward whether Carolina can still get to .500 and keep a bowl bid in reach. [Read more 🡒]
North Carolina Just Lost A Recruiting Battle Fans Were Watching
Jordan Page made his choice after taking official visits to both North Carolina and UConn, and the five-star wing has now given the edge to the Huskies. The 6-foot-5 standout from IMG Academy is ranked No. 10 overall in the 2027 class, which made this one of the more closely watched recruiting battles for Tar Heels fans looking to see how the program stacked up against another national power for an elite perimeter talent.
For North Carolina, the miss lands with extra weight because Page brings the kind of length and two-way profile that fits the modern game and would have been an appealing addition on the wing. The scouting read on him points to a player whose competitiveness meshes well with UConn's style, even as his offensive game still has room to grow, and that combination helped shape a recruitment the Tar Heels were in until the end. [Read more 🡒]