Skip to main content

Tar Heel Blog

https://www.tarheelblog.com/ | 484 entries published

Tar Heel born, bred, and working on that third thing

Latest Entries

Three Takeaways to North Carolina’s loss to Duke

Despite a strong third quarter, North Carolina lost for the seventh time this season, this time to archrival Duke 32-25. The Tar Heels — who actually took the lead by a point with a 12 yard run by Davion Gause a little under two minutes into the fourth quarter — couldn’t get the stops needed […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Undisciplined Tar Heels lose to Duke, sinking bowl chances

If Bill Belichick’s first words were “Beat Duke,” he’s going to have to wait a year to do it in Durham—assuming he’s still here. The Duke Blue Devils rushed for 177 yards, passed for 175, and took advantage of a completely immature effort by UNC to score the go-ahead touchdown and two points with 2:20 […]

4 months ago | 3 reads

UNC women’s soccer team advances to Sweet 16 on penalty kick

It’s rare the descriptor “Cinderella team” appears in the same sentence as the UNC women’s soccer team. As anyone who follows college women’s soccer or UNC athletics knows, the Heels are the gold standard in the sport. Carolina has won 23 national championships and 22 ACC championships. The professional ranks and United States national team […]

4 months ago | 1 read

Seth Trimble: The Leader We Need Right Now

Seth Trimble, senior guard and Ben & Jerry’s owner, has stepped up his game. It was already known that he would be the elder statesman on this team, but even with his injury he continues to have a major impact. Recently, UNC basketball has had vocal leaders like Harrison Ingram and Cormac Ryan and leaders […]

4 months ago | 6 reads

How to Watch: UNC Football vs. Duke

After five consecutive wins, the North Carolina Tar Heels relinquished the Victory Bell last season on a dominant fourth quarter performance from Duke. The Tar Heels had their chance last season, but could not capitalize in the final minutes. The loss to the Blue Devils last season was a pivotal factor influencing the coaching change […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

From Whence They Came

Hell was the first curse word I was allowed to say, and even then only when preceded by “go to” and followed by “Duke.” It felt weird, as a child, to cheer the Tar Heel team like H-E-double-hockey-sticks while condemning the Blue Devils to a fiery oblivion mere minutes later. Kind of a psychic wince, […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

UNC vs Duke: What Do the Numbers Portend?

Last week, I got the game half right. The offense did enough to put up 18 points except for two special teams failures on field goal attempts. Given how poorly Belichick and Lombardi assembled this offense, and against Wake’s defense (a national top 20 unit), that was about as much as one could hope for. […]

4 months ago | 3 reads

UNC Football vs. Duke: Preview

Item List: A very good offense against an average defense. A lousy offense versus a lousy defense. A rivalry game. Belichick’s last shot at home to win back some goodwill from UNC fans who’ve grown increasingly pessimistic about this experiment. Let’s preview what Duke’s bringing to Chapel Hill and how it might all shake out. […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

UNC Field Hockey returns to Final Four, will play Northwestern on Friday

The UNC field hockey team defeated eighth-ranked Duke this past weekend to return to the Final Four for the program’s 29th time. This is UNC’s third win over the Blue Devils in 16 days, with two of them coming in overtime. The Heels beat Duke 2-1 in overtime during their regular season matchup just over […]

4 months ago | 3 reads

Three Keys to this weekend’s UNC vs. Duke matchup

On Saturday afternoon in Kenan Memorial Stadium, the Tar Heels and Blue Devils will battle for mediocrity. Both programs have fallen well short of expectations this season and find themselves fighting for bowl eligibility and, of course, bragging rights. Carolina is struggling to score, and Duke has lost three of the last four games, each […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

UNC will need to shut down Duke’s passing attack this weekend

North Carolina could not keep their win streak going last week, as they fell to Wake Forest. That leaves two games left on the season, with UNC needing to win both to eke out a bowl game appearance. However, the two games are against the Tar Heels’ two biggest rivals who would both love nothing […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

Caleb Wilson is Player of the Game once again as UNC outmuscles Navy

In awarding him player of the game after Carolina’s win over NC Central last Friday, I wrote that Caleb Wilson makes even the buy games worth watching.  After what he did against Navy last night, I’m considering amending that to must-watch. Sure, the first half wasn’t great for him. He struggled with the Midshipmen’s physicality […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Three Takeaways from UNC’s closer-than-expected win over Navy

The only thing better than a crawfish dinner is five crawfish dinners. – Coach Red Beaulieu (The Waterboy) It may not have been the prettiest of games, but North Carolina was able to extend it’s opening winning streak from four to five with their 73-61 win over Navy. The Midshipmen, who are the favorites to […]

4 months ago | 1 read

UNC Basketball holds off Navy behind Caleb Wilson

Caleb Wilson put on a dunk show and four of UNC’s five starters finished in double figures as the Tar Heels kept their undefeated record intact with a 73-61 win against Navy on Tuesday night. The game never felt like it was in jeopardy, but also never fully put away either, even though Carolina led […]

4 months ago | 1 read

The Navy visits the Dean Dome to take on UNC Basketball

The North Carolina Tar Heels are just moments away from taking on the Navy Midshipmen in a Tuesday night matchup in the Dean Dome. The Heels hope to maintain their flawless record with a win tonight, which would be ideal considering what is coming next — following tonight’s game, the team will have some time […]

4 months ago | 1 read

ACC Basketball Power Rankings: Tar Heels stay at #1

We’re now two weeks into the new college basketball season. There’s obviously still quite a long way to go, but every week presents us more information upon which we can judge teams. For example, while UNC faced some small conference opposition, they mostly held their own. However, what about the rest of the ACC? Considering […]

4 months ago | 2 reads

AP Top 25: UNC men stay at #18 in newest poll

Last week was the second week of the 2025-26 college basketball season. By this point, pretty much every team has played three or four games, and a lot of them have played at least one notable game. The one for the UNC men came last week, where they knocked off Kansas. The women couldn’t quite […]

4 months ago | 8 reads

How to Watch: UNC Basketball vs. Navy

UNC is gearing up to take on Navy later tonight at the Dean Smith Center. This will be the final game in what has been an exceptionally long home stay for the Tar Heels before they travel to Florida to face off against St. Bonaventure. This will be considered yet another tune-up game for the […]

4 months ago | 1 read

UNC Football opens as 6.5 underdog against Duke

This past weekend’s game between UNC and Wake Forest was one of the more frustrating games this season, and that is saying a lot. They were able to move the ball against one of the better defenses in the ACC, but somehow they still weren’t able to score a single touchdown. The defense did their […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

UNC Basketball to take on Navy and continue perfect start

It feels good to see actual improvement from the basketball squad. The difference from how Carolina played against Radford on Tuesday to NCCU on Friday was basically night and day. It’s clear that a message got through to the team that efforts similar to Tuesday would lead to losses down the line. Instead, they put […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Winners, Losers, and Honorable Mentions in UNC’s loss to Wake Forest

I don’t know what anyone realistically expected on Saturday night. Wake Forest was coming into the game against UNC with the high of upsetting title-contending Virginia, while Carolina had tried to build momentum by playing against two of the worst offenses in the ACC. The Tar Heels also happen to be one of the worst […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Position Grades from UNC Football’s loss to Wake Forest

These grades are heavily influenced by the fact that Wake Forest came into this game with an excellent defense and horrid offense. The Tar Heel offense performed a bit better than I expected, the defense and special teams far worse. The winning formula for UNC in this game was simple: control the Wake Forest run […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Rece Verhoff is UNC’s Player of the Game in an ugly loss to Wake Forest

Carolina’s 28-12 loss to Wake Forest was no surprise to those who didn’t buy into the turnaround hype after the Tar Heels beat bad teams in consecutive weeks, but UNC’s performance on both sides of the ball was poor even by this season’s standards. Defensively, Carolina allowed 414 yards, the second-most Wake Forest has put […]

4 months ago | 0 reads

Three to Watch as UNC Basketball faces Navy

The hype train for this UNC Basketball season seems to keep getting stronger. Everyone will agree the game against Radford wasn’t great, and yet “wasn’t great” still resulted in a 15-point win. You could argue a lot of factors our them—the first game without Seth Trimble, the letdown factor of the big win against Kansas—but […]

4 months ago | 1 read