North Carolina stamps itself as the ACC’s most disappointing team of the early season.

It’s been a good start to football in the ACC this year. There are big wins over the likes of Georgia  and Florida. Clemson, Florida State, and Miami are all top 20 teams. Virginia Tech is showing signs of life. Maryland looks legitimate and is much improved. Pittsburgh is out of the gate 3-1. Alot of ACC teams are feeling pretty good about themselves. One ACC team is not feeling good about their start and is clearly the conference’s most disappointing team during the early portion of the season. That team is North Carolina.

At 1-3 The Tar Heels are the only the ACC team with less than 2 wins. This was team many considered a darkhouse ACC Coastal contender. Now it’s a season that’s literally on the brink of falling apart. If you listened to this week’s ACC podcast with @HokieSmash and myself (@TalkinACCSports ) we put North Carolina on upset against East Carolina. Not only did the Heels lose to the Pirates today, they were embarrassed by a score 55-31.

What I found surprising almost stunning were stories from the Tar Heel camp that they didn’t respect ECU. This came from North Carolian senior A.J Blue… 

“I just basically told them the second we strapped up our cleats and our pads that certain guys knew they weren’t going to give it 100 percent out there today,” Blue said. “That probably comes from lack of focus, lack of preparation. I think guys were kind of complacent today. The statistics, ECU hasn’t beat us here in a long time…That kind of carried over into some guys’ minds and that was the mindset of the team, and it hurt us today.”

Really a 1-2 team coming off a loss, with a history of underachievement overlooked somebody… anybody? How does Larry Fedora let that happen to his team. I know he’s only in his 2nd  year coaching UNC, but if I’m Fedora I’m really concerned about the attitude of my team. This was a team with an experienced QB in Bryn Renner, a future NFL TE in Eric Erbon, and some talent at WR. There are pieces in place that should have left the Heels decent shape, but that hasn’t translated to wins, and the Heels are in trouble.

Next week is a game at Virginai Tech followed by a home game against Miami. The Heels couldn’t be 1-5 before the leaves finish changing. That’ not what many expected from the Heels this season.

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