{"id":14083,"date":"2023-08-19T12:30:54","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T17:30:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/?p=14083"},"modified":"2023-08-19T12:30:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T17:30:54","slug":"espn-identifies-best-worst-case-scenarios-for-north-carolina-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/espn-identifies-best-worst-case-scenarios-for-north-carolina-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN identifies best, worst case scenarios for North Carolina in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"

North Carolina<\/a><\/strong> could storm into the College Football Playoff discussion on the back of their star quarterback\u2026 or they could falter around him and suffer through a disappointing 7-5 type of year. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s all on the table, according to ESPN\u2019s David Hale<\/a>, who broke down what best-case and worst-case scenarios would look like for the Tar Heels on the football field in 2023. With a talent like Drake Maye<\/a><\/strong> under center, fans are hoping for another magical season, but Hale is here to evaluate the reality and tell us what the ceiling of the team looks like, and what the all-systems-failure would look like as well. <\/p>\n

So below, you can read Hale\u2019s projection for each ends of the spectrum and see his explanation for why North Carolina will or won\u2019t beat expectations this fall. <\/p>\n

Best Case<\/h2>\n

Hale believes a main reason to believe in another special season for the Heels is their fairly easy schedule by power conference standards. \u201cThe schedule suits Carolina well,\u201d he wrote, \u201cwith its likely toughest opponents coming in November.\u201d That\u2019s correct, as the Heels won\u2019t face Clemson<\/a><\/strong> until then, and also don\u2019t visit rival NC State<\/a><\/strong> until the final week of the year. Overall, they\u2019ll avoid a lot of the ACC\u2019s top half and should easily hit eight wins. <\/p>\n

Hale specifically is calling for nine wins or more in his best-case situation for UNC. Given the schedule, especially within the conference, and a star QB like Maye, who will \u201cgive the Heels a chance in every game this season,\u201d per Hale, Mack Brown should be thinking conference championship. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Heels can certainly repeat last year\u2019s 9-3 regular season, and perhaps aim a bit higher \u2014 like an ACC title,\u201d he says. And with Maye at QB and a schedule that doesn\u2019t scare you, who knows. <\/p>\n

Worst Case<\/h2>\n

According to David Hale, a superstar talent like Draye Maye covered up some holes throughout the rest of the UNC team. \u201cFor all Maye\u2019s impressive numbers last year, his heroics likely hid a number of big flaws for a while,\u201d he wrote, noting the Heels\u2019 impressive record in close games. They did win their first six one-score games of last season and finished the year 6-3 in them. <\/p>\n

Hale says they better not play with that kind of fire again. \u201cIf all else is the same this year, but the close-game luck is just a bit worse, there\u2019s a formula for a 5-7 or 6-6 campaign,\u201d he claims. Which is possible, since North Carolina didn\u2019t just win by one score, but needed some real luck to pull off some of those victories. With the balls bouncing the wrong way this time around, those results could be wildly different. <\/p>\n

So, in total, David Hale says the ceiling is the roof and another appearance in the ACC title is entirely possible. However, if the team around Maye hasn\u2019t stepped up, they could be in danger of underwhelming expectations big time, especially if those close games start going the other way.<\/p>\n

The post ESPN identifies best, worst case scenarios for North Carolina in 2023<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Carolina could storm into the College Football Playoff discussion on the back of their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}