UNC Football: It’s Ludacris to Give the Tar Heels a Chance at Clemson

Is there any chance North Carolina beats Clemson on Saturday? That is something every media person, fan, and probably plenty of people who have never set foot inside the Kenan Football Center were not prognosticating all offseason. The Tar Heels are 2-0 after the first two weeks, but more than likely they were going to start 1-3 with TCU, Clemson and Notre Dame waiting for them right out of the gates. That was the expectation. Carolina was going to get thrown into the deep end immediately, and by the time September was over, we would know whether Bill Belichick had actually changed anything in Chapel Hill.

Well, here we are. North Carolina is 2-0, and suddenly there are people starting to believe the Tar Heels might have a chance against Clemson. I'm not going to be be one of them because i have seen Lucy put that football down for Charlie Brown too many times. It's still Clemson and still Death Valley. I'm not going to suddenly forget everything we thought we knew about this matchup just because North Carolina has looked better through two games. I mean Clemson is starting a back up QB for crying out loud. Has any UNC fan been confident when a back up QB played for the other team? The answer is no before you start googling our nightmares.

Hold the phone though. There is one problem with that argument: this North Carolina team has given us a reason to wonder.

Last year, when Clemson came to Chapel Hill, Ludacris performed before the game as part of UNC's new Chapel Thrill concert series. He hit the stage in Polk Place at 10 a.m., two hours before kickoff, and even wore a Julius Peppers jersey. Maybe that was the closest Carolina got to putting up a fight that day. This year, though, I'm wondering if we should bring Luda back and let him finish the job. Because if North Carolina is going to walk into Death Valley and pull off the upset, maybe the soundtrack needs to be “Get Out the Way."

Now, before anybody starts accusing me of picking North Carolina, I'm not. I will not add to any jinx others may be trying put on Bill Belichick and North Carolina. Clemson is still Clemson. Death Valley is still one of the toughest environments in college football, and North Carolina has plenty to prove before we start treating the Tar Heels like they have arrived. A solid game Saturday would be progress. A competitive game would tell us something. A win, however, would blow up just about every preseason assumption surrounding this team.

That's what makes this game different from what we expected back in August. North Carolina was supposed to be 0-3 or at least heading toward that possibility after facing TCU, Clemson and Notre Dame to open the season. Instead, the Tar Heels are 2-0, the defense has looked like a completely different unit, and this team has started to develop an identity. The blue-collar approach Peyton Seelman talked about after the ETSU game has shown up on the field. Players are flying to the football, doing their jobs and making somebody else look good.

Clemson will test all of that.

Can Billy Edwards Jr. handle the environment and can the offensive line protect him? Will North Carolina run the football against a Clemson defense that knows exactly what is coming? Can the Tar Heel defensive front continue to create havoc and keep Clemson's skill players from turning one mistake into a 60-yard touchdown? Those questions matter a lot more than whether some preseason prediction had Carolina finishing 3-9, 4-8, 6-6 or 8-4.

And then there is the possibility nobody really wants to say out loud.

What if North Carolina wins?

That would create media chaos, which is almost impossible to imagine considering the amount of attention already surrounding Belichick and this program. A win at Clemson would force everybody to go back and revisit the preseason narrative. Suddenly, the team that was supposed to be trying to survive September would be sitting there undefeated with a legitimate statement win on its résumé.

I'm not predicting that. I'm not picking it. I'm still taking the position that North Carolina has to prove it can do it before I believe it can do it. But I'm also not going to pretend this is the same North Carolina team we expected to see in August. I have seen Dabo Swinney rally the tigers too often in this league.

But maybe just maybe Ludacris had it right last year. Maybe the Tar Heels just needed a little more time to get the soundtrack right.

Because if Carolina walks into Death Valley on Saturday and pulls this thing off, there is only one song I want playing.

Move, Clemson. Get out the way.