UNC enters new football territory, but expectation was to be here

This is all new for North Carolina, which will enter the final month of the season atop the ACC’s Coastal Division, on a seven-game winning streak and, likely, back in the national rankings this late in the season for the first time since six years.

The Tar Heels just might have won their most important game of Larry Fedora’s coaching tenure on Thursday night – a 26-19 victory at Pittsburgh in which UNC rose to the moment instead of looking overwhelmed in it. And now the Tar Heels, as the cliché goes, are in the driver’s seat.

Though mentally that’s where they’ve been for a while, Fedora said after the win. Even after a humbling season-opening defeat against South Carolina, Fedora and his players expected to be exactly where they now find themselves: atop the Coastal and in control.

“That’s the way we were looking at it the whole time,” Fedora said on Thursday when asked what it was like, now, to be in the driver’s seat after having to fight just to become bowl eligible the past two seasons. “We just take care of business one week at a time. We don’t look at it as we’re just now getting there – we felt like that (we’d be there) at the beginning of the season.”

In 2013, the Tar Heels lost five of their first six games before turning things around in the second half of the season. It was the same thing last year after a 2-4 start.

This year, there will be no need for a turnaround in the second half of the season. No, the Tar Heels’ goal now is to keep building on what they’ve already accomplished.

“Keep winning,” sophomore running back Elijah Hood said.

Was he surprised to see his team 7-1, atop the Coastal? Were any of his teammates?

“It’s not really a surprise to me,” Hood said. “I always knew we had the ability to do it. It’s great we’re going out there and fighting and getting wins … times are good and times are bad, but we stay the same all the way through, and I think that helps us.”

UNC proved its resiliency during a dramatic Oct. 3 victory at Georgia Tech, where it trailed 21-0 before rallying to win. Another difficult test was supposed to await at Pitt, but the Tar Heels built a 20-3 lead and victory never seemed in doubt from the second quarter on.

The win will likely push UNC back into The Associated Press top 25 for the first time since early last season, and for the first time this late in the season since 2009. If Duke, which is ranked 22nd, defeats Miami Saturday, then the Tar Heels and Blue Devils could be in for a historic game on Nov. 7 at UNC’s Kenan Stadium.

They haven’t both been ranked when they’ve played each other since 1939. That would change next weekend if Duke beats Miami and if UNC ascends, as expected, into the top 25. UNC announced on Friday that the game against Duke has been sold out.

Before Thursday, UNC had been the only one-loss team from a “Power 5” conference not to be ranked. Some players spoke openly about a lack of respect and attention.

“This is our opportunity to get people’s attention,” UNC quarterback Marquise Williams said. “This 2015 team is no the 2011 team or 2012 team. We are the 2015 team.”

A team that’s exactly where it thought it’d be entering the season.

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 7:10 PM with the headline "UNC enters new football territory, but expectation was to be here."