UNC football has its highest preseason ranking since 1997. Find out where
The USA Today Sports AFCA Coaches Poll ranked North Carolina No. 9 in its preseason football Top 25 poll released on Tuesday. It marked the highest preseason ranking since the the Tar Heels were ranked seventh to start the last season of coach Mack Brown’s first tenure in Chapel Hill in 1997.
Alabama was the overwhelming pick for No. 1, receiving 63 of 65 votes. Oklahoma, which was ranked No. 3, received the other two first place votes. Clemson (No. 2) and Miami (No. 16) were the only other ACC teams ranked.
UNC will travel to play at No. 7 Notre Dame, which, along with the Hurricanes, is the only scheduled game against a team ranked in the poll.
News of the ranking didn’t evoke much of a reaction from the Tar Heel players who spoke with the media in Tuesday’s scheduled interviews after practice.
“I know we have the talent to be in the top 10, I know we should be in the top 10 or higher,” junior receiver Emery Simmons said. “We’ve got so many non-believers who don’t believe in us that we should be there. It’s like an ‘if’ factor with us. As a team we know there’s an ‘if’ factor with other people on like social media so we’re just trying to keep our head down and work.”
Brown has repeatedly stated that his team didn’t know how to handle being ranked No. 5 last season and it showed in their loss at Florida State. But junior safety Giovanni Biggers said the Heels were better equipped to handle the expectations for this season.
“We’ve got a lot more maturity on the team, guys understand what’s at stake this year,” Biggers said. “We understand that this team is the one that can do it this year. Last year we just were young, we didn’t really understand how big of a moment that could have been for us.”
USA Today Sports/AFCA Coaches Top 25 Poll
(First Place Votes)
1. Alabama (63)
2. Clemson
3. Oklahoma (2)
4. Ohio State
5. Georgia
6. Texas A&M
7. Notre Dame
8. Iowa State
9. North Carolina
10. Cincinnati
11. Florida
12. Oregon
13. LSU
14. USC
15. Wisconsin
16. Miami
17. Indiana
18. Iowa
19. Texas
20. Penn State
21. Washington
22. Oklahoma State
23. Louisiana-Lafayette
24. Coastal Carolina
25. Mississippi
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 2:06 PM.