The Tar Heels have a standard to meet: How to watch, stream UNC football vs. Charlotte
Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin often is associated with the phrase, “The standard is the standard.”
Tomlin wrote a book by that name. It’s his personal mantra and one he tries to instill in his team, in what’s expected in their attitude, their preparation and their play.
And he isn’t the only coach. At North Carolina, Mack Brown talked this week about the Tar Heels’ intent to play to a certain standard each week and not be fixated on the other team or who’s later coming up on the schedule.
“We’re not looking at opponents anymore,” Brown said this week. “Just to clarify, we’re playing to a standard that North Carolina needs to, because we’ve won some games we shouldn’t have won around here and we’ve lost some games we should have won around here.
“So we’re playing to a standard to be the best we can be, and we’re not talking about who we play for the rest of the year. We’re playing to a standard, period. We don’t care who’s on the other side.”
That’s not to say Brown won’t mention the opponent when talking to the media. The Tar Heels play Charlotte on Saturday in UNC’s first home game of the 2024 season at Kenan Stadium, and Brown did give an assessment of the 49ers and the work done by second-year coach Biff Poggi.
“Their roster is built with a lot of transfers,” Brown said. “They’ve got 56 transfers on the team, 36 of them new, and they have 23 Power Four conference transfers in their two-deep.”
Those transfers include a few former Tar Heels: defensive backs Dontae Balfour and Ja’Qurious Conley, and wide receiver Justin Olson. There also are a few assistant coaches on Poggi’s staff with UNC connections: Dre’ Bly, Tim Cross, Tim Brewster and Ty Greenwood.
The 49ers opened the season last week with a 30-7 loss to James Madison in Charlotte while the Heels were opening on the road at Minnesota and coming away with a 19-17 victory. The Heels lost starting quarterback Max Johnson to a broken leg — sophomore Conner Harrell now is QB1 — and Brown said Charlotte had eight players miss its opener with injuries that could return this week.
Not that any of that matters, defensive end Kaimon Rucker said this week.
“At the end of the day we’re only facing ourselves,” Rucker said. “Because we’ve seen it in games where we never got beat physically, (but) it’s just that we beat ourselves, whether it was one guy who didn’t get in his gap or coverage, or a dropped ball or missing a gap when they were running.
“It didn’t have anything to do with the guy across from them. It has to do with the guy we look (at) in the mirror and see every single day. So we’re facing ourselves. At the end of it, it’s going to be us versus us on Saturday, too.”
How to watch
The game can be seen on ACC Network. It can be streamed on services such as Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, and YouTube TV.
A recent dispute between DIRECTV and Disney has resulted in a blackout of Disney-owned channels like ABC and ESPN.
Betting odds
North Carolina is favored by 22.5 points and the over/under set at 46.5 points by ESPN.
ESPN is giving North Carolina a 91.3% chance of beating Charlotte in its matchup predictor.
North Carolina (1-0) vs. Charlotte (0-1)
When: Saturday, Sept. 7, 3:30 p.m.
Where: Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill
TV: ACC Network
Series: This is the first matchup between the two programs.
This story was originally published September 5, 2024 at 6:00 AM.
