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The natives are restless about Belichick football.
Do we even have to call Richmond a must win Saturday? Kind of goes without saying about a team that is literally not in Carolina’s league if the Heels want to go on and have a good season.
Apparently, the 20-3 win at Charlotte didn’t float enough boats. The blogosphere wanted Max Johnson to at least play in the game and keep the criticism of offensive coordinator Freddie Kitchens from going overboard.
Kitchens was caught saying that he never applied for or even asked Bill Belichick for the job. He just hung around to see what would happen, and apparently his checkered history in the NFL and being a head coach at Cleveland six years ago was enough.
So while Chancellor Lee Roberts was giving the new coach the game ball after beating the 49ers for his first college victory, people want more from the Hoodie, who hasn’t swooned everybody so far.
Was holding Charlotte to 271 total yards good enough against a team quarterbacked by Conner Harrell, who has already accumulated as many total yards in two games as in two back-up seasons with the Tar Heels?
And UNC’s running game against Charlotte was led by a three-star freshman, who thrilled visiting fans with a 19-yard run, the longest for both sides. They say Johnson would have made a big difference.
Johnson didn’t play a snap, which is an NFL trait of leaving the quarterback in there unless it is a true blowout, which it wasn’t. Gio Lopez and mended Max have each thrown one TD pass so far. Lopez had 18 last season at South Alabama, nine fewer than Johnson’s 27 at LSU as a sophomore.
That’s why Richmond needs to be a slaughter from the opening kick at 3:30. The Spiders are also 1-1 after losing to mighty Lehigh and edging Wofford, both FCS teams, code for what used to be Division I-AA.
The crowd that shows up in sold-out Kenan Stadium will tell us if Belichick is for real so far. Remember when Carmichael Auditorium was always packed to the rafters no matter the opponent? They came to see Dean Smith’s Tar Heels, period.
Charlotte and Richmond are supposed to be warm-up games for the true test to show how far Dollar Bill’s patchwork team has come.
Next week is a trip to Orlando for Central Florida, which drubbed North Carolina A&T 68-7 and had a 17-10 win over Jacksonville State.
Head coach Scott Frost pulled a Mack Brown, returning to UCF after five losing seasons at his alma mater Nebraska. Frost could be the answer to a trivia question: Who played for a 13-0 team (the 1997 Cornhuskers) and coached a 13-0 team (the 2017 Knights)?
Featured image via Associated Press/Nell Redmond
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.
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