Is North Carolina Ready To Compete With Clemson For ACC Supremacy?

Can North Carolina give Clemson a run in the ACC in 2020, or are the Tar Heels still a year or two away?

In the College Football Playoff era, there has been no Power 5 team dominate a conference the way Clemson has, and by all appearances, Dabo Swinney and the Tigers appear poised to keep that run going for the foreseeable future. 

While the Tigers have shown no signs of slowing down, there are some teams in the league who have attempted to narrow the gap between themselves and Clemson. At the top of that list would be the North Carolina Tar Heels. 

Since Mack Brown came back to Chapel Hill for his second stint as the head coach of the Tar Heels, the program has consistently been on an upward trend. If there is any team poised to give Clemson some competition in the ACC, it just might be the Tar Heels.

Last season Clemson narrowly escaped Chapel Hill with a 21-20 win, and if nothing else, the Tar Heels proved they were not intimidated by what was at the time, the defending national champions. 

On a recent episode of his show The Late Kick, host Josh Pate said that while he thinks Clemson is still the cream of the crop in the ACC, now is the time for North Carolina to assert themselves as a legitimate threat to the stranglehold the Tigers currently have on the conference.

“If I’m sitting around and I’m a North Carolina alum, if I’m just a fan, I’m a supporter of the program," Pate said. "I’m looking around and I’m saying, ‘Judging by the history of this sport, Miami should be dominating, Florida State should be dominating, Clemson should be pretty darn good.’ Virginia Tech should be at or near the top of the conference every year, but instead what we have here is we have a situation where Clemson is fulfilling their end of the bargain but yet no one else is."

As a freshman last season Tar Heels quarterback Sam Howell led North Carolina to a seven-win season, proving himself to be one of the best quarterbacks in the nation. Assuming there is no sophomore slump, he, along with the team, will only get better. 

“These people have messed around, and they’ve let us get the right head coach in here," Pate said. "And they’ve let us get a dynamic and dynamite coaching staff in here and now we’re killing it in recruiting. And we’ve got quarterback figured out, in the present with Howell, and we’ve hopefully got quarterback figured out in the future with Drake Maye. So many of these dominoes are falling, so many of these tumblers are falling into place that, let’s kick it in. If no one else is gonna do it, we’ll be the ones to challenge Clemson. Hey, by the way — we almost beat them last year. So if no one else is gonna kick it in, let’s kick it in ourselves.”

The North Carolina coaching staff has also been finding some success out on the recruiting trail. Currently, the Tar Heels find themselves sitting at third overall in the 247 Sports 2021 Recruiting Rankings, which is also tops in the ACC.

It remains to be seen whether or not North Carolina has done enough to compete with Clemson this coming season, or if they are still another season or two away. However, there is no question that the Tar Heels are narrowing the gap, and doing so quickly.