It is Homecoming in Chapel Hill, and the North Carolina Tar Heels are just moments away from squaring off against the Stanford Cardinal. UNC is coming off their first ACC win of the season against a wounded
Syracuse team, and now they seek to earn their second win in a row against a team that has struggled just as much as they have to this point in the season.
To be completely honest, it’s amazing that Stanford has managed to win any games this season because even the softball games that they won weren’t comfortable. They only beat San Diego State by one point, slithered by Florida State by seven, and only took down last place Boston College by 10 points. Things are pretty dark for the Cardinal, and it is hard to imagine that the Tar Heels should have much trouble against them. The problem, though, is that nobody really knows what to expect from UNC anymore. They looked really good against Syracuse, but they also faced arguably the worst quarterback that the program has ever faced in Joseph Filardi. It was hard to tell what should be counted as progress and what should count as Syracuse being really bad, and honestly, if the Heels win we still will not be able to answer that question very clearly.
Regardless, the Heels primary objective is to find consistent production on offense. Gio Lopez had a pretty good game against the Orange, and Demon June reactivated against one of the worst defenses in the ACC. Stanford doesn’t have a lights-out defense themselves, so it will be important for Freddie Kitchens’ squad to take advantage. If they can get going and the defense does what they’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks, the Heels will only need to win two more games to become bowl eligible. The difficulty of winning two more games will increase significantly, but that is a conversation for another day.
As always, we will be back after today’s game with post-game analysis and takes. Until then, Go Heels!
