Notre Dame football: Irish offense will shut down Sam Howell and UNC

The Notre Dame football program has a tough opponent in the North Carolina Tar Heels, but their offense should be the difference.

For Notre Dame football, beating Clemson was the clear highlight of the 2020 season, as the Tigers were the No. 1 team in the land at that point. In a close second, though, was following it up by going to North Carolina and proving just how legitimate of a team they were.

The game started close enough, with the two exchanging scores in the first half to go into halftime in a 17-17 tie. From there, Notre Dame football was able to come out and flex on the Tar Heels in the second half behind a great defense and some magic from Ian Book.

In past years, this may have been a frustrating game for Notre Dame football fans because it took them too long to get going and show just how good they can be against a team like North Carolina, who went a combined 108-135 during the time between Mack Brown’s two tenures. The thing is that now that Brown is back, so are the Tar Heels, and it doesn’t look like that is going to change anytime soon.

In his first season back at North Carolina, Brown nearly beat Clemson, won a bowl game, and found his quarterback of the future in Sam Howell. By Year 2, North Carolina was a threat in the ACC, going to the Orange Bowl, where they would lose to Texas A&M, but it would be their first major bowl appearance since the 1949 season.

Heading into Year 3, Brown and Howell are poised to crash the party in the ACC, and most experts consider them a top-10 team to start the season. For his part, Howell is the presumed top quarterback in next year’s NFL Draft, so this could mean that North Carolina won’t get a better shot to find what their ceiling actually is than 2021.

Expect this team to be explosive and hungry.