UNC was objectively more talented than: Charlotte, Richmond, UCF, Syracuse, Stanford, and Wake Forest this year. I don’t know how it could be argued otherwise. I would personally argue that we were overall more talented than Cal, Virginia, Duke, and NC State, or at the very least about as talented as those teams, and certainly not *less* talented than any of them, but each of them had quarterback play that was so far and away better than ours. We were not more talented than Clemson and TCU.
I'd disagree regarding UCF. Go look at our PFF nums. They have better WR, better RB, better TE, better QB (barely). Carter Lewis, Nyjalik Kelly, and that colgate xfer LB were all better than our LBs. Jayden Bellamy is better than any of our secondary guys. I don't know how to grade their OL, i just know that ours were bad, playing new positions due to injury and lack of talent, etc.
A little bit of the PFF differences could be coaching, but it is mostly cuz our guys just aren't dudes (outside a Dixon [who was hurt all yr] or Shipp).
Who are the top talent on our team? Shipp, Dixon and Melkhart? Dixon/Blaske were hurt or out of position (due to bad talent) most of the yr. How many of our guys would you take over UCFs position by position?
Look at the All-ACC selections:
Cal had 4 on the first team. 1 on 3rd, 3 honorable.
Duke had 6 on the second team. 2 on 3rd, 3 honorable.
Virginia had 1st, 2 second, 6 3rd, 7 honorable.
NCSU had 3 1st. 2 honorable.
We had Melkhart on 2nd, and a 4 honorable mentions including FG kicker.
What position has a 10x multiplier when it comes to talent? - QB. Ours was horrific the first half of the yr, and only good one entire game (duke). You could argue that Cal, Virginia, Duke, and NC State had an immediate talent advantage over UNC, not just because you see more names on the All-ACC list, but simply because of the QB position.
How many of our guys (and name them) do you think would be All-Acc if they simply had a different coach or scheme?
