Greg McElroy reveals expectations for North Carolina for 2022

As part of the Always College Football Podcast, Greg McElroy sat down with North Carolina football coach Mack Brown to talk through the Tar Heels team ahead of the 2022 season. You can watch/listen to that interview right here. But after Brown left, McElroy stayed on to offer up his own thoughts on UNC football.

Let’s just say the ESPN analyst is quite optimistic ahead of the fall for North Carolina. Here were his comments:

“As far as North Carolina is concerned, I meant it when I said it: I really think this could be their year. We might have been a little early with the expectations going into last season. And we have a program that hasn’t experienced the heights North Carolina experienced, it was going to be difficult to replicate the Orange Bowl berth from the year before (2020).”

McElroy then addressed the elephant in the quarterback room: Who could possibly replace Sam Howell?

“You lose Sam Howell, that’s a big loss. But I like their quarterback prospects. You heard Coach [Brown] talk about the fact that they have two Players of the Year from Arkansas and North Carolina that are vying for the position. Drake May and Jacoby Criswell both have a lot of ability and you saw that on display in the spring game.”

Whoever wins the job has plenty of surrounding talent as well.

“They have weapons on the outside. Josh Downs is one of the best receivers in college football. He needs some help, but you gotta think that help is coming. And the offensive line — a group that was somewhat disappointing last year — hopefully they come together in the 2022 season.”

That offense was good last season, though. Just a matter of keeping the engine humming over a transition of power at quarterback. The defensive side is where improvement is a must. Which he predicts will happen under the new DC.

“Defensively, they gotta make strides. Remember the last time Gene Chizik was hired at North Carolina to become the defensive coordinator. This was 2015. They went from an underachieving group to a group that was an onside kick away from punching their ticket to the College Football Playoff.”

Could similar success be in store? Possibly, according to Greg McElroy.

“I would not be surprised if we fast forward to season’s end and North Carolina is in the mix to represent the coastal division in the ACC Championship.”