Fresh off a bye week, the North Carolina Tar Heels face undefeated Notre Dame in a high-stakes ESPN matinee.
The North Carolina Tar Heels didn't plan on going into their bye week at 2-1, but that's the harsh reality they face after blowing a massive lead against the Clemson Tigers.
After falling on Saturday, Sept. 19, 28-20 in a game that was plagued by weather, the Tar Heels now know the next team standing in their way: Notre Dame.
The Fighting Irish are coming off a monstrous 49-10 win over Purdue.
Keep in mind, Notre Dame may be 4-0, but their last three wins are against Rice, Michigan State, and Purdue.
No offense to any of those teams, but they're far from some of the competition the Tar Heels are facing in the ACC this season.
The Fighting Irish have a tougher schedule down the stretch, no doubt, but it'll be interesting to see how UNC looks with an extra week to prepare for Heisman hopeful quarterback CJ Carr and the rest of this team.
UNC vs. Notre Dame will be on ESPN
Quite a few of the Fighting Irish broadcasts are on Peacock, but not this one. ESPN will be the exclusive home of this Week 5 matchup, one that puts Bill Belichick against one of the top coaches in college football, Marcus Freeman.
Freeman knows there's a loophole this year that will see the Fighting Irish make it into the playoffs as long as they're ranked high enough by the end of the season.
Since they're currently undefeated and are ranked so high, they have nothing to worry about at this point in time.
That said, this is only Notre Dame's second true road game of the year. They had a neutral-site matchup in Week 1 against Wisconsin, a game they won 41-13 thanks to a dominant second half.
When Week 5 rolls around, UNC will indeed be playing at home, but it won't be under the lights.
Noon EST kickoff for Tar Heels vs. Fighting Irish
After the events of Week 4, it was officially confirmed that UNC vs. Notre Dame will have a Noon EST kickoff on ESPN.
Saturday, Oct. 3 can't come soon enough for Tar Heels fans as they look to prove that the Clemson loss was a fluke and their far better than they were a year ago.
Beating Notre Dame is far from an easy task, but the Fighting Irish's Week 1 win over the Badgers suddenly looks a lot better now that UW just took down No. 13 Penn State in Happy Valley.
