Following a breakout performance against Clemson, the North Carolina Tar Heels must unleash their powerhouse transfer to upset Notre Dame.
The North Carolina Tar Heels blew a massive lead to Clemson last weekend, but now they have a full week off to prepare for Notre Dame.
Sitting at 2-1, there's a lot to love about this team, but there are also still a ton of major reasons why fans should be concerned.
Facing the Fighting Irish is no easy feat, but there's a silver lining in the fact that running back Benjamin Hall is fresh off the best game of his collegiate career.
Knowing he'll be fully rested, there's no reason not to believe the junior can't make a massive impact against a Notre Dame team that will likely still be a top-three team, should they improve to 4-0 against a less-than-stellar Purdue team.
UNC must let Hall do his thing
The Georgia native already has 215 yards this season, and that's only 59 fewer than he had last season.
Hall came to UNC from Michigan, where he had two rather unproductive seasons. At 5-foot-11, 230 pounds, he was only able to average 2.5 yards per attempt with the Wolverines during the 2024 campaign.
Suddenly, he's up to a career-high 6.5 yards per attempt with the Tar Heels. Whatever head coach Bill Belichick and Co. are doing, they've certainly done right by this transfer.
After showing promise a year ago, it's clear Hall is ready to reach his full potential. The question is, will UNC let him free from the training wheels?
Had Hall been given an opportunity to run the ball more than 18 times against Clemson, it feels like a foregone conclusion that the Tar Heels would have defeated the Tigers.
Obviously, the weather delay had a huge part in that, but UNC failed to ride out the hot hand, and that was a huge mistake, one they simply can't make moving forward.
To put things into perspective, Hall had 11 fewer rushing yards in his last game than he had in his first two seasons combined. This is a guy who only has two career touchdowns, both of which came last season at UNC, but now it's time for the world to see just what he's truly capable of.
When it comes to Notre Dame, they have a much better run defense than Clemson, but that doesn't mean North Carolina shouldn't give Hall a shot.
Abandoning the run game early doesn't do anyone any favors, and it'll only make things increasingly more difficult against Wisconsin transfer quarterback Billy Edwards Jr.
