Coach Butch Davis wants North Carolina to avoid repeating a mistake that it made last season when it closes what he calls a meat grinder of a second half the next two weeks.
UNC secured bowl eligibility last week for the second consecutive season. Last season, starting two weekends after qualifying for postseason play, UNC slumped and suffered consecutive losses that damaged its 7-2 record.
Davis said that last season, his players breathed a collective sigh of relief after notching a sixth win, satisfied that they had reached one of the season's objectives.
"Young kids, when they're freshmen and sophomores, they don't even appreciate the fact of how tough it is to win games," Davis said. "It's a knock-down, drag-out every single Saturday.
"The minute that you think something is going to be easy, it almost assuredly won't be easy."
Both of UNC's final games are on the road. UNC will play Boston College at noon on Saturday, and will close its regular season on Nov. 28 against N.C. State on noon.
Quarterback T.J. Yates became a big part of last season's swoon when he returned to the starting lineup in the next-to-last game after recovering from a broken ankle. UNC lost its previous game, a 17-15 decision at Maryland with Cam Sexton under center, and was drilled by N.C. State 41-10 in Yates' return.
Yates doesn't want to have to fight out of another losing streak this season.
"Last year was kind of when we hit a speed bump after we got that bowl-eligible win," Yates said. "We don't want to do that again. We've talked about it as a team, trying to get past the whole bowl-eligible thing and focus on what we have to do.
"We can't afford to take another speed bump this late in the season."
Zack Pianalto, UNC's tight end, said that most of his teammates haven't given in to the temptation to look ahead to a bowl game. The main focus is Boston College and the problems that can be found on the road.
UNC can build its winning streak to five games with two more wins. A sweep of the closing games could help UNC overtake Boston College in the ACC's pecking order for bowl spots.
Boston College, in its first season under Coach Frank Spaziani, its longtime defensive coordinator, is 7-3 overall and 4-2 in the ACC.
"Now that we've attained (eligibility), it's something we can't get complacent with," Pianalto said.
Pianalto sees one key issue for UNC now -- staying hungry. He, Yates and Davis all said that a great deal of achievement is possible in the next two weeks. Some success has been pocketed, now more is attainable.
"There's more out there," Pianalto said. "There's always the chance to go out there and win one more for the team and win one more to get a better bowl. I think that gets guys hungry.
"And then there's the sense of getting better as a team. We haven't played as good as we want to on the offensive side of the ball. We have two more chances to go out there and work the kinks out before the bowl game."
bcole@wsjournal.com.
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