Eighteen seconds: Elijah Hood is churning his massive legs in the thick of a goal-line scrum, half a dozen Pitt Panthers clutching and scraping and clawing to bring him to the ground. Pitt clings to a precarious 36-30 lead as early evening falls in Kenan Stadium, but this beast of a Tar Heel offense is snorting and ripping into high gear just in the nick of time.
Carolina’s defense of its 2015 ACC Coastal Division championship officially began on a steamy late-September afternoon against the Panthers, both teams considered among the favorites for the 2016 division title.