Chansky’s Notebook: The Irish Dream

Posted Sep 24, 2020
UNC punter Ben Kiernan grew up in Dublin on rugby and had never seen a game of American football, much less played one. His parents moved their family to Raleigh before Ben’s last year in middle school and he went out for the football team pretty much as a lark. He later went to a Charlotte kicking camp run by former Tar Heel kicker Dan Orner. (Chapelboro.com)

Related: Football, Football Recruiting

Bill Belichick, other coaches, call for reforms, but he says fixing tampering ‘above my pay grade’
Five college football coaches sat at the Bill Dooley Pigskin Kickoff on Thursday and covered every corner of a sport in transition: the transfer portal,...
Fri Jul 24, 2026

Steve Newmark Sees Football as 'Anchor' for UNC Athletics
UNC has never quite found its footing in football. To flourish in the new landscape of college athletics, football must be successful and profitable for...
Fri Jul 24, 2026

UNC Football Motivated by Frustrations of 2025 Season
"Nobody likes to lose," Jordan Shipp said Friday. "I wasn’t the only one frustrated. Everybody was frustrated." For Shipp, the former Charlotte prep star, the...
Fri Jul 24, 2026

Detailing Melkart Abou Jaoude’s Offseason
UNC defensive end Melkart Abou Jaoude entered the offseason focused on improving his conditioning. He admitted that last season he sometimes struggled with exhaustion late...
Fri Jul 24, 2026