Notre Dame vs. North Carolina 2017 live stream: Start time and how to watch online

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are just one game away from erasing the 4-8 meme from last season, and they’ll hit the road to take on UNC to do it. The Tar Heels are 1-4 heading into Week 6 and will have a tough time trying to stop Josh Adams and Notre Dame’s offense on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC (live stream it on WatchESPN).

UNC is coming off a bitter loss to Georgia Tech last weekend after fielding a team littered by injuries and relying on its former No. 3 quarterback to lead them to the postseason. While most of Tar Heel fandom has waved goodbye to their chances of making a bowl game, the way this team finishes the year — with their energy and will to compete — will mean more than the totals in the win-loss columns.

If I told you Josh Adams so far has put up better number than Heisman favorite Saquon Barkley, would you believe me? Adams has totaled 658 yards on 73 carries (9.0 YPC), while Barkley has tallied just 574 yards on 86 carries (6.7 YPC).

This is a guy who was supposed to be a third string and worked his way up to starter by the end of camp, which is awesome but also means he didn’t get the full amount of work in camp that he should have in order to get comfortable in the offense.

One of the biggest things that has haunted the offense during the Brian Kelly era has been their production in the red zone. Kelly fueled offense probably relied too much on fade passes inside the 20, and not enough power runs.

Brian Kelly is really trying to change the culture at Notre Dame

We’ve made it through five weeks of the college football season and for the most part have seen a more collected head coach on the sideline with only one seemingly questionable exchange with a reporter. After finishing the 2016 season 4-8 (and being the butt of a never-ending meme) Kelly made a host of personnel changes as well as committing to personal changes that will trickle down to the players.

So far, Kelly’s adjustments have made the Fighting Irish a more consistent and cohesive team. The head coach detailed some of the changes he’s made as well as why they seem to be working earlier in the week during his press conference.

“And that’s the difference between last year and this year. We’ve got a great environment where our kids enjoyed coming to practice every single day; coupled with the fact that they want to settle up a score and that is to bring Notre Dame football back to where it should be.”

One of the most recent times we got to see Brian Kelly turn his signature shade of red was after a win (for once) while he danced around the locker room with the Megaphone Trophy.

The Fighting Irish need just one more win to best their 4-8 record from last year, and I’d be hard pressed to find many teams that would be able to stop such a motivating factor. Brian Kelly still has some work to do with QB Brandon Wimbush, but with a helpful running game to balance the offense, North Carolina will be playing catch-up all day.