PEMBROKE — When a college football team takes its bye week, it gives the chance for players, coaches and fans alike to take a deep breath, assess how the season has gone so far and look ahead to what may await them the rest of the season.

As UNC Pembroke is idle this Saturday, the look back at the start to the season likely comes with a deep sigh, with the Braves currently at 0-2 after losses to Wingate and Fayetteville State to start the 2024 campaign.

But as the Braves take that look ahead, they can still do so with plenty of hope and confidence, despite the tough start. There is, in fact, no need for UNCP to panic.

The Braves’ main goal for the 2024 season is to win a Mountain East Conference championship as UNCP plays its final season as an associate member of that league. Having not yet played a conference game, that goal is still very much in front of the Braves, and they control their own fate to accomplish it.

Some may suggest that an 0-2 record, though, often isn’t the best indicator of future success. While it’s probably true that most teams to eventually win their conference probably win one or both of their first two games, some of them will have not played as tough of a nonconference schedule as the Braves.

Wingate made a playoff run two seasons ago, was 8-3 last season and returned many of the key contributors from that Bulldogs team. Fayetteville State has reached the CIAA championship game in six straight seasons and also brought back a lot of experience for 2024.

And it’s not like the Braves were thoroughly dominated by either of those teams. Instead, in both contests they were just a play away from victory in a closely contested battle.

It’s entirely possible that by the end of the season, Wingate and Fayetteville State games will be the two toughest opponents the Braves have faced. Even as there are, of course, strong opponents to come from the top half of the MEC, those two nonconference games could still end up as two out of the four or five toughest games for UNCP.

With that in mind, the Braves will enter conference play next week as a battle-tested bunch. And the early outcomes don’t negate the fact there’s a lot to like with the Braves’ team, from the weapons returning from last year’s record-setting offense to the stellar defensive line to the strong transfers brought in to help across the board. There is certainly a capability for this team to still do big things — and even as they’re focusing on one game at a time, a 9-2 finish come November is by no means out of reach.

That offense played a strong game against Fayetteville State, scoring 31 points against a strong Broncos defense while led mostly by a backup quarterback in Tre Robinson. That performance showed improvement from Week 1, a 12-point output in the loss to Wingate. The Braves haven’t had a great rushing game yet, but their principals there are too good not to start producing very soon.

Defensively, the Braves had some drives at Fayetteville State which they surely wish they could have back. But not all is doomed for that unit either, with a good showing against Wingate holding the Bulldogs to 17 points.

While yes, the ultimate results of those games are proof of room to improve, the fact there’s still been some positive takeaways from within those losses to tough opponents shows that there’s plenty for the Braves to build on as they begin

The first conference matchup next week at Charleston will be among the biggest in the MEC this season, with the Golden Eagles picked in the league’s preseason coaches poll to win the league and the Braves picked second.

A loss in West Virginia in that game would definitely change the calculus for UNCP, which would sit at 0-3 overall and would no longer control their fate for an MEC title. But a victory would not only get the Braves back in the win column but would provide a statement to the rest of the MEC that perhaps UNCP should actually be considered the team to beat.

Yes, we’ll know more about the direction of this UNCP season after the 60 minutes of football played next week. It makes sense that by the end of the third chapter, the plot of the whole book is starting to become more clear, especially after the protagonist faces such a key adversary.

But for now, while the main character of that book has definitely taken a couple of tough blows, they’ve yet to get knocked down in a way that substantially hurts their primary objectives.

And so, to give the Cliff Notes version of the previous 800 words, whether you’re inside the program or a Braves supporter, there’s no reason for apprehension just yet.