i’m checking in too. in regards to the negativity, i think some were pointing to your on comments such as how there are not many unc football fans yet, and that you’d rather be best at one sport rather than very good at two.

i would have to disagree with your assessment. there are a lot of fans more excited about this football team than i’ve seen since mack left. and i can see the fever hitting some basketball-only fans, albeit at a lesser degree than some might wish for. but a few seasons of solid winning football, and we’ll see a lot more of the converts.

also, you say last year was supposed to be a winning one and this year a better one. i don’t know about anyone else’s timeline but i always thought that by the 4th year, when coach davis’ recruits are seniors and RS juniors, we would be solidly contending for the ACC crown. plus, our season is not entirely lost yet. best case scenario, if VT loses 2 more (i know, unlikely) and we win out (again, unlikely), then we should still be heading to the ACC championship game, i believe. even if that doesn’t happen, as someone else mentioned, we may be headed to a respectable bowl game (peach, perhaps?).

as for some others’ comments on the coaching staff. coach davis has been criticized in the past for being a bad in-game coach. and he (and his staff) showed it against UVA. but if we were to credit coach and his staff for the UVA loss, we also need to credit them for wins in miami and against notre dame, and for the other blow outs where they didn’t need to make adjustments because the players were so well-prepared.

we’re fortunate to have this coaching staff and to have the team in the direction that they’re headed. despite this painful loss, it’s great to be a tar heel right now with the football team on the up and up and the basketball season ready to start off.

As for the assessment, that we’re “not that good,” I have to disagree. If we weren’t that good, we would have folded like a house of cards against Notre Dame, Miami and McNeese State. This is a good team that is still young and suffering from injuries at crucial positions. If TJ was on the field Saturday, with his cannon arm, do you honestly believe we would have kneeled the ball with 47 seconds? I don’t think that for a minute. While I didn’t like it, I can understand where Butch was coming from. Cam has been a good caretaker of our offense, but asking him to march us 50 yards in 47 seconds while likely facing 8 or 9-man deep coverage is a lot to ask of a guy who has a decent arm, and only decent accuracy. I’m not saying TJ would have won the game, but he would have changed the dynamic, as would have Pianalto instead of Greg Little at H-back and Brandon Tate returning punts.

I think we all need to take a page from HeelYeah’s book and sit back and realize this: We’re 5-2 with five winnable games left on the schedule in a year when we were supposed to be content with getting bowl eligible. I’m more than happy to see us in the position we’re in, and I look forward to what we can do next year when we’re healthy with another solid batch of recruits coming.

I am trying to move past this loss, looking at the season as a whole and enjoying football relevance again, but I am having a hard time with this one. In seasons past, we would just get run over by better teams, making the sting a bit easier to accept. Yesterday we were the better team, but beat ourselves and lost.

The defense played a solid game, holding the Cavs in check for most of the game, helping us overcome 3 turnovers to stay in relative control. The offense looked great to start the game, but something started bothering me as the game progressed. The play calling was bizarre in spots – passing on 3rd and short, halfback pass on 3rd and short. Draughn had over 130 yards on the day, but we didn’t trust him to get us a first down with short yardage? There was no “rhythm” developed on offense after that first drive, and it kept UVa in the game.

But that was OK, as we were in position to win the game with 2 minutes left. Then the coaching staff, as much as I respect them, decided not to win the game. Playing “prevent” defense with 2 minutes left? Not even trying to move into field goal range with 45 seconds left? The players gave a good effort, and almost pulled it out. But I have to put this one on the coaches – they need to show more moxie and confidence in their play calling and decision making, which will then be reflected by the players.

I still feel good about this team – they should bounce back and finish strong. The guys fight hard and seem to have fun out there. It’s a refreshing change. As hard as this loss is to accept, I’m thrilled to be at 5-2 and competitive again. Go Heels!

We have had some bad breakdowns in our three close games, losing two of them. We could have won all three or lost all three, but I don’t see how that necessarily makes us a better team.

We have had some bad injuries, but both of our losses were winnable and yesterday’s end of game tactics were deplorable.

If you don’t believe me, just roll the lowlights from our last visit to Charlottesville in 2006. Disastrous. Butch has got em on the way up. As I mentioned to someone yesterday…you are pissed about UNC losing a football game in October. We should be…but it’s been a long time since I personally could say so.

I dare say the last two seasons at mid-October, a good number were (myself included) were gearing up for a national-title contending team in hoops.