I really don’t care. At least not right now. Actually, no I don’t care about the rest of the ACC but in case you do VT wins the Coastal if the beat UVa, if not it will be Georgia Tech. BC wins the Atlantic if they beat Maryland if not it will be FSU. All I care about now is UNC beating Duke to finish 8-4 and the Heels in Maui. Besides that my picks this season have sucked.
Record This Week: 2-4
Record This Season: 55-35
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THF, I watched the game from the beach house at Litchfield Beach,SC, of friends of mine. They were flying out to Maui to watch the b’ball Heels and continue to Oahu to show their kids and grandkids where they once lived during Navy days. They had asked me to call and leave a message on their cellphone after the game because they would be en rout to Hawaii.
Imagine my consternation as the game progressed and the gridHeels were walking around stunned and State players on the sideline were going through the motions of digging a grave for us. Should I call and leave the message or should I forget the whole thing? What would you have done?
After 30 minutes to an hour of trying to run away from my responsibility, I finally dredged up the courage to dial their number and leave the fateful news: “You don’t want to hear this and I don’t want to tell you. UNC had six turnovers — result, Red team 41, Blue 10. Now it’s time for basketball. Have a great time in the Islands. See you soon.”
Talk about gut-wrenching, I almost felt like I was delivering news to parents of a teenage driver.
I could never be a Highway Patrolman.
THF, I read the commentary on 850 and WOW, what has happened to the “reasonable” AW? Guess a few weeks with the hatred spewed forth from SFN has affected him? What is with the comparison with Chuck Amato and Butch Davis? They are two totally different individuals and coaching styles. How can anyone be stereotyped in their second season?
We need to keep our heads up and support the team vs dook on Saturday. We still have the prospect of being 9-4 with a win at Charlotte. Very good compared to the Bunting years.
I also thought obrians comments about “the state university” were in bad taste and hopefully will be bulletin board material for several teams. Could you imagine the outrage if Butch Davis said anything like that?
I know. I am not sure what the deal is over there. The Amato comparisons were flying over at SFN which did not make any sense to me. As I said over there I am completely unwilling to start tossing comparisons or indicting someone as being like another coach when his 2nd season is not even finished. I think you ought to have a body of work to look at and career wise as a head coach Davis blows Amato away by miles when the Miami days are factored in.
Since the merger with BC, VPI and Miami, the ACC has gotten relatively better in basketball and relatively worse in football, which was the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen.
Although BC, VPI and Miami have been disappointments in ACC football, all three have overachieved in hoops. Given the relative declines in the Duke, Wake, Maryland and NC State basketball programs since the merger, BC and VPI, and Miami, to a lesser extent, have helped to keep the ACC on top in hoops.
At the same time, all three programs, or at least Miami and VPI have fallen precipitously from their previous top ten football heights. BC has probably elevated ACC play in both sports, even though they make a poor fit in the conference in most ways.
When you add this change to the fall from grace by Florida State, you end up with a conference in disarray, that sends teams like Wake Forest to the Orange Bowl and has a season like the current one, where seemingly no team wants to win their division.
The top ACC team this year–whoever they are–would probably be at least a four touchdown dog against Florida, Oklahoma, USC, or Texas. Indeed, BC or Georgia Tech might be over-performing to lose 35-7 against the Sooners. This is pretty sad given that Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State all won the national football title in the 25 year period before the expansion/merger.
I don’t think anyone has a complete explanation for what has happened. Is it a fluke? Maybe things will turn around and the ACC will go back to being a decent football conference with a couple of top ten teams, but I am beginning to wonder if the ACC and Big East have not now both gotten the “Basketball Conference” moniker around their necks, which turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy in terms of recruiting.
Can you imagine how much worse it would be if the ACC had taken Syracuse, instead of VPI, as was the original plan? Thank goodness, that after that first year, the Big East hasn’t been any better in football than the ACC.
I think we can see now that several games this year were not flukes, but rather precise indicators of the (lack of) merit of ACC football:
Maryland–Middle Tennessee State
UNC–McNeese State
UNC–Notre Dame (both teams mediocre)
UNC–Virginia (dreadful game by mediocre teams)
Wake Forest–Navy
VPI–East Carolina
Clemson–Alabama
Wake Forest–Clemson (dreadful play on both sides)
Wake Forest–Florida State (dreadful, awful play on both sides)
Tough past two weeks for football. Carolina played their best game of the season destroying Georgia Tech, and then dies for the past two games. As said above though, Coach Davis has done a great job bringing football back from the depths. Let’s just not lose to Duke.