And let me just say, that darn well better win. Why? Think about it, what could possibly be worse than having lost to a crappy NC State team this season? Also losing to the one legitimate team NC State happen to win a game against. Yeah, that would really suck. So it is on this team to show up in Charlotte and roll Pitt like they own them.
On one hand, it sucks the Heels were sent to Charlotte for a 2nd straight year just so the Gator Bowl could have FSU. On the other hand, the Heels should enjoy all sorts of crazy home crowd advantage for this one. West Virginia brought a good crowd last season. I have no idea who well Pitt fans travel. According to some posters in IC, Pitt fans did not show up for the 2003 Car Bowl against UVa and Cavalier fans “overran” the place that day. We will see if that is the case here. Hopefully UNC fans will not be put off by being in the same bowl again. I don’t think that will be the case and given the sheer number of UNC fans local to Charlotte, I fully expect Bank of America Stadium to be sporting a ton of powder blue.
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This needs to be a win if we want to see a step forward for this season. Made to a bowl last year, take the next step and win this one. Pretty much crap regarding Bobby Bowden but then again we didn’t beat FSU so I can’t complain to loudly.
If you are interested in tickets look into getting them from Pitt or Ticketmaster – at least you know what you are buying. Pitt lets you choose Club Level seats, Ticketmaster tells you where you are sitting – how can it be that UNC can’t give you seating? This really needs to get resolved, it’s magical mystery choice. If they want to sell more tickets then make the process comparable to the market. There, I feel better. Agree 100% with THF – win, win, win. Go Heels!
Pitt is a really good team. If we beat them, it will be stong evidence that (1) we actually deserve to be in a bowl, and (2) the program has advanced and is advancing.
Buying tickets tomorrow. Can’t wait. It might not be Atlanta, but it’s better than sitting at home thinking about next year already.
Rathskellar68,
This is about the fourth or fifth post I’ve read of yours where you claim that Carolina doesn’t deserve a bowl.
On what are you basing this on???
The Heels finished 8-4 with wins over Va. Tech, Miami, Boston College, UConn and East Carolina, all of which are bowl teams. This is the second straight season Carolina has gone 8-4…Technically this could be considered an improvement since Carolina lost a lot on the offensive side of the ball.
How can say the program hasn’t advanced??? This is the first time we’re going to back to back bowls since 1997 and 1998.
Instead of being in the perennial basement, like we were under Carl Torbush and John Bunting, Carolina is now in the mix and going to bowls.
I could understand you saying Carolina wasn’t worthy of a bowl if they finished 6-6 or something like that, but come on!!!
For you to not see the progress the program is making makes me think you have your head in the sand or something.
Would I have rather we finished 9-3 or 10-2??? Sure… But, I’m not going to knock a 8-4 record during a season in which we were injury riddled on the offensive side of the ball and had a line that couldn’t protect the quarterback and had to go to a running back by committee the last 4 ball games of the season.
I think you and some other disgruntled Carolina fans are letting your anger from the State loss cloud your view of an otherwise successful season…
^I can understand where Rath is coming from on this. I was about ready to throw in the towell on going to a bowl, but then UNC beat VaTech, then Miami, then BC. I know my expectations were that UNC should have been playing for the conference crown last night, but slips against UVa and FSU ended those hopes.
Like I said, I think the last time UNC made back to back bowls was in the Mack Brown era, so I’ll take it. I would much rather be playing later than the day after Christmas, but back to back bowl years means they’re turning a corner, or on the verge of it.
UNC should be able to beat Pitt. SHOULD be able to; our defense isn’t nearly as suspect and porous as Cincinatti, and Pitt obviously has issues stopping people when it counts. I think this game could actually end in a rout favoring UNC, but I also thought we were going to trounce UVa and FSU, so anything can happen.
^Actually, the loss to GT ended our ACCCG hopes, since GT finished 7-1 in the league and would have gone to the ACCCG even if we were 7-1 by virtue of the head-to-head win.
No offense, but I am sick to death of people trying to downplay the accomplishments of this football team by focusing not on the overall record but on to whom they lost. Some people are not looking at the season in an overall context. The UVa loss came at the lowest point of the season, with maximum injury issues (and during the one point of UVa’s season when they actually showed some life). The FSU and NCSU games are far more frustrating because of blown 4th quarter leads, but for FSU that game was the beginning of saving their bowl chances also. As I have said all along, if you had offered a UNC fan 8-4 before the season began, most people would have been satisfied.
yup, we have no way of knowing if the Heels beat Va Tech or Miami if they beat Uva or FSU. their mindsets would not be the same.
personally, i’d trade a win over Va Tech or Miami for one over State, but thats me.
back to back bowl years is good, and if i limit my thinking to the end product, i can see that.
watching Texas play Nebraska, i see Colt McCoy throw a pass behind a receiver and it sticks out like a sore thumb. my thoughts immediately went to TJ, where it became a surprise if he hit a guy in stride. i’m not saying we are going to attract a McCoy level talent at all. but we have to do better in the QB dept. TJ Yates cannot be your essentially #2 QB in program history. thats not the QB talent you can continue to have if you want a chance to go to the next level.
Yes, I’d take the season we had, looking back at the GT game the defense did everything they could given the amount of time they were on the field. I would agree that during that phase of the season we had lots of key people out and it hurt us, especially on the o-line. Seems like VT didn’t pay attention to film it was reviewing and lost track of the injuries and returns on the UNC side of the field. The QB role is critical if we are going to make big strides and that was the painful part of the State loss as TJ was very good in that game. He threw the ball on the play and the receivers ran the routes and we picked up the big gains. As to the penalties, some valid some not but that’s how it goes. Hopefully we learned from that experience, I think Davis tries to keep everyone calm and just play the game which is better than getting everyone overly amped up. I’d like to rock this bowl and take down a ranked team.
I would like to point out that the Virginia Tech Hokie were able to get into a bowl game like the ChicFilA bowl against Tenn even though UNC beat VT in Blacksburg. Why are we stuck in the Charlotte again?
Head-to-head does not matter. It is a function of conference record(well it is unless you have a coach of 34 years who is retiring then it becomes a function of ratings…strike that its always ratings…and money…and fans who can come. Anyway)
VT and Clemson both were 6-2 in the ACC, UNC was 4-4 so those two had to go ahead of the Heels. In theory VT or Clemson should have gone to either the Chick-fil-A or Gator Bowls. Champs had the option to take Miami based on their 5-3 record over UNC’s 4-4. No one wants BC so they get shunted to the back of the line. UNC and FSU were both 4-4 therefore Music City had the option to take either and would have taken UNC sending FSU to Charlotte.
However when you bump FSU to the Gator it pushes Clemson down. The Champs still wanted Miami and could take them because there was only one game difference between those two. The only other team at that point who could have jumped Clemson was BC who no one wants. So Clemson has to go to Nashville leaving UNC holding the bag in Charlotte.
It has been pointed out that FSU vs WVU could have still happened according to the rules just in Charlotte and not Jacksonville. The Gator Bowl, looking out for their own interests and with an expiring contract with the ACC holding zero interest in doing right by them basically did what they wanted to do.
and i think i heard Bowden’s bowl streak started at the Gator, with WV as the opponent. easy for the Gator to bring the bookend.
Right. Head to head doesn’t matter.
Pitt was a pt away from a BCS bowl while state was and is sitting on the couch.
I thought we were going 9-3. But I would’ve still taken a guaranteed 8-4 with losses to VT, FSU, GT and probably Miami.
chuckheel85 –
“This is about the fourth or fifth post I’ve read of yours where you claim that Carolina doesn’t deserve a bowl.
On what are you basing this on???”
On the criteria for bowl selection that prevailed not all that long ago, and that in my view were more credible and worthwhile than what we have now, which is simply advertising run amok.
In my view, bowls should be reserved, as for a long time they were, as a reward for powerhouse teams after an outstanding season. We are not a powerhouse team and we did not have an outstanding season. We had a pretty good season, that’s it. If our basketball team performed the way our football team did, we’d all be tearing our hair out.
“The Heels finished 8-4 with wins over Va. Tech, Miami, Boston College, UConn and East Carolina, all of which are bowl teams.”
And two of which, at most, arguably deserve to be in bowls (Virginia Tech and Miami). The fact that the other, modestly successful teams got bowl bids doesn’t prove that they, or we, earned it. It’s just further proof that bowls have become dumbed-down.
Last I looked, there were 34 bowls hosting 68 teams. Could it possibly be the case that 68 teams are deserving of the honor of a bowl? I doubt it.
What’s going on here is that, several years ago, some advertising executive figured out that there was money to be made doing bowl games. Therefore, sure as shootin’, bowl games proliferated like cudzu. And have about as much aesthetic appeal.
When everybody in the class gets an “A,” that doesn’t tell you that everybody has become a great student. What it tells you is that grades have been watered down to the point of meaninglessness. A variant of the same phenomenon is going on with bowls. Only I don’t like watered down standards. I don’t like them in class, on the field, or anywhere near the University which is my alma mater and which I so admire. You don’t get improved performance by indugling watered down standards. You get it by demanding high standards.
In addition, the benefits of being in a bowl are oversold. It is said that it provides extra practice for the players, and so it does, but how much good is that going to do when the season doesn’t start for another eight months? It is said that it provides exposure. But that is doubtful. Who’s really going to watch this game other than (1) diehard Pitt and UNC fans and (2) people hopelessly addicted to college football of any kind — people to whom one team and one game merge seamlessly into the next?
The one advantage a bowl does provide is money. Reasonable minds can differ on whether the money is worth it. In my view, it isn’t.
Finally, I don’t agree that improvement should be a significant criterion for bowl selection. Were it otherwise, a team that was 1-11 last year but 5-7 this year would have a stronger claim to bowl selection than we do.
When you have 34 bowls, almost all of them recent, ad-driven concoctions, no particular bowl could, or does, mean much — death by dilution, as it were. It’s precisely because I’m a Carolina fan that, when my school goes to a bowl, I WANT IT TO MEAN SOMETHING.
Rath,
the market is somewhat efficient. Just because marketing execs want to cram a football down our throats, they don’t just make money unless there is legitimate demand for it. I assume there is sufficient demand from the fans, the football team an the school for these smaller and rather meaningless bowls. Same goes for the 8th seeds from power conferences at the NCAA basketball tourney. They didn’t have a great season but they ha a good enough season to warrant a trip. Who cares? If the parties involved want to play in a meaningless bowl or take a short but experience-filled trip to the NCAA tourney, let them do it. It’s not up to me or you to tell them they can’t. That is unless there are enough of folks like you where it is no longer economically viable for these suits to “dilute” the standards. Until then, it seems To me like it’s a mutual desire for more teams to have post season adventures. Also, unless you were a part of a team, experienced these non major bowls and decided that it was not worth your while, you really have no right to say that these bowls are absolutely meaningless.
Heeledsoul –
Obviously there’s a market for these minor bowls; that’s why they came into existence. I don’t dispute that, and I don’t dispute that the money they generate for the school will be put to good use.
The core of our disagreement is how one views the basic paradigm for bowl selection. You seem to view it as a chance, enjoyable to fans and players alike, to extend the season and help the athletic department’s finances. That is the modern and the more popular view. My take on it is that bowls ought to be what they once were, to wit, honors to be given to those few schools that compiled outstanding records and could plausibly be in or near the national championship discussion.
All our diffenernces come down to that. I will say that, to the extent extending the season is an important reason for this proliferation of minor bowls, there’s a better way to go about it. If schools, players and fans want to extend the season, the way to do it is, well, EXTEND THE SEASON.
As things stand now, we don’t even play all the teams in the ACC. My suggestion would be to forget these minor bowls and just add four weeks to the ACC football season. It would still end before the conference basketball season really gets underway. In terms of team practice, player and fan enjoyment, exposure, and revenue enhancement, it would be better than a single minor bowl. And, although this may be important only to me, it would end the pretense that bowl selection is honorific — a pretense that is not only mostly false but poorly disguised in any event.
Rath,
You got a point. I would still make the argument that festivities of even the minor bowls and the chance to play a team that you might not usually play are both good enough reasons for me. We could’ve been matched up with Cincy at the Car Bowl or even the real USC at the Emerald. I guess you and the few of us here who object to your objections can agree to disagree. But I really don’t see this as sort of every-participant-receives-a-medal type dilution but more like the NCAA tourney where teams that meet a certain criteria get invited to partake in the post season activities.
Rath,
How far back are you going with the “what bowls used to mean argument???”
Carolina finished 8-4 in 1970 and went to the Peach Bowl. 9-3 in 1971 and went to the Gator Bowl. 7-5 in 1974 and went to the Sun Bowl. 9-3 in 1976 and went to the Liberty Bowl. 8-3-1 in 1977 and 1979 and went to the Liberty and Gator Bowls respectively… Back when bowls “meant” something…
Three times in Carolina’s recent history, 1972, 1980 and 1997 Carolina finished with 11-1 records, but did not get the “major” bowls you insist should only exist…
If Carolina had finished 6-6 or 7-5 I would probably agree with your argument… Plus, East Carolina won its conference, the Conference USA, and would’ve gotten a bowl, they DESERVED a bid…
And I still say, that you are ignoring the facts about this year’s Carolina football team. Given the injuries that were endured to essential personnel like the offensive line, tight end and running backs, Carolina had a heck of a season.
Carolina football has been dreadful the better part of this decade, through the Torbush and Bunting years…Butch Davis has taken a moribund program when he got here and improved the team each season, from a 4-8 record to back-to-back 8-4 seasons and back-to-back bowls for the first time since 1997-1998, over 10 years…
I would call that “progress”… I also feel that Butch Davis can get this program to where it is competing for Coastal titles and the ACC Championship…
Rome wasn’t built in a day. Most teams don’t go from years of losing records to a BCS Bowl overnight… Building a program takes time. Carolina Football is heading in the right direction. I, for one, will enjoy watching the Heels play Pitt in the Car Care Bowl…If you choose not to watch, that is your choice…Just remember to knock on the door of the bandwagon in a couple of years, because it might be full. Some of us have been waiting a LONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG time for sustained success of Carolina Football. I’m just glad I have a front-row seat to watch it unfold…
Chuck
I think Rath is on the bandwagon. He just mistakenly thinks that people believe going to the car bowl is equivalent to everyone receiving A’s. Nobody mistakens a trip to the car bowl with an A. I’d say it’s closer to being an honor student as UNC had an honorable season filled with great/good wins and some disappointments. Rath is not happy with honor students getting some extra benefits.
Guys,
In answer to the question how far back I’m going to reach the bowls-are-an-honor theory: Fifty years.
When we finish 11-1 or something like that, I’ll be quite happy with the honor of the major bowl to which we would then be invited. And I’d still wish that it would not be diluted with a slew of minor bowls for runner-up teams that weren’t at our level.
If I’m on a “bandwagon,” it’s the lonliest bandwagon in history, since I appear to be the only rider.