Week 7: UNC VS. Notre Dame

This might have been one of the most fun days I’ve had since graduation. All of the college friends came back to Chapel Hill to party and basically, act like it was last year all over again. I hope with my whole heart that we will all continue to get together and have fun more in the coming years. Unfortunately, the time we spend with each other reliving college life even for just a weekend will most likely decrease as a function of the time passed since we turned those dreaded tassels. Yes, that rainy day in Kenan stadium was the beginning of what people call “life.” Sure we may delay this nightmare further by enrolling in grad school, but the dream world known as college life in Chapel Hill officially ended on that sad, sad day. Every day that passes by since then we realize this more and more, and sadly, every day that passes by since then we become more and more incapable of reliving it. As we grow up, get jobs, get married, have kids and all the rest we will always remember what a great time we had in this beautiful town attending this incredible university, but we must and we will move on and change. Our perceptions of life and of the world will change but this great place will always remain in our hearts.


But because all of those scary words like “marriage” and “kids” still are rather far away (god I hope) we can still get together on days like that Saturday and drink a completely irresponsible amount. The day started with Kegs and Eggs and all the debauchery that comes with gamedays in Chapel Hill was written down by my good friend Sam Rosenthal (an actually competent writer, unlike myself) can be found here.


Notre Dame. What does that name mean to you? What images get conjured up when those two obscure words are said together? For me, honestly, Notre Dame could be a synonym for “media overhype”. Yes, there is no word in the English language to accurately describe the football tradition in South Bend and what that program has meant to college football. But I was born in 1986. After I turned 3 Notre Dame has done about zilch. Unfortunately, college football is absolutely the worst sport in actually determining which team is good and which team is not. Part of the problem is the BCS, part of the problem is that its impossible for teams to have balanced schedules. Part of the problem is that people make polls before anyone has even played a game. Names of teams can mean more than the team itself, and Notre Dame is without a doubt the shining example of that. So Notre Dame will always get preseason votes they sometimes don’t deserve. Couple that with the fact that Notre Dame gets away with not being in a conference which means they can schedule whoever the hell they want to and because their national following is so large (linked to religion and heritage) as long as they get 6 wins they are instant wants for every bowl wanting to get cash. This is why they have that inexplicable NBC contract. What this means is that Notre Dame notches 6 wins against the service academies, Stanford, Purdue, Michigan State and/or BC and they are tied into the Gator Bowl (which every other school needs about 9 wins for.) Hail, hail to Old Notre Dame? Hail to the money. There’s a reason they wear green. What a joke.


But college football is what it is. A win for UNC over ND means a lot. Again, more for beating the name than beating the actual team. This would have been the case even if ND was 0-5. But they came to Chapel Hill with a 4-1 record and a young but going to be awesome Jimmy Clausen at QB. UNC was gonna be tested no doubt, but we were favored to win. This wasn’t about ND, this was about UNC. That was the feeling in Chapel Hill all week. We were better than they were, we were at home, we were going to prove it to the entire nation on national TV and people would believe it, again because it was Notre Dame. As a Carolina fan suffering through the Bunting years, all I wanted for UNC football was national relevance. I wasn’t an idiot like the State fans who “knew” that they were gonna be perennial national champs like during the Amato days in Raleigh. We were ranked, now it was time to prove it was justified by beating the name of Notre Dame.


Clausen shredded us the entire first half. Some of the big gain catches ND had were really 50-50 balls that UNC corners just didn’t make a play on. We were waiting for a young QB to make a mistake. We went in to halftime down 17-9. A very underreported story this year for UNC has been the quick maturation of freshman kicker Casey Barth. He was keeping us in the game with his leg. The mistake Butch Davis had been waiting for Clausen to make happened in a big way when Quan Sturdivant (the best LB I’ve seen in a UNC uniform in a very long time) took back a pick for a TD. Bedlam in Kenan. UNC’s D stopped the Irish except for 1 more TD and Draughn and Houston had big games. Sexton gave UNC the lead with a nice awkward looking scramble. The final UNC series should have closed out the game, but the refs incredibly called Brooks Foster’s catch incomplete giving ND one more chance. ND drove on UNC’s ever lacking prevent D but ended in a fumble. Heel’s win the one of the most important games in a long time.


Oh yeah, one more thing…Tate got hurt. ACL and MCL. Done for the year. Without question our biggest playmaker. Injuries happen in football, it’s just frustrating for him as a person and for our team. Having to deal with two injuries to maybe you two biggest players just sucks. Just really, really sucks. But still, we beat Notre Dame. Things are changing here in Chapel Hill, and now people know it, not just the faithful. Some perceptions of the world of college football will never change, like the one people have for Notre Dame. Some can change though, and hopefully the perception of what football is in Chapel Hill is beginning to.