Week 15(?): UNC at Duke, Ryan Visits Wake Forest

Is there anything worse than going through a UNC-Duke football game. Whether you are there or listening to it on the radio (which i was), its possibly the least fun experience ever. Its basically like playing a I-AA (or whatever they are called now) program. If you win, you were supposed to, but if you lose, all hell breaks lose and its the worst thing that could have happened. In today's hyper-fast media-driven sports world, perception and name recognition, unfortunatley, go a lot longer than actual talent on the feild. Duke could feild an entire NFC Pro-Bowl roster, yet still no fan base would accept losing to DUKE.


Everyone should realize that this Duke team wasn't like Duke teams in the past, and it was on their senior night, and they ALWAYS play up for UNC. That said, Duke still had the worst record in the ACC and a win was more than expected out of the Tar Heels. Im not gonna analyze the game except for two things:


1) T.J. Yates had an efficent game - hopefully this was the start of his resurgence to what he was before the ankle injury.


2) The damned prevent Defense reared its ugly head again. Its just inexplicable why you would ever go prevent against a good, efficient QB like Thad Lewis and when its still A ONE SCORE GAME. Why? Just why? Again- thank God for Goddard. They need to start printing shirts with that slogan.


UNC's offense looked all together pretty good against Duke. You see, right there, thats why i hate playing Duke. That statement right there is immediately discredited by everybody because of the last word. Damn it. It's just like saying "UNC's offense looked all together pretty good against McNeese State." Its going to take a long, long time for Cutcliffe to change perception of Duke football. If it ever happens, there will probably be a 3-5 year delay in recognition of it. Look up "Culture of losing" and you'll see a Duke Football logo.....i just racked my brain for 5 good minutes trying to think what else might be next to the logo and i couldn't even think of 1 major program that could fit...that's how bad things have been in Durham the last 10 years.


Anyway, instead of going to Wallace Wade to sit through what i knew would be a painfully close contest, i went with my buddy Zach (a Vanderbilt student) to the Wake-Vandy game. This game was a good example of how much a season can change in 4-5 weeks. If you would have asked me about this matchup then, I'd have told you it would have been awesome. Since then however, both teams have completely fallen apart. The game was no different, the play on the feild was almost as bad as the weather: bitterly cold, steady rain, just awfull. The box score said there was 26,000 people there...bullshit...it was more like 15,000. I was actually excited about this game, excited about tailgating and seeing a new venue, then i realized that more people could have fit into my Acura then were at the game. It was the same deflating feeling as when you walk into movie theatre to see a new film you've been waiting for...and you find nothing but a 60 year old couple and a homeless man asleep there with you....awesome. O well, BB&T Feild seems nice enough, it's a stadium that fits the size of its University...and ther is nothing wrong with that.


So NCSU beat Miami, and GT somehow beat UGa, so that logjam of 8-4 teams i predicted didnt really happen. This lines UNC up for probably either Car Care, Music City or maybe even Champs Sports (depending on who wins the ACC Champ game). Some people are even projecting Gator and Peach still but that isn't happening. Some are thinking Clemson over UNC for the Music City and it that happens its total crap, Clemson is 7-5 but played TWO 1-AA teams and for a bowl to take that over a 8-4 UNC team is bullshit. (It was funny to see Spurrier shiting the bed again though.)

4-8 to 8-4 in one season. Progress to say the least.