Chansky’s Notebook: Blue Heaven Saturday

Did you join me by spending an afternoon in Blue Heaven?

I looked forward to watching college football Saturday, especially the Tar Heels at Miami, but it turned out be a tripleheader to remember.

I began by grabbing the remote and checking in to see how badly Clemson was beating NC State in the noon game. To my surprise it was only 10-3 Tigers at halftime, so I watched the entire second half. The Wolfpack clearly outplayed the unbeaten and then No. 3-ranked team in the country, which had lost running back Wayne Gallman to a concussion and was suffering through an average day by quarterback DeShaun Watson.

State tied up the game in the fourth quarter and drove deep in to Clemson territory as the clock wound down. But the Pack lived up to its snake-bitten reputation by missing a chip shot field goal as time expired. You knew Clemson would win in OT, and it did. Verbose Dabo Swinney should have bellowed BYOL for Bring Your Own Luck.

UNC-Miami, on the same channel, had to be joined in progress. Luckily, I could watch the first few minutes on an ESPN app, and the Tar Heels looked like a completely different team from the one that had been drowned by Virginia Tech in Hurricane Matthew a week earlier. Mitch Trubisky was back on his game and Elijah Hood was back in the game and Carolina bolted to a 10-point lead.

At a commercial break, I clicked over to ESPNU to see how badly Virginia Tech was beating Syracuse. I was in Blue Heaven. The ’Cuse was on its way to upsetting the Hokies in the Carrier Dome, so I kept checking on that game during every TO of UNC-Miami, since a VaTech loss would put Carolina back in the ACC Coastal race.

Just like two weeks ago at Florida State, the Tar Heels’ lead could have been bigger than 20-3 at the half, but they looked determined not to let it slip away this time. And despite not scoring in the second half, they moved the ball down the field twice and made the big stop, appropriately, in a rain-drenched fourth quarter.

The results of all three games made it a great afternoon – a Blue Heaven Saturday, indeed. Can’t wait till this week’s kickoffs.