Other than THAT Mrs. Lincoln, how was your Saturday afternoon in Kenan Stadium? Brent’s flag was flying high. The weather was ideal. The UNC uniforms finally weren’t butt-ugly. See, it wasn’t all AWFUL. The skydiver’s chute opened.

Ya know that line about “…no shoes…until I met a man who had no feet.” Imagine you’re a proud UNC alum/fan and you live east of I-95…OUCH. Tar Heels in Rocky Mount, Wilson, Kinston, Goldsboro, New Bern et al are advised to call-in sick this week. Any Tar Heel residing in Pitt County? “…you have no feet.”

Anytime “the skydiver” is mentioned in any post-game recap ya know Gio probably didn’t return any punts. He didn’t; but in his defense, Gio’s in Cincinnati.

I’m going to explain the what and the why of UNC Football 2013. But first, a sincere Congrats to Coach McNeil (one of the “good guys” in college coaching) and to all of PirateNation…including all those “purty little gals in cowgirl boots”.

You can accept what you read and “deal with it” – or – you can sign-up on InsideCarolina under some goofy username and join in the Dave Huxtabilzation of Vic Koenning. Grab a pitchfork and a torch and join the howling mob.

If you are a 5,000+ posts SupremeGoober on IC.com I’m sure you have already sent Bubba a scathing Western Union telegram DEMANDING some ridiculous knee-jerk over-reaction and recanting how many long afternoons you have wasted in Kenan Stadium waiting for the BCS Fairy to “awaken the sleeping giant”.

Now that I’ve run-off that bunch of cross-eyed hairballs, lets play Reality.

The current state of Carolina Football is NOT the fault of The Damn N&O & Dan Kane or The NCAA or PackPride or Vic Koenning’s defense or…or…The seed for the current state of Carolina Football was planted when three “fat cats” (aka The BOT3) took it upon themselves to Big Time-erize Carolina Football by hiring “The Architect of The Turnaround of The U” – Paul “Butch” Davis.

“Can you bring Big Time college football athletes to UNC?” Yes…and he did.

The current state of Carolina Football was set-in-motion by (1) the misguided influence of overly-aggressive boosters determined to gain “Bragging Rights” over their fat cat associates within rival fan bases….and (2) a total lack of oversight by UNC administrators specifically charged with insuring that UNC Football was conducted according to all applicable policies and procedures.

In the sense that those misguided boosters and inattentive administrators are representative of “us,” the UNC fan base, then “we” collectively created the chain of events that unfolded on Saturday in Kenan Stadium.

Three days after Paul Davis’ hiring was announced, a well-known, now retired, College FB coach said “UNC wants Big Time Football. They are about to learn exactly what that costs.” UNC would indeed.

When Paul Davis hired his long time friend John Blake as Head Recruiter, three athletic officials across the country telephoned a UNC AthDept official to warn him “Blake will have you on NCAA probation within three years.” They were wrong of course. It took five years.

The UNC official that got those warning calls was not Richard “Dickie” Baddour. “Dickie” was too busy drinking C-Blue Kool-Aid and singing the 2nd verse of Hark The Sound.

Lets speed this up…..Paul Davis and John Blake did indeed stockpile the most impressive team of football talent ever assembled in Kenan Stadium. Incapable of beating a certain arch-rival but impressive talent nonetheless. In March of 2010 that all BLEW UP with one errant tweet by Marvin Austin.

Not every highly sought recruit was “on the take” or “rampantly running amuk” academically and otherwise. Some were actually darn good kids.

Blake was thrown under the bus in Sept 2010, and a whole messa spiders and snakes started crawling all over The Carolina Way. From September 2010 until July 2011, the BOT3 kept telling then Chancellor Holden Thorp “don’t worry, it’ll all blow over any day. Keep stalling on the info release….it’ll all blow over. We’ll be fine.” Interventions to save “their guy Butch” were held on three occasions prior to mid-July 2011.

Recruiting from Sept 2010 until July 2011 was “under a dark cloud”. DUH!! It was near impossible as all sorts of Apocalyptic rumors were flying.

When the BOT3 lost their influence in July 2011, Davis was promptly canned. Everett Withers was appointed Interim Head Coach and Chancellor Thorp began receiving death threats from sicko board monkeys. No one expected Withers to last beyond that 2011 season so Recruiting from July 2011 until January 2012 was “under a cloud”. It was near impossible as all those Apocalyptic rumors were still flying.

If you are paying attention – from Sept 2010 until January 2012, recruits had no idea what was going to happen at UNC because UNC had no idea what was going to happen. Meanwhile Dickie Baddour was given a bunch of plaques and a “For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow” Dinner.

Yes, recruits were signed and the usual signing day yadda yadda was blathered. No one mentioned the recruited athletes that opted elsewhere for darn good reasons. “Good kids” were signed but not kids with lots of other offers from “big time schools”.

Some guy named Larry was hired from some place in Mississippi. He knew next to nothing about North Carolina or its high schools or its athletes, nor did they know diddly about him. Scratch one more recruiting class…still counting? Three years of recruiting student-athletes that had no better offers than “the mystery surrounding UNC Football”.

This may shock you but that Charles Kuralt and Alexander Julian crap doesn’t work worth a darn on 17 y/o 4-5 star blue-chippers. Old Wells are just “old wells”.

Larry From Mississippi managed to convince the surviving members of the Implosion of that 2010 season and “the interim” season to trust him and to give him 100%. To their ever-lasting credit, they did. The Reason For The Rings. That result was a rather remarkable 8-4 season still under a cloud.

That remarkable anomaly season created a false impression among the Carolina fan base that the deck had been fully swabbed and the Flagship’s Football program was sailing on to Glory.

The highly-recruited athletes recruited by Butch & Blake are, with a handful of exceptions, all gone now. The upper classmen on the current UNC Football Roster are those “good kids” who were NOT highly recruited “football players”.

It’s 2013, and Carolina “is Wake Forest” and will likely “be Wake Forest” certainly the next two months and possibly next season too. It takes that long to stockpile enough depth of talent to play upper level ACC/BCS Football.

Jim Grobe and his staff at Wake Forest are very fine coaches but operate under circumstances where they rarely sign “highly-sought” athletes. They have to be expert at seeing “potential” and coaching it up – and hoping against hope that what talent they do corral doesn’t get injured. They win one every once in a while even though they shouldn’t, if talent was all it was about. But usually they get beat up and worn down by better athletes across both lines of scrimmage.

Larry Fedora and his staff are equally very fine coaches operating, at least temporarily, under a circumstance where the talent-on-hand is NOT upper or even mid-tier ACC quality. “Good kids”? Yes, but on Saturday afternoons in the Fall “good” takes on a very different meaning.

ECU has better athletes in 2013 than UNC does PERIOD. VaTech certainly does. Miami certainly does. Do UVA, NC State or Duke have better talent? TBD, it may be within a margin where victory is not inconceivable. Old Dominion? Who cares?

You don’t like what I just laid out. You want to cuss and fuss at the coaches because that’s how angry embarrassed fans always lash out. It’s Pavlovian.

You are in 5th place in your office Fantasy League and you could teach fundamental blocking and tackling better than Fedora and his staff blah blah blah.

You’re sick and tired of blah blah yadda yadda. You paid $10,000 for Blue Zone seats…you wanna go to a Orange Bowl before you die…yeah yeah yeah…

Buddies and babes I’ve heard it all times ten, and Bubba is hearing it times 50.

On Saturday I heard it from former UNC Football lettermen so angry at what they were seeing they could only calm down long enough to eat free hot dogs. Their angry faces redder than Frau Yow’s game-day blazer.

We are “Wake Forest” right now. The difference is we won’t be in two years….but Wake Forest still will be. A great school in Winston-Salem with some of THE nicest fans and friends I’ve ever known. But football-wise “they have no feet”. Carolina will be wearing new shoes in two years.

If you choose to stay away from Kenan until then; that is your prerogative. I will be there…but I get in free, plus the free hot dogs.

PS: Are nitwits on InsideCarolina actually suggesting we fire Larry and hire Lane Kiffen…yet?

Related Stories
None