First impressions
In football, the most scrutinized of our sports, one early-season game can change perceptions in a hurry.
The North Carolina Tar Heels were dead. Destined to whack their coach before season's end. Now they have at least bought John Bunting some time.
The Carolina Panthers were dead. They sank even deeper underground when Stephen Davis joined Steve Smith on the injured list. But then they pulled off an upset at Kansas City, putting a hold on season obituaries.
The Maryland Terrapins were supposedly great, a product of their excellence of the past three seasons. But unimpressive wins over Northern Illinois and Temple have been followed by a five-turnover fiasco at West Virginia in which the Terps were lucky to get to overtime. Ralph Friedgen's offense has been so well conceived that it hasn't required a great QB to run smoothly. But they probably need somebody better than Joel Statham.
The next ACC team with a chance to reverse its fortunes -- and that's the way it must consider the situation -- is Clemson. The Tigers (1-2) are at Florida State and at Virginia in their next two games.
Comments (2)
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Clemson was VASTLY overrated. They should be 0-3 right now, but they got away with one against Wake. UNC still has a looonng way to go before they are out of the ACC cellar and with the 4th toughest schedule in the nation I don't expect too much. Of course, Clemson and Duke are still on the schedule, so maybe they'll win 4 games this season. 5 if they get past Louisville. Enough to save Bunting's job? Dunno. Games against State and Wake are probably winnable. 7 wins for UNC? That might be good enough.
People should've known better than to write off the Panthers. John Fox is too good of a coach to not have them at least contending for their division. I don't think they'll win the NFC again, but they're playoff material.
Watch out for UVA. I think they might sneak up on some of the traditional (and new) conference powers. I expect them to win the ACC this year.
Posted on September 20, 2004 10:14 AM
I'm with Kehaar on his last comment. Watch out for UVA. If Hagans gives them steady QB play, they've got a shot to knock off the big boys, FSU and Miami.
First impressions do change quickly in football, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're wrong. UNC got a huge win over Tech, to be sure, but it's also Tech's MO under Chan Gailey to mix in big wins with inexplicable losses. Remember their huge defeat at Duke last year? I think the Louisville game will tell us more about these Heels, and about Bunting's future.
As for the Panthers, their O-Line looked good against KC, but let's face it, everybody runs on KC. They'll have to put together a solid running game against a decent defense before I declare them a division favorite again.
Posted on September 22, 2004 9:02 AM