DTH Columns

Dec. 7 , 2004 — Tar Heels impossible to predict

North Carolina's going to the Tire Bowl.

Did anyone see this coming? Honestly?

Well, scanning through my columns this semester, I might have.

Or I'm just full of crap.

Here are the clips, so you can figure it out for yourself:

Sept. 1: (Football's) a team coming off a 2-10 season that isn't expected to be competitive in the ACC, let alone on the national level.

Yeah ... whoops.

Sept. 3: The Tar Heels enter the 2004 season with a varied, proven offense that likely will improve on last year's performance; improvement is also likely for the young defense, if only because it can't get worse. Special teams will be a strength. Prediction?

(Alter-ego): I'll give 'em the first one, the last one and one more for good measure. 3-8, 2-6 in the ACC. I'm out. Peace.

Me: ... I'm going to go out on a limb and say four or five wins, with at least a 3-5 record in the ACC.

Okay, so the team summary paragraph is pretty much on point. And even though I hedged my bets by making two predictions, the second of which was wishy-washy, both undersold the team's six wins and 5-3 record in the ACC.

Sept. 7: ... It's OK to feel good about this team's chances. At worst, they're going to give people some problems. At best, they've got bowl potential.

Giving myself more outs than Doyle Brunson, I managed to nail both calls. The Tar Heels realized that bowl potential, and they nearly ruined Virginia Tech's ACC championship season before Darian Durant was dropped for an 11-yard loss to push Connor Barth out of field goal range.

Oct. 9: ... Every time I look at the remaining schedule, I can't help but see games the Tar Heels can win.

They only need three to save Bunting's job.

Written when UNC was 2-3, it turned out there were five more games it could win. And the team not only saved Bunting's job but earned him a two-year extension.

Oct. 27: After seven games, UNC has proven itself inconsistent. There's no way of knowing whether Saturday's game against No. 4 Miami will feature a valiant losing effort by the Tar Heels or fans who are forced to entertain themselves by guessing when the Hurricanes will blow by the half-century mark. ...

Bunting better be ready for the Duke game Nov. 20 - it might just be his Mississippi State.

Yeah ... that's the second whoops of the semester. The Miami game was the biggest football upset in UNC history.

And the Duke game never really came close to being Bunting's equivalent to Ron Zook's disaster against Mississippi State - the team won big, a victory the coach parlayed into the aforementioned extension.

Upon review, those eight predictions break down to two clunkers, two that were on point and four that fall somewhere in the middle. The lesson?

I probably don't know what I'm talking about.

But after reading "View From the Couch" for the 18th time, you should have realized that.

Since this is the last time you'll be hearing from me this year, here's a few more predictions to keep you entertained during finals:

North Carolina is going to beat Boston College on Dec. 30. Bunting will receive yet another extension - once Chancellor James Moeser recovers from tripping over Director of Athletics Dick Baddour while running to talk to the Board of Trustees. And even if I'm right on both counts, somebody, somewhere, will still think that I'm full of crap.