If UNC fans were not already wandering down the path towards basketball before this past Thursday night then they are likely doing so now. UNC missed a golden opportunity by losing to Florida St. at home on Thursday night and given the program a shot of relevance with their own fans. Now facing what stands to be a brutal thrashing at the hands of Virginia Tech this Thursday on the road coupled with no discernible answers for poor QB and offensive line play forthcoming, it is easy to declare this season lost. Especially when you look over in Durham and see Duke is 2-1 in the ACC. Excuse me but I just threw up in my mouth a little just thinking about that.
Of course, the math says UNC is not done yet. At least three winnable games remain on the schedule and a sweep of those would put UNC at seven wins and into a bowl somewhere. While most of us expect UNC will lose at Blacksburg on Thursday and most likely drop a home game against Miami, the Heels still have a chance to beat Duke, Boston College and NC State. Not a good chance but still a chance since the defense, despite what happened in the 2nd half versus FSU is still pretty good. It also should be noted that Butch Davis has owned Miami for two straight seasons and who knows how Miami will come out seeing that they had their dreams of a BCS Bowl dashed by Clemson on Saturday.
For my part, I am not giving up hope that this team can win those three games and still go bowling. After all the ACC has all these bowl bids lying around and someone has to fill them, right?
If the Heels were to finish 6-6, they would be ineligible for a bowl, regardless of whether there were ACC bowl bids lying around or not. Unused ACC bowl slots simply go to other conferences in the event that the ACC cannot fill them.
Hopefully, we’ll keep owning Miami and Duke and finally knock off State to work ourselves into a bowl game!