My first impression of Butch Davis was not a good impression. Butch takes over a great Miami (Florida) program from Dennis Erickson, and within 3 years the Hurricanes had a losing season. They also lost to ECU in Miami, and ECU wasn't what I call a powerhouse that year.
But the more I got to know about Butch, the more I liked him. He really cleaned that program up, and he had the Hurricanes ready to win a National Championship. Although he went to the Cleveland Browns, he was a key reason why Larry Coker celebrated a National Championship in 2001.
A lot has been said about Butch's tenure with the Browns, but I was overall impressed. He built the team from the ground up, and he got them in the playoffs in his 2nd season. Not a bad job at all.
UNC football was in dire straits, and to many Butch looked like a prayer from above. I was horrified to find out he had been diagnosed with Oral Cancer...I thought he might turn out with the same fate as Jim Tatum. Butch was tough, and he dealt with chemo that first year. Tough man, and a darn good football coach.
2007--UNC starts out with a cream puff and wins (James Madison). The Heels then lose the next 4 games (ECU, UVA, South Florida, and VT). We then handle Miami at Kenan by a score of 33-27. Losses to South Carolina and Wake follow, but the Heels rebound and defeat the Terps by a score of 16-13. Two close loses to NCSU and GT have our record at 3-8, but we defeat the Blue Devils to end up with a 4-8 record. Only 2 games during the season were blowouts (Wake and South Florida, not to mention our victory against JMU). Our offense improved a bit (20 points a game) and our defense improved a lot (23 points a game...best since the Mack Brown era).
2008--arguably the best Heels team since the Mack Brown era. An 8-5 record is not shabby at all. After a sloppy victory against McNeese State (35-27), we travel to New Jersey as an underdog to play Rutgers. We win, 44-12. We lost TJ Yates during the VT game, a game we should have won but we didn't (20-17 Hokies victory). We then play 3 very solid teams, defeating UConn, Miami, and Notre Dame. Another victory escapes us against a Virginia team (this time UVA...losing 16-13 in OT), but we come back and defeat BC and GT. We follow up these victories with a sloppy game against the Terps, losing 17-15 in a game we should have won (again). NCSU killed us 41-10, but we bounce back with a victory against the Blue Devils. West Virginia defeats us in the Meineke Bowl 31-30. Overall, a good season that could have been great. Although our record was 8-5, it could have been 12-1. Not bad at all. We scored on average 28 points a game, and allowed 21.
The 2009 season will be coming soon, and I'm very excited about the Heels. I'm a bit concerned about our offense, but I think we have solid special teams and a good, strong Defense.
Here is my predictions for this next season:
Game 1: UNC 36, The Citadel 13 (anything less will be a disappointment).
Game 2: UNC 27, UCONN 20 (we can win away....)
Game 3: UNC 34, ECU 20 (payback time!)
Game 4: UNC 17, GT 10 (GT will play better this year against us, but our D will handle their offense)
Game 5: UNC 26, Virginia 14 (UVA football is not as strong as it used to be).
Game 6: UNC 31, Georgia Southern 12 (We should defeat this team easily).
Game 7: FSU 21, UNC 20 (a major disappointment for the Heels, but still a great game).
Game 8: VT 20, UNC 10 (hard to defeat VT in Blacksburg)
Game 9: UNC 28, Duke 17 (Duke is not as bad as many think...this game could be closer).
Game 10: UNC 31, Miami 24 (Good game, another victory against the Hurricanes).
Game 11: BC 28, UNC 21 (Hard game for the Heels...cold weather will not be our friend).
Game 12: NCSU 31, UNC 24 (NCSU has the best QB in the ACC, and a defense that is not bad).
I predict an 8-4 season and a 4-4 ACC record. We should get a decent Bowl game, hopefully the Peach. With a little luck, we could end up 10-2. Our hardest games will be at BC (because of the weather), VT (Hokie nation, Hokie D), and NCSU (Marcus Wilson). The FSU game is a tossup in my mind. I could see us struggle against GT and UConn, but I feel like we will come out victorious.
The season hasn't started, and things can change. I'll reforecast my numbers during the season.
Monday, July 13, 2009
So how did we ever end up with John Bunting?
I never was captured by John Bunting's personality. He would have been a decent coach in the 1970's or 80's, but his approach was not successful with today's players.
John talked a good game, and he was able to add a 12th game to the season by playing Oklahoma in Norman. After going down 41-13 at halftime, the Heels played inspired ball, losing only by a score of 41-27. That game was followed by a loss to the Terps and a dismantling by the Longhorns of Texas. 0-3 is not the way to start out your tenure at UNC (at the same time, the last 2 coached lost their first 3 games--Brown and Torbush). Then something happened: we caught on fire against FSU, trailing only by 9-7 at half. We came out in the 2nd half and defeated a good team by a score of 41-9. We then won our next 4 games, defeating NCSU, ECU, UVA, and Clemson. We sputtered against GT and Wake, but we then won our next 3 games against Duke, SMU, and Auburn in the Peach Bowl. We averaged 26 points on offense and allowed 21 points on defense...this was a major improvement.
2002---a mini disaster. We defeated Arizona State, Syracuse, and Duke (all 3 were away games!), and lost to Miami (OH), Texas, GT, NCSU, UVA, Wake, Maryland, Clemson, and FSU). We averaged 18 points on offense and allowed 35 points on D. All 12 opponents scored at least 21 points, which was totally opposite of the team from 5 years prior (all 12 opponents in 1997 scored 20 or less).
2003--a major disaster. We had victories over ECU and Wake, but lost the other 10 games. We only held one team under 30 points (ECU, 17 points). And Duke beat us for the first time since 1989 by a score of 30-22.
2004--we had a reovery of fortune. After defeating W&M and losing to UVA, we beat a good Yellow Jacket team by a score of 34-13. We then got waxed by FSU and Louisville, but we came back and defeated a decent NCSU team by a score of 30-24. The Utah Utes destroyed us 46-16, and we lost several players to injury. The Huricanes of Miami were coming in to town, and they were in the top 5 of the Nation. It's a good thing we play football on the gridiron, because the Heels played the best game since FSU--2001, defeating Miami by a score of 31-28. After losing to a very solid VT team (27-24), the Heels handled Wake and Duke. Although we lost to BC in the Continental Tire Bowl, we at least had a sense of pride. The Heels were back. Our offense and defense improved.
2005--we weren't back for long. We could have defeated our first 2 teams if we had started strong. After losing close matches to GT and Wisconsin, we defeated NCSU and Utah. We then got DESTROYED by Louisville (69-14), but then followed it up by defeating UVA 7-5. The Heels defeated BC and Duke, but lost to Miami, Maryland, and VT. A 5-6 season is medicority at it's best.
2006---Bunting is on the ropes early and often. In the first 10 games the Heels win a total of 1, defeating Division I-AA Furman by a score of 45-42. We then end the season by defeating NCSU and Duke. We score on average 18 points a game on offense and allow 31 points on defense...not good, not good.
The Heels had some highlights during the Bunting years. A 4-2 record against NCSU, a 5-1 record against Duke, a victory over FSU and Miami (FL), and a Peach Bowl victory over Auburn. These games represent 12 of Bunting's 27 victories, which kind of explains why Bunting wasn't asked back for a 7th year. Inconsistency reigned these years.
John talked a good game, and he was able to add a 12th game to the season by playing Oklahoma in Norman. After going down 41-13 at halftime, the Heels played inspired ball, losing only by a score of 41-27. That game was followed by a loss to the Terps and a dismantling by the Longhorns of Texas. 0-3 is not the way to start out your tenure at UNC (at the same time, the last 2 coached lost their first 3 games--Brown and Torbush). Then something happened: we caught on fire against FSU, trailing only by 9-7 at half. We came out in the 2nd half and defeated a good team by a score of 41-9. We then won our next 4 games, defeating NCSU, ECU, UVA, and Clemson. We sputtered against GT and Wake, but we then won our next 3 games against Duke, SMU, and Auburn in the Peach Bowl. We averaged 26 points on offense and allowed 21 points on defense...this was a major improvement.
2002---a mini disaster. We defeated Arizona State, Syracuse, and Duke (all 3 were away games!), and lost to Miami (OH), Texas, GT, NCSU, UVA, Wake, Maryland, Clemson, and FSU). We averaged 18 points on offense and allowed 35 points on D. All 12 opponents scored at least 21 points, which was totally opposite of the team from 5 years prior (all 12 opponents in 1997 scored 20 or less).
2003--a major disaster. We had victories over ECU and Wake, but lost the other 10 games. We only held one team under 30 points (ECU, 17 points). And Duke beat us for the first time since 1989 by a score of 30-22.
2004--we had a reovery of fortune. After defeating W&M and losing to UVA, we beat a good Yellow Jacket team by a score of 34-13. We then got waxed by FSU and Louisville, but we came back and defeated a decent NCSU team by a score of 30-24. The Utah Utes destroyed us 46-16, and we lost several players to injury. The Huricanes of Miami were coming in to town, and they were in the top 5 of the Nation. It's a good thing we play football on the gridiron, because the Heels played the best game since FSU--2001, defeating Miami by a score of 31-28. After losing to a very solid VT team (27-24), the Heels handled Wake and Duke. Although we lost to BC in the Continental Tire Bowl, we at least had a sense of pride. The Heels were back. Our offense and defense improved.
2005--we weren't back for long. We could have defeated our first 2 teams if we had started strong. After losing close matches to GT and Wisconsin, we defeated NCSU and Utah. We then got DESTROYED by Louisville (69-14), but then followed it up by defeating UVA 7-5. The Heels defeated BC and Duke, but lost to Miami, Maryland, and VT. A 5-6 season is medicority at it's best.
2006---Bunting is on the ropes early and often. In the first 10 games the Heels win a total of 1, defeating Division I-AA Furman by a score of 45-42. We then end the season by defeating NCSU and Duke. We score on average 18 points a game on offense and allow 31 points on defense...not good, not good.
The Heels had some highlights during the Bunting years. A 4-2 record against NCSU, a 5-1 record against Duke, a victory over FSU and Miami (FL), and a Peach Bowl victory over Auburn. These games represent 12 of Bunting's 27 victories, which kind of explains why Bunting wasn't asked back for a 7th year. Inconsistency reigned these years.
Carl Torbush, good man, good defensive coordinator, tapped to succeed Brown
Does anyone remember "King Carl"?
Carl Snavely, also known as "King Carl", was the Head Football coach of the Heels during the Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice years. It would be hard for anyone to conclude that the Heels had a better 4 year period than in 1946-1949. 2 Sugar Bowls and 1 Cotton Bowl appearance in these 4 years are unprecendented in Tar Heel Football lore.
Welcome to the Carl Torbush years. Carl wasn't a King, but he was a good guy. His defenses were hard for any team to penetrate, especially after the first couple of years (1988-89). He was a good (not great) Defensive Coordinator. He was a likable fellow, and the football players loved him. He took over a shaken program who had their coach, Mack Brown, leave after the 1997 regular season. Carl took over and led the Heels to a 49-7 victory over Virginia Tech. Not a bad way to start off. Too bad it was the pinnacle of his success.
At the beginning of the 1998 season, most pundits had the Heels around 10th in the nation. I know I thought that the Heels may actually improve because Mack's Achillies Heel was with special teams. Too many blocked punts, field goals, fumbles on special teams for my liking. The Heels started off with an easy opener against Miami (Ohio), but unfortunately our offense sputtered. Too many incomplete passes, not enough of a running game, plus poor execution on Defense left us with a 13-10 defeat. After that game, we go to Stanford and lose to a mediocre Cardinal team. We come back to UNC and lose to a decent GT team by a score of 43-21. 0-3, not a good way to start the season. We rebounded, defeating Clemson, Pittsburgh, and Wake, but none of these teams were very good, and none of the scores were blowouts. We head off to Tallahassee and lose to the Seminoles by a score of 39-13 (not the worse score...FSU only lost to 1 team-Virginia, in its first 6 seasons in the ACC). We come back the Chapel Hill and defeat a mediocre Terps team by a score of 24-13, and then we lose to the Wahoos by a score of 30-13 (at UVA, a place where we haven't celebrated victory since 1981). We then defeat a poor Duke team by a score of 28-6. So we are now 5-5, and we head to Charlotte to play the Pack. The game was probably the best game of our season, and we pulled off a win by a score of 37-34. We receive a berth to the Las Vegas Bowl, and we defeat the Aztecs by a score of 20-13. Tough year, but we did win a Bowl game, right? But the telling stat for 1998 was that the Carolina D allowed, on average, 24 points a game. Remember, we haven't allowed one opponent to score more than 20 points in 1996 and 1997. Our offense averaged 24 points a game, so we didn't have the luxury of allowing that many points.
1999 was a disaster. We start off the season against a good UVA team, but lose by a last minute field goal (final score 20-17). We go to Indiana and defeat a poor Hooiser team by a score of 42-30. We then have to play a double dose of the Bowdens, and we were handed 2 more defeats from the Seminoles and the Tigers. And then, we play a great game against the #9 team of the nation, the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech. I was at the game with my wife, my sister, and brother-in-law, watching in amazement while we handled the Yellow Jackets. And then the injury of the decade occurred--Ronald Curry is done with the season on a freak accident. We still almost won the game, but GT came back and scored in the last moments of the game, sending us to OT. We end up losing 31-24, more symbolic than most games, I guess. We come back to Chapel Hill and lose to a mediocre Houston team by a score of 20-12. And then, playing the worst game of the decade, we are handed a defeat by the Terps by a score of 45-7 (this same team shared the ACC basement with us in 1999). We then lose to a Division I-AA team (Furman) by a score of 28-3. And it's not like Furman was a powerhouse: they lost to Elon the same year. The Deacons then defeat the Heels for the first time since 1989 by a score of 19-3. Heading in the Wolfpack game (again played in CLT), our team had (a) no offense and (b) not a good defense. But something happened: the Heels played inspired and defeated a decent Pack team by a score of 10-6. The next week, the Heels were the underdog against Duke, but the Heels came out on top, winning by a score of 38-0. These last 2 victories gave Torbush a reprieve...he would be back in 2000. On average we scored 17 points per game and allowed 25 points a game.
2000 was a better year. We started out with 2 solid victories over Tulsa and Wake Forest. After getting demolished by FSU (63-14), the Heels defeated a marginal Marshall team by a score of 20-15. We then lost the next 4 games, going down against GT, NCSU, Clemson, and UVA. Again, just like 1998 and 1999, we go out with a blast, defeating Pitt, Maryland, and Duke. We averaged 24 points on offense and allowed 26 points on defense.
So why did Torbush not succeed? I have several theories:
Carl Snavely, also known as "King Carl", was the Head Football coach of the Heels during the Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice years. It would be hard for anyone to conclude that the Heels had a better 4 year period than in 1946-1949. 2 Sugar Bowls and 1 Cotton Bowl appearance in these 4 years are unprecendented in Tar Heel Football lore.
Welcome to the Carl Torbush years. Carl wasn't a King, but he was a good guy. His defenses were hard for any team to penetrate, especially after the first couple of years (1988-89). He was a good (not great) Defensive Coordinator. He was a likable fellow, and the football players loved him. He took over a shaken program who had their coach, Mack Brown, leave after the 1997 regular season. Carl took over and led the Heels to a 49-7 victory over Virginia Tech. Not a bad way to start off. Too bad it was the pinnacle of his success.
At the beginning of the 1998 season, most pundits had the Heels around 10th in the nation. I know I thought that the Heels may actually improve because Mack's Achillies Heel was with special teams. Too many blocked punts, field goals, fumbles on special teams for my liking. The Heels started off with an easy opener against Miami (Ohio), but unfortunately our offense sputtered. Too many incomplete passes, not enough of a running game, plus poor execution on Defense left us with a 13-10 defeat. After that game, we go to Stanford and lose to a mediocre Cardinal team. We come back to UNC and lose to a decent GT team by a score of 43-21. 0-3, not a good way to start the season. We rebounded, defeating Clemson, Pittsburgh, and Wake, but none of these teams were very good, and none of the scores were blowouts. We head off to Tallahassee and lose to the Seminoles by a score of 39-13 (not the worse score...FSU only lost to 1 team-Virginia, in its first 6 seasons in the ACC). We come back the Chapel Hill and defeat a mediocre Terps team by a score of 24-13, and then we lose to the Wahoos by a score of 30-13 (at UVA, a place where we haven't celebrated victory since 1981). We then defeat a poor Duke team by a score of 28-6. So we are now 5-5, and we head to Charlotte to play the Pack. The game was probably the best game of our season, and we pulled off a win by a score of 37-34. We receive a berth to the Las Vegas Bowl, and we defeat the Aztecs by a score of 20-13. Tough year, but we did win a Bowl game, right? But the telling stat for 1998 was that the Carolina D allowed, on average, 24 points a game. Remember, we haven't allowed one opponent to score more than 20 points in 1996 and 1997. Our offense averaged 24 points a game, so we didn't have the luxury of allowing that many points.
1999 was a disaster. We start off the season against a good UVA team, but lose by a last minute field goal (final score 20-17). We go to Indiana and defeat a poor Hooiser team by a score of 42-30. We then have to play a double dose of the Bowdens, and we were handed 2 more defeats from the Seminoles and the Tigers. And then, we play a great game against the #9 team of the nation, the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech. I was at the game with my wife, my sister, and brother-in-law, watching in amazement while we handled the Yellow Jackets. And then the injury of the decade occurred--Ronald Curry is done with the season on a freak accident. We still almost won the game, but GT came back and scored in the last moments of the game, sending us to OT. We end up losing 31-24, more symbolic than most games, I guess. We come back to Chapel Hill and lose to a mediocre Houston team by a score of 20-12. And then, playing the worst game of the decade, we are handed a defeat by the Terps by a score of 45-7 (this same team shared the ACC basement with us in 1999). We then lose to a Division I-AA team (Furman) by a score of 28-3. And it's not like Furman was a powerhouse: they lost to Elon the same year. The Deacons then defeat the Heels for the first time since 1989 by a score of 19-3. Heading in the Wolfpack game (again played in CLT), our team had (a) no offense and (b) not a good defense. But something happened: the Heels played inspired and defeated a decent Pack team by a score of 10-6. The next week, the Heels were the underdog against Duke, but the Heels came out on top, winning by a score of 38-0. These last 2 victories gave Torbush a reprieve...he would be back in 2000. On average we scored 17 points per game and allowed 25 points a game.
2000 was a better year. We started out with 2 solid victories over Tulsa and Wake Forest. After getting demolished by FSU (63-14), the Heels defeated a marginal Marshall team by a score of 20-15. We then lost the next 4 games, going down against GT, NCSU, Clemson, and UVA. Again, just like 1998 and 1999, we go out with a blast, defeating Pitt, Maryland, and Duke. We averaged 24 points on offense and allowed 26 points on defense.
So why did Torbush not succeed? I have several theories:
- Recruiting. The last 2 years under Mack Brown was mediocre (sans Curry), and Torbush had to compete against a resurging NCSU team. Also, Terry Bowden of Clemson was a good recruiter, and he tapped into North Carolina on several occassions.
- Injuries. But that is part of the game, right? Well, when you have injuries, you should have the depth to recover, but because of mediocre recruiting, our depth chart was weak.
- Torbush was not a self-promoter. To be a successful NCAA head coach in the state of NC, you have to be able to reach out to the high school coaches. Torbush could not, and his personality was too reserved to make a deep impact.
- Defense. Torbush tried to be his own defensive coordinator, and it didn't work, and by the time he gave this duty up, it was too late.
Again, Torbush was a good guy, and he was a good defensive coordinator, but he wasn't a successful head coach. With an overall record of 17-18, you might think he was due another year. However, the AD did not concur. Looking back, I know that UNC football needed a change.
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