After having some time to absorb the Maryland loss, I’m slowly coming back to reality. We have a very good chance at finishing 9-3 and playing in a good bowl. If that turns out to be the case, then I’d say we overachieved, especially considering the loss of Yates and Tate.

But I do get your point. What are there 34 or so bowls now and just about any team that wins six games gets into one?

When I was a kid, there were four bowls: Orange, Sugar, Cotton and Rose. They were played on New Year’s Day, not over a three week period surrounding New Year’s Day, and the teams selected were all typically top-notch.

This year’s Carolina team is anything but top-notch. There has been considerable progress, absolutely. Their play seems much more determined and focused, and every now and again even exciting. But a top-tier team they are not. Part of this is due to the loss of the spectacular Brandon Tate, but most of it is due to the fact that we’re not quite there yet.

I’m thrilled with the direction of the program. Still, this year’s team actually doesn’t deserve to go to a big-time bowl (and of course it won’t). This is just as well. Can you imagine what Oklahoma or Florida or USC would do to us? Yikes!

I never liked the creation of these corporate-named bowls that quite transparently exist only because they bring in more dough — but dilute to an embarrassing degree the quality of post-season competition. I mean, really, is there a whole lot of pride in playing in the CarQuest dot com Humanitarian Bowl (or whatever the heck it is)?

The day may well be coming when our team will have earned its way to some serious post-season play. I’ll doubtless watch whatever oddly-named bowl they wind up in this year, but sans the illusion that we have a “bowl-worthy team” in the sense that phrase used to convey.