With the playmakers we have, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to stay in the top 40 in overall defense, and with the d-linemen and linebackers we have, we should be dominating in sacks too. But nooooo, because he refuses to utilize the blitz, allowing the o-line to double-block on Marvin Austin. Case example, look at the WVU game. We blitzed once and got a sack on it. Why not blitz more?

And then there’s the secondary. We have two talented safeties and some pretty good corners? So what do we do? Play in zone coverage. The Maryland game showed exactly why that was terrible when the Terps slowly but efficiently picked us apart underneath while Withers refused to adjust and play bump-and-run. And don’t even get me started on the ‘prevent defense.’

When Coach Bill Dooley was opposed for the position, he left to go to Virginia Tech and the two schools ended up switching places in football’s hierarchy. Then later, former QB Matt Kupec was also opposed by Dean Smith for athletic director. Perhaps not surprisingly, there seems to have been a similar pattern of contention, if not war, between the football and basketball programs at Kansas during Roy Williams turbulent final years there.

I was at UNC from 1983 to 1987 as the final life went out of the football program as we went from a top five ranking in the fall of 1983 to basically off the map by 1987. It was a sudden, abrupt fall and I don’t remember many people on campus complaining all that much. Football Saturdays were more about the parties and the parties were still good.

But look at the new competition football suddenly had. Carolina basketball had always been good, but it really went up a notch between 1981 and 1987. We had Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Sam Perkins, Kenny Smith and Brad Daughtery on our teams during those years, a quintet that could even outdo even the height of football prowess from a couple of years before that gave us L.T., Famous Amos and Kelvin Bryant.

By the time UNC football had anyone of the caliber again, Mr. Peppers was also a member of the basketball team.

I think it’s great we are discussing football as well as basketball.

I do like football, but I also find that many of Carolina’s sports in which they are superior get overlooked. The facts are that Carolina has had a very poor football tradition the last 25 years, barring about four years towards the middle of that period.

This current team had injuries but also did little or nothing to distinguish itself, losing many winnable games against so-so competition. This season was arguably worse overall than the 2004 team under John Bunting, which actually managed to beat Duke, Wake and NC State in the same season, as well as Miami and Georgia Tech.

There will come a time when it could be more fruitful to discuss UNC football prospects but I find that the season has basically managed to be both a huge disappointment and “same as it ever was” at the same time.

Perhaps, it shouldn’t be a disappointment because I don’t think Carolina has ever been much of a football school and arguably, big-time football is incompatible with big-time academics, which matter much more to me, than seeing Carolina become like Florida, Alabama, OSU or LSU. Schools which excel in academics like Stanford, UCLA, UNC, and Duke tend to be better able to compete in basketball than in football. Is this an iron law? No, but there are real barriers for schools with high academic requirements.

Carolina has won national titles in men’s and women’s basketball, lacrosse, men and women’s soccer, and come exceedingly close twice in baseball.

Carolina football has never, I repeat for you, Chris, never had anything more than a fringe top ten season during the last 50 years and that happened in approximately three or four seasons, in the last three of which, Carolina did not even manage to win the ACC football title.

UNC has never been a serious national contender in football since the days of Choo Choo Justice. UNC has not won an ACC title in 30 years.

UNC has never, Chris, I repeat, never, played in a major bowl game during the last fifty years. The best the program has managed are bowls of the caliber of the Gator and Liberty Bowls.

Since 1960, Maryland, Duke, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Florida State, Miami, Wake Forest and Boston College have all played in one one of the traditional major bowls (including the Fiesta).

Notice that with the exception of Maryland, who ebbs and flows between football and basketball, and Duke, which has mostly abandoned big time football pretensions, none of the above schools are known for their basketball programs, although they do have occasional excellent years, which their programs cannot sustain.

Although there have been a handful of occasions where universities managed to have top-notch seasons in both basketball and football, nowhere has this been sustainable. Nowhere. Not at UCLA, not at Kentucky, where Bear Bryant once coached, not at Michigan and currently, not at Florida, where the Gators are returning to their so-so basketball tradition.

The issue here at UNC is not one of restoration, as at Notre Dame or the University of Washington. The issue here is one of neverwas. Since Frank McGuire and the Miracle Heels of 1957, Carolina has moved inexorably, along with Duke, towards being a basketball school.

If the guys here would prefer to discuss football out of season while UNC has perhaps the best college basketball team of the last thirty years, I find that inexplicable.

UNC won the women’s soccer title this year, defeating undefeated Notre Dame for our 18th title. Our men defied odds and beat number one Wake Forest before settling for runners-up to Maryland in soccer.

UNC is primarily famous for two sports, basketball and women’s soccer. Let’s let the football team go gently into the night for another season.