Former Tar Heel WR Greg Little has told Fox Ohio that he does not think the wins from the 2008 and 2009 season should be vacated because UNC did not use ineligible players.

Former North Carolina wide receiver Greg Little said his former school’s administration overreacted by vacating 16 wins from the 2008 and 2009 seasons.

“Players weren’t ineligible during 2008 and 2009,” Little said after practice with the Cleveland Browns, where he plays as an NFL rookie. “They were ineligible for the 2010 season. And those players that were ineligible didn’t play.”

Little was one of those players. Fourteen players missed one game, seven had to sit out the entire season — and four of them were dismissed or ruled ineligible by the NCAA. Little was ruled ineligible after the NCAA determined he had received improper extra benefits. Little was found to have received almost $5,000 in extra benefits, including diamond earrings and travel accommodations to the Bahamas, Washington, D.C., and Miami, according to USA Today.

The violations took place as far back as 2008, though. Those included playing seven players in 2009 after they had received receiving improper benefits, and employing a tutor who wrote parts of papers and works for players in ‘08 and ‘09.

Except UNC did use ineligible players they just didn’t know at the time they were which leads us to the age-old debate about the logic of this particular NCAA penalty. I am not a big fan of vacating wins but at the same time I think the penalty itself is mischaracterized, especially in the media. John Infante, also known as @bylawblog on Twitter explored the theory and practice of vacating wins with some interesting points raised.

But one thing most scholars will agree on is that sports are a subset of games. Games are distinguished from play by the existence of rules. The most important of those rules are the rules that determine who wins the game. A basketball or football team wins by having more points than the other team when time runs out. A baseball team wins by having more runs when the opposing team runs out of opportunities to bat. On the flip side, an individual or team loses a game when a competitor achieves the necessary requirements to win.

An men’s basketball team is not just playing the sport of basketball. They are actually playing the more specific sport of NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball. Aside from scoring more points than the other team, this sport has an additional requirement: to do so with a properly assembled roster of players meeting eligibility requirements. The NCAA Division I Manual is no less a part of the rules that disinguish college basketball from other forms of the sport than the 35-second shot clock.

When one team scores more points than the other team with an ineligible player, it has not actually won, since it has not achieve all of the necessary requirements for victory. So when a victory is vacated, it’s not rewriting history. It’s acknowledging the fact that the team is missing a piece of the puzzle.

The basic point is if a team uses an ineligible player then they have not met all the requirements to competition therefore cannot be credited with a win. It should be understood that he credit for the win is the only thing that changes when a win is vacated. The win is removed from the record books but the game and the stats still stand. So when people talk about a game not happening because it was vacated that is not technically true. The game did happen. The stats remain unchanged(except for ineligible players) only the credit for the win is taken away. Infante points out the NCAA should not only vacate the win but the loss for the other team as well.

If I have one complaint about the current way victories are vacated, it is that losses should be vacated to. Back to theory, you lose a game when your opponent achieves victory. Since your opponent did not actually win the game, you did not actually lose it. You still didn’t win though, because you didn’t meet the requirements either. So when a game is vacated, both the victory and the loss should be erased from the records of the teams. Personal records should stay though, since all the eligible players met the requirements to score those points, make those assists, and grab those rebounds. Yes, stats from a game with no winner or loser. Theory is still messy that way.

Messy is certainly the correct word but when you start altering records retroactively, it is bound to get messy. Vacating the loss as well seems like common sense given the general perception is that happens anyway even though official records for the losing school remains the same. Infante argues that because neither team met the requirements for victory the contest should essentially be declared a draw of sorts with only the individuals stats allowed to stand. In other words the game was played and despite a boatload of numbers that said players did something, it resulted in nothing.

Rounding back to what Little said, UNC did not meet the requirements for competition in those games therefore those wins will be taken away. It doesn’t matter to the NCAA that no one knew it at the time. They are interested in correcting the record as a mean of punishment. Whether that punishment is effective or not is a debate for another time. The silver lining here is the NCAA at least has the good sense to let individual stats stand or else someone like T.J. Yates would have been royally screwed.

Austin’s famous tweet of “I live in Club Liv so I get the tenant rate…bottles comin’ like it’s a giveaway” has been considered a smoking gun of sorts, suggesting that Austin was living it up in one of Miami’s hottest nightclubs and potentially launching an NCAA investigation that has spread to at least four universities. The time stamp of 3:07AM on Saturday, May 29^th seemed to add evidence to the idea that Austin was tweeting a play-by-play of a Memorial Day weekend party. But there’s only one problem – the tweet was not posted at 3:07AM, it was posted at 6:07AM, over one hour after Club Liv closes.

The 3:07AM time stamp has been reported by many media outlets, but since Austin deactivated his Twitter account after the NCAA probe was announced, the only access to his tweets has been through Google’s cached pages. The Twitter time stamps in the Google cache are in Pacific time, meaning 3:07AM is 6:07AM on the east coast. It would have therefore been impossible for Austin to have been tweeting live from the Club at 6:07AM.

Cached version of Austin's tweet from Google reads 3:07AM - Pacific Time. This image was taken from the N&O's ACC Now blog.

Screen capture of Austin's feed from SFN shows the time stamps in Eastern Time

It was actually our friends at State Fans Nation that inadvertently helped shine a light on this subject, as their screen capture shown above of Austin’s tweets shows the 6:07 time stamp. The SFN screen cap also shows the tweets immediately preceding and following the Club Liv post. Two minutes prior to the Club Liv tweet, Austin wrote of how he was going to “bust my ass this summa” to prove he was the best. Fifteen minutes later, he tweets to teammate Gene Robinson that he’s “bout to hop on da bird”. A logical guess would be “da bird” refers to an airplane, but that is simply speculation. The point remains that the tweets immediately before and after the Club Liv line do not support the idea that Austin was providing an update from the club.

Also providing context to those three tweets is one Austin posted 65 minutes earlier Saturday morning at 5:02AM, saying he was “up super early for one of my occasional moves”.  The phrase “up super early” would seem to imply beginning a day, not ending one. Plus, the fact that it comes over an hour before the Club Liv tweet again suggests that he was not out clubbing when he made the posts to Twitter.

In addition, Austin’s tweets give clues as to his whereabouts earlier in the day on Friday, May 28^th. Austin’s cached Twitter account shows a tweet at 1:41PM asking why there was “nothing but foreigners in the Social Security office”. In a 2:03PM reply to “BrintCity”, who had asked Austin what he was doing for the weekend, Austin says he is in Washington, D.C. Austin later replied to “BrintCity”, saying he had to get a new ID and “social security card and birth certificate I lost all my shit…I don’t even exist right now..hahah!!!”

These tweets seem to establish Austin as being in Washington, D.C. as late as 2:30PM on Friday afternoon. While it would certainly not be impossible to leave D.C. sometime after 2:30 and fly to Miami in time to go clubbing that night, the subsequent tweets of Austin being “up super early” and going to get on “da bird” do not seem to jibe with that notion. In addition, the context of the tweets before and after the Club Liv post really makes it seem just like a random posting of a Rick Ross line.

This point is significant because the May 29^th tweet has been used as a jumping-off point for many news and blog reports of the NCAA’s inquiry. In fact, many media outlets are erroneously reporting that the party being investigated by the NCAA took place Memorial Day weekend, when it has been established that the big party in question was actually two weeks earlier. If Austin’s tweet was really quoting a rap lyric, then many, many reports out there about the incident and the investigation are incorrect based on a bad time stamp and an out-of-context tweet.

Moreover, it was advertised that Austin’s Twitter account was a potential treasure trove of NCAA violations, but is this really the case? Again, our friends at State Fans Nation have spent much time and effort to post Austin’s photos in the hopes that the merest appearance of impropriety would further taint the situation. Austin posted a photo of a $140 dinner tab at the Washington, D.C. Cheesecake Factory but tweeted that he was out to dinner with his family that night. He also posted photos of a Bentley, but it stands to reason that within a year he will be making Bentley money, so would it be so out of line for him to be shopping them now?

So what does all this mean? Ultimately the Club Liv tweet proves nothing. It is highly unlikely Austin was even in Miami at the time of the tweet, turning the focus back to the party of two weeks before.  In no way does that absolve Marvin Austin of accountability for being at that party. His presence there is well documented, both in photos and in his Twitter account. On the other hand, if it was an NFL player’s party with zero agent presence, then is that a violation assuming players paid their way there? Marcell Dareus said there were agents present but his story (or at least the one put out by his family source) has been debunked. Still, if agents were involved, then Austin will have to answer for that.

Nevertheless, one of the prime pillars of this entire story, the Club Liv tweet, appears to be nothing but a simple rap lyric after all. More important, based on the available evidence, Austin’s entire Twitter feed does not appear to be as damning as some have reported (or hoped). Is the record incomplete? Sure. Could some random tweet surface casting guilt on Austin and others? Possibly. Until then we can only speculate on what we have before us and given this fresh look, Austin’s tweets are proving anything but slam dunks on potential NCAA violations.

Note from THF: Credit to Doc for doing the research and putting this all together. Many thanks.

Anyway.

Davis discussed a variety of topics. You can read the full quotes at Inside Carolina. Here are some of the highlights:

• Offensive line injuries continue to haunt UNC like bad indigestion from Chinese food. Far too many linemen did not get the full benefit of the full spring practice. Freshman T.J. Leifheit ended up on the operating table for an arthroscopic procedure on his ankle. Leifheit is looking at six to eight weeks of rehab before he is cleared.
• Ryan Houston sat out most of the spring practice due to academic issues. When asked if it was precautionary or legitimate, Davis indicated the latter and Houston needed to spend extra time with the tutors to ensure he was still making progress on his degree.
• Davis said he does not pick a number of wins to determine success or failure since circumstances(such as injuries) could impact that. Speaking for myself, that might be true but I am pretty sure the number of wins this season should be something more than eight right?

And the part everyone wants to talk about is the offense and T.J. Yates which I will not quote in full(emphasis mine):

“I’m not sure that any quarterback in America would have had the opportunity to play as well as they were capable of playing, given the set of circumstances… We had three freshmen wide receivers, three freshmen offensive linemen, we had lost some unbelievable talented wide receivers that had started here for three years. Zack Pianalto, our starting tight end, missed a significant amount of time and we lost three running backs, so you want to talk about a patchwork offense. Regardless if it was T.J. or any other quarterback, it was always going to be a work in progress every week last year to try to be as productive as we possibly could.

“I will tell you this – I think that T.J. had probably his best spring since he’s been here and since I’ve been the head coach at Carolina. He’s really worked. He understands that the quarterback position, it is absolutely necessary for that person to go out and to play well. Play smart and the get the ball in the hands of the right guys, get us in and out of the right plays, change the protections and certainly, he enjoys a little bit of an advantage over all of the other quarterbacks in the program because he’s got a lot of experience. But having said that, he knows that he’s got to produce and he’s got to go out and play well.

Translation? T.J. Yates struggled last season because the offense had far too many issues. According to Davis, any QB put in Yates’ place would have struggled given the OL issues, inexperience of the receiving corps and the fact the running game took half a season to find itself. Davis basically confirms Yates as the starter saying he performed well in the spring. Experience also gives him an edge of Bryn Renner. Then comes the caveat: Yates needs to put up or shut up…essentially. Davis is making it clear that if Yates does not “go out and play well” then Renner is going to get his shot..

In terms of addressing the issues of last season, some of that makes sense.  However, there are various doubts about Yates’ ability, especially in terms of passing. The argument can certainly be made that some of Yates’ issue had less to do with the OL or young receivers and more to do with making a simply pass to the open man. Or not making an ill advised pass into coverage which results in a 99 yard INT return for  a TD. For all of the problems UNC had on offense, stupid decisions and poor throws is the part of it Yates owns regardless of whatever else might be happening.

All that being said, I have trouble arguing with Davis’ logic here. Yes, there issues on offense last season were troubling enough that Yates should be afforded the initial opportunity to see if he can improve himself. The experience factor is also huge and at present is probably the primary reason Yates has a leg up on Renner. I am basically taking Davis’ statement to mean this: Yates, with his experience, should get the chance to prove he can run the offense assuming all the other issues with that unit are largely improved. If Yates continues to struggle with a healthy OL, experienced receivers and a consistent running game then it will fall to Renner. And honestly, as long as they win, I am not sure I much care. It would be nice for Yates, after his struggles to pull his act together. He is easily the most maligned UNC athlete among the fans right now. Ultimately I want the team to succeed and if Yates is the QB who can make that happen then it will make for a great story.  He will be happy. We will be happy.  Everyone will be happy!  Is that too much to ask?

Those two plays effectively buried the Tigers and UNC went on to a title.

In the game versus Duke at Hansbrough Indoor Stadium, you could take almost any one of Lawson’s plays in that one.

Tyler Hansbrough broke Phil Ford’s scoring mark to become UNC’s all time leading scorer.

And not to be too basketball centric here, you had Kendric Burney’s three INT day versus Miami which included this improbable run back for a TD.

All great plays but the best of the year is Ty Lawson’s game winner versus Florida St. Not only was this game hugely important but it was an incredible play on a variety of levels. For one, taking the ball the length of the court then shooting a runner from three is a impressive play to begin with. Secondly, it illustrates the complete ineptitude of Leonard Hamilton as a coach. Why you would allow the fastest player in college basketball to get the ball cleanly is beyond belief. Nevertheless, the Heels will take it.

Given the loyalty Davis and offensive coordinator John Shoop have shown to quarterback T.J. Yates — choosing him over Cam Sexton in 2007 and again at the end of 2008 — it’s hardly a certainty that his 31st career start was his last but you have to figure that freshman Bryn Renner will be given every opportunity to win the starting job in 2010.

Yates plateaued, at best, and regressed, at worst, in his third season as UNC’s starting quarterback. With his experience, there’s no reason he should have even attempted the pass that was intercepted in the second quarter at the goal line.

And it’s not just the random bad decisions (not that Shoop is absolved for calling a pass after running back Ryan Houston ran 10 times on the 12-play drive). Yates throws a fastball on nearly every pass attempt. For a guy with such good touch on his deep throws, he has no “off” switch on shorter or intermediate routes.

He threw a great ball, with a ton of mustard, to Little for a third-quarter touchdown.  A post route between the corner and safety is when you are supposed to load the gun and sling it.

On second-and-goal on the same series as the interception in the second quarter, Yates threw a heater to the left corner of the back of the end zone that would have been too high for Yao Ming. He has got to lead Little on that throw with some air, not zip it as hard as he can.

Those are decisions that a third-year starter should be making in their sleep and ultimately that could be what costs him his starting job as a senior.

The book on Renner is that he’s more athletic, and by all accounts, has been strong in practice (he won the team’s award for best practice player). In normal circumstances, you would give a would-be senior with 31 starts the edge in decision-making but Yates’ play Saturday suggests otherwise.

I really don’t have anything to add. Yates’ inaccuracy has been a bugaboo all season but Giglio points out it is more than that. Yates throws the wrong kind of pass at the wrong time.  His experience as a starter should equate to better decisions but it hasn’t. Red zone INTs are a constant issue for Yates not to mention just suspect decision making all around. Giglio thinks Yates being out by next fall is a long shot given the loyalty John Shoop has for the rising senior. In case you were wondering, Bryn Renner has been good in practice but whether that is enough to unseat Yates in the minds of Shoop and Butch Davis remains to be seen.

Be sure you read the whole piece over at ACC Now which ultimately makes the point that had UNC played smarter they would be 11-2 right now.  Hard to argue with that given the way three of their losses went down.

Take your pick of the boneheaded mistakes in this one. It is fairly amazing that this team has found ways to make the worst mistakes it could possibly make at the most inconvenient time. T.J. Yates interceptions on the opponent’s goal line. Getting the exact same penalty called two straight plays. Passes hitting receivers in the hands and dropped. And the cherry on top: jumping offsides on 4th and 2 with less than two minutes left and Pitt attempting a 47 yard FG.  Who knows, maybe Pitt still hits the FG but I would rather take that gamble and nearly two mins of clock to move the football rather than 52 seconds.  Speaking of which: Why did Butch Davis allow 40 seconds of game time to slip away on the play that followed the UNC offsides penalty? I understand having a timeout in the pocket but I would have felt better had Yates been operating with forty more seconds.

This was a frustrating end to the season that fittingly concluded with a Yates pass thrown over the receivers head and landing nowhere near anyone in blue. A game like this you at least want to see the FG attempted.  If Casey Barth misses a decent FG or even a long one, the blow of the loss is cushioned to some extent by the fact the effort to win the game was made.  No such comfort here.

Thus ends the third season of Butch Davis.  It was a head scratcher.. At times this team was inept and the coaching suspect.  During the four game winning streak that took the Heels to the eight win mark the defense did a lot of things right and the offense was serviceable. However, the offensive line was always an issue and Yates was still Yates. Maybe fewer OL injuries and Shaun Draughan and A.J. Blue being healthy changes some things, especially versus NCSU and Pitt.  The record says the program stood still but the wins over Miami and Virginia Tech say something else. Hopefully most of the defense returns and Bryn Renner turns out to be the real deal so next season can be a true push forward.

UNC heads back to Charlotte for a second straight year, the by-product of bowl officials jockeying for a profit and the Heels’ complete inability to take care of business in three different games.  Change just on of those results, particularly the Thursday night game versus FSU, then UNC is playing somewhere else.  What’s done is done and while the location might be the same, the opportunity is as well.  The Heels will be facing a very good Pitt team on national television, can registered the first nine win season in Chapel Hill since the Mack Brown years and collect the first bowl win since the beginning of the decade.

How are the Heels going to accomplish that? Defense baby. Pitt is a running team and UNC has shown they can shutdown a good running game.  Just ask Ryan Williams. Pitt has a 1600-plus yards rusher in Dion Lewis who averages 5.5 yards per carry and has scored 16 TDs.  Stopping Lewis puts the pressure on the passing game to deliver offense for the Panthers.  That is not necessarily a negative for Pitt however.  Panther QB Bill Stull has done an effective job all season limiting mistakes(only 8 INTs) and balances out the run game.  Stopping the Panther run game won’t necessarily derail the Pitt offense but it can put it out of balance and if the UNC defensive line can do to Stull what alumni Julius Peppers did to Brett Favre on this same field six days ago it will put the Heels at an advantage.

The question is whether the Heels can muster any kind of offense to back up the defense. Pitt sports a fairly decent defense on paper. The passing defense is the weaker aspect which probably does not work as well for UNC given the trouble T.J. Yates has finding receivers.  Who knows, maybe Santa Clause brought Yates some mobility and passing accuracy for Christmas.  Given the amount of time UNC has had to prepare for this game I would expect to see plenty of those deceptive plays such as putting Greg Little in motion and then handing off or maybe a pass or two from Bobby Rome. The more UNC is able to use plays that keep opposing defenses off balanced the easier it seems to be for them to get away with their glaring weaknesses.

Concerning the intangibles, Pitt is coming off two losses and the last one cost them a trip to a BCS bowl as the Big East champion. You always wonder in a situation like that if the Panthers will have the proper interest level.  The same could be said for UNC since this is the 2nd time they have played in this bowl. One caveat for the Heels, especially on defense is this game could be a nice highlight reel for NFL scouts.  That certainly was the case for Hakeem Nicks last season.  The juniors on defense currently considering a jump to the NFL could help themselves with a huge game here. Also, the game is not sold out.  Less than 50,000 is expected for a stadium seating over 73,000. I expect most of them will be wearing blue making this a de facto home game for the Heels.

UNC has enough riding on this one that showing up and not winning will be hugely disappointing.

UNC 28 Pitt 19

“Certainly Donte [Moss] will learn something. He is a young, immature freshman. Outside of that, we’ve been so busy recruiting and preparing for a bowl game that we really don’t have any other comment to make about it,”

Allow me to translate: Hey, unlike the school in Raleigh we have a bowl game to prepare for and recruits that need to be reeled in so we don’t really have time to be sitting around shooting the breeze over crap like this.  I realize they are bored over there but that’s their own fault for sucking on defense all season.

Anyway. Here is N&O video of the incident which lacks audio(darn you players for not wearing mics during the game!) It is clear Lucas gets withing range of Paige-Moss and then the latter reacts, rather weakly if you ask me. Alan Pelc’s push which drew a 15-yard penalty was worse than that.  As I said before. Something else is going on with Paige-Moss, this is just part of it. Or he is making an example of someone.

Original post after the jump.

Well this should keep us entertained for a few days.

Earlier this week, Butch Davis announced that freshman defensive lineman Donte Paige-Moss would be suspended for the Car Care Bowl stemming from “unwise actions” in the direct aftermath of the NCSU game. Davis cited taunting by a Wolfpack player as the provacation for Paige-Moss lashing out but suspended him all the same saying he has to do a better job composing himself.

Well, NCSU coach Tom O’Brien, who has an abundance of free time on his hands having been relieved of the burden of prepping for a bowl game, took exception to Davis’ offhand accusation to the point he “called a reporter with The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer on Wednesday afternoon to give a statement.” And this was that statement:

“Our players know what is expected of them and know how to conduct themselves, win or lose,” O’Brien said. “After carefully reviewing this incident, I can say that in no way, shape or form did I see any of our players exhibit inappropriate behavior.

Defensive much? Seriously, Davis’ remark upsets him so much he calls a reporter up to give a statement?  Let me get this straight, O’Brien and his staff are so awesome and his players so disciplined that they would never taunt a rival player in the aftermath of a huge upset win. Yeah, not sure if I can buy that one.  I will let you judge for yourself from this fan footage now appearing on You Tube:

The incident in question happens around the 26-29 second mark. The NCSU player who allegedly did the taunting is #7 Sterling Lucas who can be seen being restrained after Paige-Moss pushed him.  Well, they say pushed. Granted the video is not clear but Paige-Moss does not appear to do anything exceptionally egregious other than maybe a bump which takes me back to my original theory that Davis is suspending Paige-Moss for something more than just this one issue.

The bottom line here is there is no way of knowing, based on this video if anything was done or not done. Lucas can be seen facing Paige-Moss, his helmet is off and for all we know he is woofing like a junkyard dog. Maybe he wasn’t and was simply is Paige-Moss’ path so he bumped aside out of frustration. Who knows? As I said, O’Brien’s response strikes me as a bit defensive not to mention a tad fanciful if he believes his coaches set a standard and his player live up to it without any incident whatsoever.  Davis for his part probably could have done without mentioning the alleged provocation and only he knows why he included that in his announcement.  Maybe he wanted Paige-Moss cast in a slightly better light? I have no idea. I do know that Davis is taking a hard line here with a freshman defensive lineman and hopefully it will bear dividends down the road.

It became clear after Mike Paulus dropped to third on the depth chart behind Braden Hansen and a wildly inaccurate T.J. Yates, the handwriting was on the wall. When you toss Bryn Renner into the mix, I am guessing Paulus did not want run the risk of being fourth on the depth chart at QB. By transferring to William & Mary, which is a I-AA school, Paulus will not have to sit one season.

The interesting twist is UNC plays William & Mary next October which might pit Paulus against his former team. Slightly less interesting is that Paulus is transferring to a team that has beaten Virginia more often in the past three years than UNC has.

Thus ends the enigma which has been the career of Mike Paulus. Coming out of high school, Paulus was so highly touted.  From the day he committed, the message boards had anointed him the UNC version of NCSU’s Philip Rivers meaning he was destined to be one of the great QBs of the ACC. Even before he stepped foot on campus, Paulus made waves.  During the coaching search following the dismissal of TCWSNBN, Paulus made statements to the effect that if he was not placated he might decommit and take others with him. Paulus wanted Butch Davis and ironically he got him which really did not help his career any.  Paulus redshirted his freshman year. The primary reason given was his adjustment from the shotgun to under center was a bit slow.  On top of that Yates had acquitted himself quite well in the spring and won the starting job over Cam Sexton. It never really got better. By his redshirt freshman season he was #2 on the depth chart but had to ill fated quarters of football which effectively ended his stint as  a Tar Heel. When Yates was injured in the 3rd quarter versus Virginia Tech, Paulus came in and was unable to hold the lead as the Heels ended up losing 20-17. Davis started Paulus the next week versus Miami and the results were not much better.  Cam Sexton was brought in and rallied the Heels to a win on the road.  From that point on, Paulus never really had a chance to see the field again and this season when Braden Hansen came in against The Citadel for mop-up duty it was a safe bet Paulus would be going somewhere else.

The question begs to be asked: Where did it all go wrong with Paulus? Without knowing what goes on in practice or his relationship with the coaches, Davis and John Shoop in particular, that is a tough assessment to make. I do know what I saw on the field both frightened and confused me. If that extended to practice on any level then it is easy to see why he dropped on the depth chart.  Interestingly the message boards are in full hand wringing mode blaming the coaching staff for not using Paulus correctly and expressing shock.  SHOCK, I SAY, that the recruiting services could be this wrong.  Well, it happens and as it turns out, Paulus was simply not that good or it was a poor fit which is a shame but that is how the pizzelle crumbles. In the end Paulus was a recruiting bust, sort of like Shavlik Randolph given the hype surrounding him. The only concern I have is the fact this is the 2nd QB in as many seasons to opt out of Chapel Hill. Cam Sexton did it last season and his relationship with Davis was thought to be the reason why.  In Paulus’ case, nothing has come to light about any bad blood between QB and coach.  It could very simply be a case where a player just did not pan out. It is not the first and certainly won’t be the last.

Hopefully he has a great run at W&M and I certainly wish him all the best.

And yes, I did notice UNC is down to only two QBs for the bowl game. No, I have no earthly idea what the Heels will do if both Yates and Hansen get injured.

Donte Paige-Moss, a reserve defensive lineman for North Carolina, has been suspended by Coach Butch Davis for an incident after a game at N.C. State and will not play in the Meineke Car Care Bowl. Paige-Moss, a freshman end from Jacksonville, got into a skirmish with an N.C. State player after the game, which N.C. State won 28-27 on Nov. 28 in Raleigh.

“He made a very, very unwise action, just pushing a guy away who was taunting him in his face,” Davis said. “We had a private conversation and talked about it.

“As I told him, it’s something that you’ve got to have composure. It’s frustrating and it’s disappointing to lose a ballgame, but you can’t lose your cool and you can’t lose your composure.”

There were many “unwise actions” in that game, so many I lost count.  Apparently NCSU fans were up in arms over some things Greg Little did and did not care for comments Marvin Austin made after the game. According to the account Davis gives, Paige-Moss was provoked by an NCSU player taunting him. The local media should call up Tom O’Brien and ask if that player will also be suspended for their bowl game. Oh wait–never mind. Where Paige-Moss is concerned, this might be about more than just one incident after the game.  Remember, Paige-Moss was also charged with simple assault before the season started. This could be considered his 2nd offense in Davis’ eyes so he ramped up the penalties to make a point.

On the recruiting front, UNC had two Hargrave recruits barred from admission and therefore will not be a part of the 2010 recruiting class. Offensive linema Johnnie Farms was expelled from Hargrave for a violation of school rules.  As a result he will not be admitted to UNC. Given UNC’s issues on the offensive line, losing a highly rated lineman like Farms hurts but if he showed himself to be a problem in prep school than the choice is fairly easy. Running back Jerrell Rhodes was also denied admission at UNC dues to “conduct violations” at Hargrave. Rhodes was ranked #89 at his position and a three star recruit.