Exactly one month from today the summer of our discontent or as it is has been known here at THF, the Summer of Deon, will end and the Butch Davis Era will begin in earnest as UNC takes the field against James Madison. I am personally very excited because gone is that pending sense of dread and crippling pessimism which accompanied pretty much every season under John Bunting. UNC has a new coach with serious bona fides in college football, a host of young players whose ultimate potential is largely unknown and for the first time since Mack Brown opened practice in August of 1997 there is a new feeling burgeoning among Tar Heel gridiron fans:
Hope.
The sincere belief that after nine years of stumbling around someone wearing the headset on the Tar Heel sideline knows what the heck he is doing. Yes, it might be ugly at times and yes we may not win much this season but at least we have hope and optimism it will get better going forward.