I answered a couple of questions for Wake Forest blog Old Gold and Blog this week, and in between my Fear Connor Barth rants, I picked UNC to beat Wake. Now I didn't think the Heels would top Virginia Tech (identical record to the Deacons) or Miami (one game back), but I'm confident they can beat the returning ACC champions. How much of that is the name?
Probably some of it. Put Florida State in the Deacons' shoes - after taking amount to laugh at how Bowden has to aspire to reach Wake's level of success, and my gut would lean towards the Seminoles. But I think the Heels can win this.
It helps that Wake hasn't had much success against UNC. In Wake's best season ever, they needed a fourth quarter comeback and a last minute Joe Dailey interception managed to beat a lame duck John Bunting team. In fact, in the post-Mack Brown years, Wake's only 4-4 against the Heels, and half of those wins are by less than a score.
So it's not that strange that I was more nonplussed by Zach's questions. It's unsettling to hear Wake Forest fans coming into the game from a position of strength, mildly curious about a scrappy Carolina team playing well but not getting any wins.
The odds are decent they'll get one today. Consider this the open thread for these sort of things.