What to Do (and Not to Do) on UNC’s Bye Week

DO:

Watch playoff baseball! As of this posting, the Brewers and Cubs are playing a game with the NL Central and homefield advantage for the entire National League playoffs on the line— the Rockies and the Dodgers are doing the same in an hour.

The NL Wild Card game follows on Tuesday with Monday’s two losers, and the AL Wild Card between the Yankees and the A’s is Wednesday night. The divisional playoffs start on Thursday.

DON’T:

Bother with college football on Thursday nights. Call me jaded from last Thursday, or call me cynical as for some reason ESPN has conceded Thursday nights to whatever garbage NFL game is on.

(Actually, this falls under “do” if you think Neal Brown at Troy would be a good fit as Carolina’s next head coach, speaking of which...)

DO:

Get #madonline that the University of North Carolina still employs Larry Fedora. October is coach firing season, and the Heels need to get the jump on Louisville (new AD, bad football), Kansas (same), Georgia Tech (they bad), Ole Miss (they bad with basically an interim coach), and...lol maybe Arizona, UCLA, and Nebraska if panic mode continues?

A quick template:

DON’T:

Tweet at recruits. Ever.

DO:

While you’re potentially engaging UNC’s AD on social media, maybe engage N.C. State’s as well— she is always #madonline.

I know this was a “private conversation among State people about State on a very public and social media app”, a category which has stood the test of time...but...anyway.

DON’T:

While you’re also not tweeting recruits, may as well avoid that market altogether and not look at UNC’s current 2019 football recruiting class.

DO:

Read stuff about UNC’s 2019 basketball recruiting! Akil will have a new recruitcap up on Thursday morning, and barring anything unforeseen, it should be very positive.

DON’T:

Watch preseason NBA basketball. Why would you watch preseason NBA basketball?

DO:

Indulge yourself in some quality college football this weekend. Based on a quick glance at the schedule, I see the following as games of interest:

• #19 Texas at #7 Oklahoma, noon: IS TEXAS BACK? Eh. Maybe. Tom Herman is really good at selling his team on being the underdog, but Oklahoma could hang points on some NFL defenses (not really don’t @ me).
• Boston College at #23 State, 12:30: The winner has a legitimate chance at threatening Clemson for the Atlantic, especially if Trevor Lawrence doesn’t get right from what was a pretty nasty concussion.
• #4 Clemson at Wake, Florida State at #17 Miami, 3:30: Guaranteed one of these games will be unexpectedly close.
• #5 LSU at #22 Florida, 3:30: It’ll be ugly and slow, but this is a fun, petty rivalry and LSU has to avoid looking ahead to next week’s showdown with Georgia.
• #13 Kentucky at Texas A&M, 7: Dare I say Kentucky has been....smart, fast, and physical this season?
• #6 Notre Dame at #24 Virginia Tech, 8: The Irish go to Blacksburg for the first time, and its probably their best chance to take an L before getting routed by Alabama or Ohio State or Clemson in the playoff. No matter who loses, you win because someone loses.

DON’T:

Watch the following games:

• Georgia Tech at Louisville, 7pm Friday: Oof.
• #1 Alabama at Arkansas, noon: Categorized in the dictionary under ‘snuff film’, you’re either watching Tua Tagovaiola’s greatness or you’re a sick individual.
• Northwestern at #20 Michigan State, noon: Imagine a rockfight in which those throwing rocks all have dislocated shoulders. That’s this game.
• Vanderbilt at #2 Georgia, 7: Georgia has benefited from some weird turnovers luck in all three of their SEC wins, and seems content to basically Boa Constrictor their opponents. Its early Saban era effective, and early Saban era boring.
• #8 Auburn at Mississippi State, 7:30: Two underachieving offenses, two good defenses, and two fanbases who will be angry, no matter the result. MAYBE set a channel on Twitter to watch the simultaneous descents into madness.
• #10 Washington at UCLA, Nebraska at #16 Wisconsin, 7:30: Two unwinfeated name programs with first-year head coaches play the standard bearers in their divisions. Appealing on paper, bad on television.