Tar Heel Hangover: All fired up.

Welcome to the Tar Heel Hangover. This is our Monday morning opportunity to review last week’s games, second guess all of the key moments, and set the game plan for the week ahead.

The Elevator Speech: What happened last week.

Carolina lost to a team that just lost to North Carolina A&T. Honestly, I am out of excuses and hope.

Water Cooler Discussion: If I were the coach . . .

I would suspend Antonio Williams.

This team has totally lost accountability. Embarrassingly, the team’s touchdown to personal foul ratio was 1-3 in the first half against the Pirates. Williams’ foul in particular was the first time that I passed frustration and went to pure anger as a fan in a very long time.

Williams’ hit on Colby Gore ultimately sent Gore to the hospital. The contact wasn’t incidental; Williams made an intentional hit. Whatever you think of the targeting penalty in college, this is exactly the kind of hit that it seeks to penalize. I don’t mean to call Williams malicious; he just wanted to make a play during what was the first exciting play for the Heels all game. But the result was a play that is completely out of place in today’s game of football, and it was, for me, nauseating to watch.

As a college football fan, I would like to personally send my well-wishes to Colby with hopes for a speedy recovery and a quick return to the field.

The season is lost. It’s past time to make a statement that players will be held accountable for their on- and off-field actions. Williams’ penalty was easily the most avoidable of the three personal fouls in the first half, and thus, if Larry Fedora wants to establish some semblance of control over his team, he would do well to punish it accordingly.

Lying In Bed, I Wish I Could Change . . .

The season. The penalties. The inability to score touchdowns on semi-successful drive. The fourth quarter third-and-one failure to convert. Twice. The fourth quarter fourth and one failure to convert. Twice.

I have also been thinking a lot about the Kenan Stadium’s renovations. The cost of replacing bleachers with individual seats was about 11,000 in capacity. At this point, I believe we should have considered recliners. Just think how comfortable fans would feel at the game with an opportunity to really stretch out, lean back, and put their feet up. This would have been truly innovative in college stadiums. Comfortable fans would certainly be much less eager to boo the home team at the home opener. Also, recliners would have reduced the capacity by 33,000 so a sell-out would still be a possibility. This team actually hurts to watch.

Looking Forward: University of Central Florida/Florence

It looks like Hurricane Florence could make it to land late this week and park itself close to Chapel Hill. We should not fight the possibility of a postponement. Some other team might start 0-3 and we could be a half game ahead of them.

If the game is played, I, for one will be there. For all the gripes I have about this team, and in particular this coaching staff, the opening of the renovated stadium is exciting. After two devastating road losses, the key will be keeping the game close into the fourth quarter. Let the fans participate. Give us a chance to help.

Final Thoughts

If the over-under on games remaining in the Fedora era is until the end of the year, I will take the under. It’s not the losses. Lots of good coaches take losses and sometimes good programs just have teams that can not quite get it together. This is something else. The suspensions were inexcusable. That someone has not been fired is astounding. The personal fouls and ridiculous penalties show a loss of control. That ultimately falls on one person.