Off-topic: 2011 ACC Coastal predictions

3rd place: North Carolina

Originally, I thought the scandal around their football program might have had a mildly-deleterious effect on their program. Miami has made most people forget. While you don’t want to downplay what has happened here, since they haven’t exactly been as pure as the new-fallen snow in Chapel Hill, UNC will not get the hammer swung at them a quarter as bad as Miami will.

What an offseason this team has had, though, culminating in the termination of Butch Davis in July (UNC had a number of chances to can the coach, but waited until the middle of the summer). The cloud which was cast over the Heels football program by the NCAA was not entirely dissipated with his departure, but whatever the case may be, I don’t believe the events of the previous month will have a major negative effect on the team.

I had forecasted them as a third-place, middle-of-the-road team in the conference in 2011, and I don’t think the absence of Butch Davis will change that. TJ Yates is gone, but they still have some pieces on both sides of the ball. I don’t think they will win the Coastal but they’ll be far from the bottom.