Liking UNC's Climb Back – But Going With Deacs

Well, I’m back to even – and below normal. Last week, I go a paltry 2-4.

I guess I didn’t factor in East Carolina’s season of poor defense. State, of all teams, put 34 on them. And I’ve got to get it into my thick skull that Florida State is not going to suddenly become the Noles of old. And where in the world did Virginia’s Mikell Simpson come from? To top it off, I just rolled the dice on Alabama and Tennessee, and they came up wrong.

Last year, Carolina – under lame-duck coach John Bunting – took the soon-to-be ACC champs down to the wire in Chapel Hill. This year’s edition of UNC has a lot more going for it than last year’s beleaguered lot.

The young Tar Heels are making good progress under Butch “No, I’m not interested in Arkansas” Davis. Under Davis, Carolina is showing improvement just about every week – and they’re coming off an open date.

Wake Forest has won five straight after dropping their first two. They are, of course, a well-coached team that is getting a great year from versatile wide receiver Kenny Moore. Josh Adams, the red-shirt freshman from Cary, is really coming on. Riley Skinner, though, has been somewhat inconsistent at quarterback.

It wouldn’t surprise me if Carolina went to Winston-Salem and stunned the Deacons. Carolina has the offensive weapons to test Wake’s suspect defense.

I’m not going that way, though. This is a limb I’m not going climb out on and saw off behind me. Maybe next time.

I was watching the Virginia-Maryland game on television last Saturday and, like everyone else, wondered who the heck is Mikell Simpson? Here’s a guy who’s a red-shirt sophomore and who’s barely played, and he’s rushing for 119 yards on 16 carries and catches 13 passes for another 152 yards and he’s leading the Cavaliers to a one-point win at Maryland. The guy was fantastic. It kind of makes me wonder why it took so long for Al Groh and company to figure out this guy can play.

Was his performance a fluke? Or maybe he’s another Willie Parker? Time will tell.

State let everybody know that they weren’t giving up on the season, coming up with a convincing win at East Carolina. State was able to move the ball for a change, but maybe that was because of East Carolina’s poor defense. Impressive, though, was State’s defense. The Pirates can score points in bunches, and the Pack was able to close them off in the second half. Maybe this is a small step as Tom O’Brien slowly tries to rebuild State’s program.

Virginia has won seven straight, but their offense really hasn’t scared anybody. The Cavaliers defense is tough, though, and they will give State trouble. The Pack still can’t run the ball, and Chris Long and company will be looking to tee off on Daniel Evans.

Virginia may have lost just one game, but they are beatable. Their last three wins were by two points, one point and one point, respectively. Oh yeah, they’re beatable.

But can State make it two in a row? They could, but I don’t think so. The Pack will have to win a couple in a row for me to hop on their bandwagon.

The Tigers rang up 70 last week on Central Michigan. Woo-hoo. Beating Central Michigan doesn’t make up for those awful efforts against Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech.

Clemson’s James Davis has guaranteed a win over Maryland. The Terps are pretty good, but they’ve got a few injury problems – and how much did that Virginia loss take out of them?

If Clemson loses this one, the annual Tommy Bowden watch begins around the clock. If James Davis says Clemson will win, that’s good enough for me. Maybe he’ll run wild.

How about this: the Trojans aren’t the favorite to win a PAC 10 game! Losing to Stanford will bring out the skeptics. This week will be the Oregon offense against Southern Cal’s defense.

The question is, what will the Trojan work-in-progress offense do against Oregon’s defense?

It’s always hard to go against Southern Cal, but I will on the road at Oregon, one of the toughest places anywhere for an opponent to play.

Well, I just consulted my favorite Penn State fan, the great Greg Fishel, who is going to the game. He informs me that he is hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. He thinks this will be a “white out game” – you know, 100,000 Penn State fans all wearing white. Like that’s going to scare Ohio State? The “Fish” hopes it will.

Now, Greg has informed me that he doesn’t cough up enough money to get good seats, so you won’t you the “Fish” sitting there in the end zone in his little white sweat shirt and yelling, “We are Penn State.” I don’t think that performance will help anyway – and actually, neither does Greg.

If Greg Fishel, who’s making the long trip to State College, has some doubt, then so will I. Sure Penn State is at home, but the Buckeyes are the Buckeyes.

I will go with the favorite, even though it won’t be easy.

I saw South Carolina just barely beat UNC two weeks ago, and I said it and I wrote it: the Gamecocks aren’t that good. They were lucky to beat the Tar Heels and then showed nothing at home against Vanderbilt.

Steve Spurrier loves to tweak Phil Fulmer and Tennessee. He did it regularly while he was at Florida, and he backed it up. South Carolina is not Florida, however. Easy to tweak when you have what he had at Florida. Not so much now.

Unless Spurrier has waved some magic dust over his dormant offense in the past week, the Gamecocks will go down at Tennessee.

I don’t believe in magic.

My pick is Tennessee.

For the season, I am 29 right and 19 wrong.