With a caution about being presumptuous, the four teams that are considered to have the best chance of winning Carolina's division are Carolina, vpi, um and gt.

Some thoughts on how their schedules shape up:

gt - games 3,4 and 5 will be make or break for them - consecutive games vs Carolina (H), vpi (H) and um (away). They do have nine days before and after vpi, but I'm not envious of that set-up.

um - they are at home to gt, open, then away at Carolina. vpi is a home game three weeks later but just after they play at fsu. The boys from um get to see how cold it may be the end of Nov in Pittsburgh.

vpi - a similarly weak OOC schedule to Carolina's. At gt, followed nine days later by Carolina at home, then pitt at home. The pitt game could be a trap game. At um four weeks later, so like Carolina, they are away for two of their top three opponents.

Carolina - Rather like how the schedule sets up vs the top teams even if the home games are not that attractive. In a four (+1/2) week period Carolina is at gt, home to ecu, at vpi, open and an extra four days to prepare for um at home.

Of those, um has the most favorable schedule I think, Carolina the least favorable, plus after um they have four competitive games - bc (H), nc-raleigh (away), uva (H) and pitt (away).

uva may have the toughest stretch of all, finishing with gt (H), cu (H), Carolina (away), open, um (away) and vpi (H).

My only thought is ...can we break the record for most 12:00 games in a season?

not if we're winning

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--- HeelsEdge wrote:

My only thought is ...can we break the record for most 12:00 games in a season?

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Excluding Miami, my guess is every game will be at noon/1pm with the possible exception of UVA...

Middle Tennessee and ECU probably won't be on TV so no one should be obligated to have them shown at noon. UNC may CHOOSE to have them at noon, but I doubt it. They will probably be either at 3:30 or later which works for me since it will be hot in September.

I don't mind noon kickoffs on a crisp late autumn day. Looking forward to the Miami game. That should be a hoot. If we have a good record in the first half, I could see the UVa game being a 3:30 game which if it's November 9th, will be a night game in the 2nd half.

Another season of "kegs and eggs".

Option 1: Keep our heads above water and a Bowl is certain with last 2 games vs Old Dominion and Duke at home.

Option 2: Have a great season going into those last 2 games and we can certainly improve our record/Bowl destination GREATLY.

The games that we "should" win are really very important this season. You can focus on the five road games and how difficult it would be to go 5-0 or 4-1 in those games and have some kind of mention on a national level, but we're not going to win all five of those. It's much more reasonable to break it down this way: We have seven, highly winnable games at home. In fact, I would think we would be at least touchdown favorites in all seven if the games were played today (with the possible exception of the Miami game). Win those seven and we can win the coastal and probably don't even have to play .500 ball on the road--especially if we beat two of the three coastal road games (VT, GT, Pitt). Winnning in Atlanta is the new "curse" that we endured in Hooville for so long. That streak has to break at some point. GT just isn't that much better than us (if at all). We've won in Blacksburg before when VT was a lot better. Who knows what Pitt will be like--all I know is that it's going to be cold. And we used to own State in CF. I don't like our chances against SCar, but I think playing them in the first game of the season could work to our favor especially if we have 1-2 big plays early.

Tough game for sure, but IF I had to play em on road, I would want them in Week 1. This will help us IMHO.

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--- CornbreadandCollards wrote:

I don't like our chances against SCar, but I think playing them in the first game of the season could work to our favor especially if we have 1-2 big plays early.

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Bacardi and bagels ?

Castillo and cantaloupe ?

mimosa and melon ?

Beam and Biscuits ?

Seagrams and sausage ?

Goose and grits ?

a virtual smorgasbord of tailgating fare..



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--- trueblue03 wrote:

Another season of "kegs and eggs".

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Probably not. We already have one night game, and just by random chance, we'll probably have another game start at 3:00 PM or so. What is the record, by the way?

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--- HeelsEdge wrote:

My only thought is ...can we break the record for most 12:00 games in a season?

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Only big game is scar. To many ezu , od, and mid tenn st junior college jv girls powder puff teams

If a Carolina game is not on tv, especially those OOC, does Carolina have the option of selecting the start time of their choice ?

Yes, but ESPN3 counts as "TV", so the chances of this happening are close to nil.

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--- acc14 wrote:

If a Carolina game is not on tv, especially those OOC, does Carolina have the option of selecting the start time of their choice ?

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I think if the game is on ESPN's internet feed (ESPN 3), then the home school plays a huge role in determining start times. ESPN 3 games were all over the place in terms of start time last year.

The schedule does not look easy when you see the 5 road games: USC, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, State and Pitt. I'll take 3-2 on the road in a second as long as one of the 3 is Georgia Tech.

If we go 3-2 on the road this year, we will have a good chance at going to a BCS bowl. Think about it.

--- MediaHater wrote:

The schedule does not look easy when you see the 5 road games: USC, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, State and Pitt. I'll take 3-2 on the road in a second as long as one of the 3 is Georgia Tech.

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By a quirk of scheduling, the order of away games matches the order of difficulty in my opinion.