UNC Football: Less SWAG More Wins: Yes I Can Dig It
By Matt Haley
If I hear one more person tell me how a football teams wins games on the amount of SWAG they have I am going to boycott college football completely. SWAG to UNC fans may be synonymous with one player who plays in New york and is not named Hakeem. Saturday I saw confidant football players in Kenan stadium, but I did not see any SWAG that is often mentioned by football commentators for the men in Blue and White. The last thing Carolina fans need is any vocabulary that could cause the Tar Heel football program any more harm than has already taken place.
A year and a half ago I argued with my co host Monk on the MandMsportshow about whether or not Butch Davis would be leading the Tar Heels into the future and this will be one feature where you can read I was wrong in every step of the way. I blame John Bunting for everything that happened while Butch was hear. Go ahead Dawn Bunting comment our our article, but if you remember how terrible our teams were during his tenure it just caused everyone to turn a blind eye in Chapel Hill at the thought of successful football. Myself can be include in this discussion because I feel like I let my family and my profession down supporting Butch during the 2010 year and the anger that I exhibited in July last summer. Now I still believe Chancellor Thorp should have fired him at a better time, and the damage he did to the families of the assistant coaches and the players cannot be unsaid. However UNC football needed a change and I hope Coach Fedora is the man to take that challenge.
If you have been reading our columns debating the three year rule that is in place for college baseball and football then you know i am on the side of players excelling in the classroom showing they are committed to being a quality student. Excellence can be attained both on the field and in the classroom. Ga. Tech is a very difficult school yet year in and year out they field a very competitive football team. What UNC fans have to understand is that we are not going to sell our souls for championships, and if i must be honest I was close the last few years because football can be this overwhelming drug that overwhelms you making you do and say crazy things. Once again we were so bad for a few years that going to a lower level bowl was excellence in our book, and then came the promise of the 2010 season. That season will ever be remembered as the “what if” someone had just said no to tweeting for a day.
Saturday i saw a football team go to work trying to improve in every phase, flying around to the ball and just enjoying playing together. There were a few look at me moments, but overwhelmingly guys were cheering each other on, there was no dancing around like they had made a highlight play when it was a routine play. I have a feeling the coaches have instilled this some, but the offense appeared to take on the personality of Gio Bernard. Bernard reminds me so much of Emmitt Smith with his shifty running and Thurman Thomas in the screen game, but also the maturity and respect for the game. Bernard wants to win, but he carries himself in a way that I would want all young kids to watch while he “toats the mail.”
With a season looming ahead without a bowl game to play for the Tar Heels could just pack it in, but Saturday was inspiring as a bunch of kids were out there working hard to make sure my days and yours are fulfilling this fall.
As always you can follow the Haley and MandMsportshow on twitter @MandMSportshow and you can read more articles from Haley at The Water Cooler.