Tar Heels shine in the NFL playoffs and Devon Ramsay gets more time.
- Two former Tar Heels made the most of their NFL playoff appearances over the weekend. On Saturday, QB T.J. Yates became only the fifth rookie to win in his playoff debut. Yates went 11-20 for 159 yards and threw a crucial 40-yard TD pass to Andre Johnson to help the Houston Texans defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 31-10. Yates has found himself in a really good spot with a stellar defense and a high caliber running back in Arian Foster. Now he will really be tested at Baltimore next week. Former UNC WR/KR Brandon Tate wound up on the losing end of Saturday’s matchup but cameras caught Tate embracing his former QB Yates postgame.
- On Sunday, Hakeem Nicks, a former target for Yates at UNC, had a huge game in leading the New York Giants to a 24-2 win over the Atlanta Falcons. Nicks had 115 yards receiving and two TDs, the second one of the 72-yard variety to open the Giants lead up. Nicks has been playing well but this is a huge breakout game since it game in the playoffs. Oh and yes, Nicks hands are still huge and he holds the football like one of us would hold one of those mini-footballs.
- The NCAA has granted UNC FB Devon Ramsay a sixth season of eligibility after the senior missed most of 2010 being wrongly penalized for academic fraud then injuring his knee in the 2011 opener versus James Madison which ended that season. The ruling is a rare show of grace by the governing body and is tantamount to them saying, “Hey Devon, sorry about totally screwing you over in 2010, how about another season of football and we’ll call it even!” Two questions arise from this however. One, how useful is Devon Ramsay going to be in Larry Fedora’s spread offense? My initial take is “not much” but we will see. Secondly, now the NCAA has given Ramsay an additional season will they follow-up next week by telling him that season won’t include a bowl game? I know the two aren’t tied together but it would be perfect NCAA logic to grant a player a sixth season but then ban the team he’s on from postseason play.
- UNC backup QB Braden Hanson(who graduated in December) has decided to transfer to North Dakota for his final season. This should not come as a shock since (1) he was never going to beat out Bryn Renner and (2) in Larry Fedora’s spread offense I would expect A.J. Blue or Marquise Williams to move up the depth chart to at least the backup position.
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It was reported Patton Robinette showed up Saturday on campus, apparently to play quarterback for the Heels. Then left Sunday to go to Vandy.
Anyone hear the real story?
Can’t imagine that there’s too much more behind it.
http://www.thedailytimes.com/Sports_News/story/Patton-Robinette-decides-to-be-a-Commodore-id-019424
With Renner recovering from surgery, this probably means Marquise gets most of the spring practice reps. Who else after that? A.J. Blue? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
was Tate used much in Cincy this year..anyone know?
I don’t think Tate played hardly any this year.
^mostly as a Punt returner, nothing else.
I think Tate was used almost exclusively as a kick/punt returner.
Of note Larry Fedora has lots of energy which was in evidence at the Boston College basketball game as he took center court during a time out to share how excited he was to take over at UNC and requested that we sell out the home games. It was a great idea and while it was controlled I think it was unscripted. He looks like the real deal. Certainly a huge change from the last regime.
Go Heels!
I thought it was interesting that during the Fedora speech at the BC game he said “sell out the home games” and the cheering was fairly enthusiastic (though not nearly what it should have been). Then he mentioned everyone should be at the Spring Game and about 100 people cheered. My wife leaned over to me and said “most of these folks probably don’t know what the Spring Game is”. I’d have to agree with her. That is what he’s up against.
I remember when Florida made the Final Four in 1994. My mom and dad had a family friend whose son was going to school there at the time and he said the campus was pretty apathetic to it. He said not a lot of students were planning to attend the game, and said since it wasn’t football related that not a lot of people cared about it. Of course I was more pissed that UNC got knocked out by BC to care about the Final Four that year, but I was pretty shocked that, at least from his perspective, it was pretty much a non-event.
This is what Fedora faces with UNC football. It seemed there was a little bit more excitement when Davis got here because most football fans knew who Butch Davis was. Fedora has little name recognition (even now), and the campus and alumni seem pretty apathetic to football because seven and eight win season are about as common as K working officials.
He has an uphill battle to be sure but he seems like he has the energy. Given the apathy in general around football it always amazes me that people are charged up about the uniforms. I get that with the basketball program and I recognize that we need to maintain a legacy uni but after that I don’t care what they wear as long as they win.
Davis did much more harm than good when you consider the level of excitement and commitment from the school and the Rams Club only to squander great talent, tarnish the program with violations that resulted in 8 win seasons with baffling loses throughout each season. This combined with the general malaise associated with football at UNC is a tough battle. That said if you were there at UNC versus ND or FSU you know that we can get there, it just takes time and some payback to the fans. I wish Fedora nothing but the best.
7 and 8 wins are nothing to get excited about when you play 12-13 games in a season and , especially when a couple of those opponents were loaded with frosting. The other thing is beat your rival [the one who acknowledges that football does in fact exist] every now and then especially when they are not worth a crap. If we win some big games, rivalry games and conference games then I guarantee it will generate some excitement and compete for a conference title every now and then. For the record I attended all but 1 home game last year and I attend our road game when it is at Dook (really a home game for us).