ACC Football Report examines the latest installment from the Heels, focusing on their “next man up” syndrome …

Stud starting QB gone by the middle of game 3. Stud wide receiver and kick-return deity gone by the middle of game 6. Stud running back mysteriously underwhelming all season. A defense that bends into a pretzel most of the year – but never quite breaks. With Butch Davis leading the charge, that gets you a 5-1 record against one of the better schedules in the country this year. The North Carolina Tar Heels certainly have the excuses to pack it in or to justify a defeat here or there, but they’re not biting. Despite the personnel losses, they’ve blown apart 25% of the Big East (Rutgers and UConn) and they’ve had to dig deep and come back to beat Miami and Notre Dame. That so many unheralded players have stepped up when called upon is either a testament to substances in the drinking water in Chapel Hill, or in all seriousness the result of superb coaching, development and preparation by Davis and staff. How would Florida look without just Tim Tebow? Texas without just Colt McCoy? Mizzou without just Jeremy Maclin? We’ll probably never know, but we do know that Butch rolls with the punches and hits back with whatever he’s got left…and hits hard.

… and click through for Marcus’s analysis of the “rejuvenation” in Charlottesville.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 12:32 pm and is filed under The Good Ol Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.