Slinger Durant Let's hope he's able to focus!

On the Beast's Thursday night radio show, he told it like it is.  To build a football program and to have success, the team needs their fans.  Last summer having lunch with the Beast, I told him my theory.  the Ram Man said, "When players and coaches take the field, they call it practice.  When fans are there, they call it a game."  And CarolinaFans, it's the games where we come in.

In practice Blue beats White or White beats Blue.  We don't know.  We don't care other than the team getting prepared for the game.  And come game day, the most important ingredient comes to play...  the fans!

You don't think fans make a difference?  Ever been to a Dookie football game, if you can call it that.  They have 6-digit attendance with a few high schoolers shouting, "Let's go, De-vils."  Pretty sad in my book.  Well, if you've read me before, I haven't put Carolina football fans much above that.  That's what I'm trying to change.  We're seeing a little improvement this year.

That's why I'm so radical at times.  We have people show up at Kenan on game day not ready to participate.  We have people in the stadium not able, ready, or just plain willing to get into the game... Get their Game Face On!   Why do I go on and on about this?  I simply want to see Carolina have a solid home field advantage.  For those lucky CarolinaFans who were there, remember the Florida State game this season?

OK, football...  I take pause to offer my condolences to players, Ron Curry and Darian Durant, and their families.  Although part of life, losing someone near and dear is always a tragedy.  Times like that makes football or any other past time take a back seat.

Ron stayed in Virginia with family and Darian came back to Chapel Hill.  With Leak getting most of the snaps with the first team, I wouldn't be surprised to see him start.  Beast is building a program and therefore has to establish policy.  You practice, you play.  How flexible can it be?  Only Bunting and his players know.  But I expect to see Slinger play most of the game.

Last game against Georgia Tech, the Heels got run over bad.  Even when they put 8 in the box, the Tech tailback ran at will.  Even that little shrimp on kick returns had highlight plays.  If our front 4 play like that against Wake, we're in for a long day.  And the Tech runners are in for long gains.

With the unfortunate impact of our quarterback's personal lives, our ability to put points on the board may be in question.  If we can get into the red zone often enough, our winning points may come from Jeff Reid.  Are you good for 3 of them, Jeff?  But he's the man.  Just get him in his comfort zone, Heels.

On the up side Wake's quarterback can't throw worth a damn.  I expect Carolina to play the run on D and make their quarterback have a break out game to beat us.  Can he do it?  We have to ask our secondary if they're ready to play some tough, in your face man-on-man.  Last game our tackling was just very painful to watch.  I think Bunting and Webster got the message across.  Wake will probably have their lowest offensive output of the year tomorrow.

With that said, I think the winning advantage may come down to whether or not the Heels have a home field advantage.  If Carolina fans are listening to the Beast, like the players are, then we all will be smiling on game day tomorrow.  Oh yeah, we need just one more thing.

Robbie Caldwell The holes will open!

Keys to the game?  Stuff the run and play tough man coverage on the corners.  Get the offense in sync and establish the run.  Get back to some basics: block and tackle.  This addresses the last Special Teams fiasco.  Hey, I'm not saying it first.  The Beast has been saying it all week to the players.  And he's saying it to the fans too.

I think the defense will respond and have a break out game.  I'm not convinced that our special teams can score, but think they will provide descent field position.  The player tragedies with deaths in the family may cause us to lose ability to put a lot of points on the board.  To me this shapes up as a low scoring game with the CarolinaFans rallying the Heels.  Carolina 25 - Wake Forest 17.

the man, Pep Bring the heat!