DURHAM, N.C. - John Bunting gets fired up when he flips through the preseason magazines and sees North Carolina's schools especially his Tar Heels picked to finish near the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference.
``That's been going on for a couple of years. It motivated us in '04. It motivated us last year,'' the North Carolina coach said Thursday at a kickoff luncheon featuring three coaches from the state's four ACC schools.
``We were two or three plays away from (a 7-4 record) last year. We all know this,'' he said. ``We've got to make those plays. That's what motivates us. We want to make those plays to improve our standing in the ACC first. That's my No. 1 goal.''
The conference is preparing for its second season with 12 members, two divisions and a championship game, and once again it figures to be a tough task for one of the state's Big Four ACC schools to win the league or even its division.
Florida State won the conference championship last season by beating Virginia Tech in the league's first title game.
No school from North Carolina has won the conference outright since 1980, when the Lawrence Taylor-led Tar Heels finished 11-1 and beat Texas in the Bluebonnet Bowl.
``In order for us to have that type of season, you've got to win at home, take advantage of all (seven) games and pick up a win or two away, and then beat a team like Miami or Florida State or Virginia Tech,'' Bunting said. ``When you get opportunities, you've got to take advantage of them.''
The last Carolina-based school to even share the league title was, surprisingly, Duke, which split the 1989 crown with Virginia when Steve Spurrier was on the sideline in Durham.
The Blue Devils haven't even beaten a Division I-A team since a win against Clemson in 2004, and coach Ted Roof's job got tougher earlier this week when starting quarterback Zack Asack was suspended from school for plagiarism.
That leaves just two quarterbacks on scholarship sophomore Marcus Jones, who doubled at wide receiver, and freshman Thaddeus Lewis.
That might be another legitimate reason to dismiss Duke, but Roof said he isn't using pessimistic predictions to get the Blue Devils fired up.
``There are a lot of (other) things to motivate us than where sportswriters project us,'' Roof said.
The only expectation that counts, he said, was that ``we be a well-prepared team on the field that plays an exciting brand of football, with a lot of heart and lot of enthusiasm.''
North Carolina State coach Chuck Amato also remains optimistic. When the luncheon's moderator asked for Amato's definition of paradise, he replied: ``January 8th, the Fiesta Bowl.'' That's the date and place for this year's national title game.
Reaching a national title game with this Wolfpack team would be difficult. The Wolfpack had three defensive linemen taken in the first round of the NFL draft, including No. 1 overall selection Mario Williams, from a team that had to win its last regular-season games last year just to qualify for a bowl game. They also lost two top receiving targets of quarterback Marcus Stone.
But Bunting is confident his team is moving closer to the conference's elite.
``To win the ACC championship, you've got to be pretty doggone good,'' Bunting said. ``We beat Florida State (in 2001). We beat Miami (in 2004). We came close to beating Virginia Tech (in 2004).
``We're aiming to get better, and I think with the way we've been recruiting, we will, and we'll have a chance to regain that championship. It takes a great team to get it done, a great team.''
Thursday
May 22nd, 2025
12:11AM
