Carolina an Ever-Improving 2-5

A couple of things from Saturday's 21-15 South Carolina win over North Carolina. One, South Carolina is way overrated at No. 7. That's what I think. They may even rise in the ratings this week, but in my opinion they aren't even a Top 10 team. A good team, but not Top 10.

They're there now because of Steve Spurrier's reputation. I don't think they'll be there come late November. Their offense just isn't good enough, and UNC just riddled their highly touted pass defense.

Meanwhile Tar Heels coach Butch Davis is doing what he hoped to do this season, and that's to lay a foundation for down the road. UNC is playing so many young players, and each week they seem to be getting better and more confident. But they still can't get over the hump. Four of their five losses have been by a touchdown or less.

Against South Carolina they had so many chances. In the first half, Brandon Tate had the Gamecock defenders beat, was all alone, but T.J. Yates' pass slipped through his fingers.

North Carolina dominated the fourth quarter. South Carolina could muster just 19 yards in offense. UNC had over 200.

But there were more missed chances. There was the interception from the Gamecock 25 on what I felt was ill-advised trickery with former quarterback Joe Dailey, who has been known to toss an interception or two, throwing still another on an end-around. Davis said afterward that it was a good call, and maybe it was, but it didn't work. Then there was the fourth-down pass from the USC 12 to the end zone that freshman Greg Little should have had.

Little, the freshman from Durham, had his best game of his short UNC career. He had a brilliant run after a catch for a touchdown to start the fourth quarter. I'm sure, though, that he's seeing in his dreams the one he couldn't handle. It should have been six.

Prior to that play, the coaching staff made a blunder. Down 21-9, they sent the field goal unit out when a field goal would still leave them two scores down. They had to burn a time-out.

You throw in all that with three interceptions, a botched extra point, a missed field goal and, well, they have seen the enemy and it is them.

Good, experienced teams don't make these mistakes, and they don't let so many opportunities slip through their fingers. Carolina is neither good nor experienced, but improvement is there despite all their faults. The gateway to the future is gradually being opened.

None of the remaining teams on their schedule can look at the Tar Heels as a sure win. Maybe before the season, but not now.

The young Heels play hard and with enthusiasm, and they're buying into what coach Butch Davis is selling. The coach knows this.

"There's not a single kid that walks back into that locker-room that they don't leave everything that they've got on that field," Davis says. "These kids are fighting. They are giving great effort."

Whether South Carolina is overrated remains to be seen, but the Tar Heels took the nation’s seventh-ranked team to the game’s final play. They had a chance.

North Carolina is just 2-5, but young guys are playing and improving and that bodes well for their future.

Being 2-5 under John Bunting would have been the same old thing. No optimism and the darkness of depression covering up that Carolina blue.