Deacs, Jackets, Coach Prime, Football TONIGHT

In partnership with

Rand’s Dad: Well, here we are again, mere hours from the start of another great college football season, week 0 results notwithstanding, which will be addressed shortly. Years ago, I was sitting on the couch in my house on a late August Saturday, 10 minutes before noon, watching the closing portion CFB Gameday and highly anticipating the kickoff of the Georgia-Clemson game at Death Valley, when someone suggested I should go to Home Depot and buy many bundles of pine straw and spread it around the shrubs that afternoon. The shrubs did not get pine-strawed that day my friends, and we all know why. I would have been more inclined to set the shrubs on fire rather wasting college football Christmas on some ridiculous chore. We all have the same sickness, onward!

Week 0 had two significant events; Carolina looked mediocre, competent even, which is a huge improvement over last year, and State looked terrible! The Heels won outright, 15-10, besting my prediction and even overachieving Ed’s modestly aspirational beat the spread guidance. How so? 15 points doesn’t usually win a lot of games, especially not if supposedly shrewd OC Bobby Petrino is calling the plays.

TCU gave UNC 5 points on a safety and a fumble in their own end of the field that became a FG, and failed to convert on 2 fourth-down conversions in the red zone. One their first turnover on downs, TCU made a very questionable play call, running up the middle with a 185-pound RB on 4th and 1 after their perimeter running game had been very successful in the first half. On the second attempt later in the game, the QB made a poor decision and a poor throw. But, Carolina was in a position to win and they did, although drawing significant conclusions after week 0 is a fool’s errand. Just a reminder, in last season’s opener WFU slogged through a demoralizing 10-9 victory over supposed cupcake Kennesaw State; WFU went 9-4 last season and KSU went 10-4.

On a related note, “Mack is Back!” t-shirts are on sale at the Johnny T-shirt website, $5 for a dozen, great for pledge initiations or Halloween.

· Editor’s note - As the esteemed Dave Chappelle has said about the alphabet crowd, I just can’t stop making jokes about these “people”. I am the same way about Carolina. My dad regularly said, “If Carolina was playing the Russians, I’d root for the Russians.” That is the house I grew up in, and both of my sisters went to Duke, so it was a given. Until, one of my offspring went to Carolina, so now things are not so clear. As James Earl Jones said to Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams, “This is your penance.” I now know what he meant.

Someone on this site last week mentioned that UVA and NCSU are chronic underachievers. I was wrong about who had the best QB, but we now know who is the early favorite for underachiever of the year. Rand and friends bought more tickets to the WFU NCSU game in Raleigh this week. Hmm . . .

General reminder that we make cold, hard cash if you simply click on the advertisement below.

Want to get the most out of ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a superpower if you know how to use it correctly.

Discover how HubSpot's guide to AI can elevate both your productivity and creativity to get more things done.

Learn to automate tasks, enhance decision-making, and foster innovation with the power of AI.

Download the free guide

Wake Forest vs. Akron (WFU -24.5, O/U 48.5)

Take Wake less the points; Akron lost to Kennesaw State last year by 90.

Colorado @ Georgia Tech (GT -6.5, O/U 50.5)

The Deion Sanders experiment may have run it’s course at Colorado. It was very exciting at times, believe me, I was in Boulder for a game in 2023 when the Buffs were driving for the tying score against then #8 Southern Cal before falling short. It produced full stadiums, a Heisman winner, and sense of optimism that had been dearly missing at CU for years. This year the cupboard looks bare, the recruiting magic has worn off, and nobody is expecting much out of the team. I’m a big Deion fan, but I’m not expecting much this year either, take GT.

That’s all for now. Check back tomorrow for another installment on the significant games this weekend, and there are a few.

Follow us on Twitter: @4thandforever_

Thanks for reading 4th & Forever. Feel free to forward this to friends & family and if you have comments or suggestions on the newsletter, please let us know. We really appreciate any and all feedback on this endeavor. Check out our website by going to 4thandforevercfb.com where you can drop us suggestions, read and comment on previous newsletters, and argue with us and other readers.

Rand & Tate met a few years ago through a mutual friend who went to college with Rand and high school with Tate. Tate went to Georgia and has spent the last few years collecting championship rings while traveling to watch the Dawgs. Rand went to known CFB powerhouse Wake Forest and currently pays rent in Charlotte, but is rarely found there with all the work & CFB travel he does.