The Tarheels

is this your source

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=78&f=1414&t=6971546

 

Nope.

 

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncf/blog...go.com/ncf/blog?name=feldman_bruce&id=6167366

 

lol. Interesting he failed to mention WHY Chapel Hill had that kind of talent.

 

Just in case you don't have insider
Everywhere you turned at the NFL combine in Indianapolis this weekend, you seemed to spot a North Carolina Tar Heels football player. In fact, UNC players almost outnumbered ESPN staffers in the media room, which is saying something. In all, Butch Davis' program had 12 guys at the combine, by far the most representatives of any school.



Trouble is when you have more players at the combine than you do victories the previous year and have four more players invited to Indy than the two BCS National Championship Game participants combined, it's usually the mark of a disappointing year. And there is little question that the 2010 season qualifies as a major disappointment for UNC.



"They should've been playing for the national title with the talent they had," said one NFL coach this weekend. "Their defensive personnel was [expletive] sick. They looked more like an SEC team than any SEC team last year because they had freak D-linemen inside and out, linebackers who can outrun running backs and playmakers in the secondary. No one had talent like that. Not even close. If anyone could've shut down Auburn this year, this would've been the bunch that could've done it."




Several of the Tar Heels I spoke with this weekend called what transpired in 2010 "a nightmare," as unprecedented football expectations in Chapel Hill were short-circuited by scandal weeks before the season started.



Quarterback T.J. Yates, a guy considered by many to be the team's biggest question mark heading into the season but ended up being a revelation, talked about the frustration. "When you look back at it from an overall standpoint and with all the guys that are here that weren't allowed to play, you start to play the what-if game a little bit."



Before the season began, the NCAA investigated UNC players for receiving impermissible benefits from agents. Weeks later, the investigation expanded with allegations of academic fraud involving a tutor. All-American defensive tackle Marvin Austin, a guy some were touting as a possible top-five overall draft pick, was booted off the team. Defensive end Robert Quinn, another projected possible top-10 pick who said he had accepted jewelry, and wide receiver Greg Little were ruled permanently ineligible by the NCAA. Defensive backs Kendric Burney, Deunta Williams and Da'Norris Searcy missed big chunks of the season for their roles in the mess.



A whopping 13 Tar Heels were held out of the season opener against LSU in the Georgia Dome (thanks to Yates' heroics, UNC came within a play of rallying to knock off the LSU Tigers, losing 30-24), and the team played short-handed all season long. Despite that, and eventually losing associate head coach/recruiting coordinator/defensive line coach John Blake, who resigned amid allegations involving his relationship with an agent, the Tar Heels remained surprisingly competitive.



"From week to week we had no idea who was going to be playing," Yates said. "We're waiting to get on the bus and there's a couple guys on the phone waiting to see if they could get on the bus, and these weren't just any normal guys. These were our starters. These were our leaders that on a week-to-week basis we didn't know if we were going to have them or not."



Yates said he'd challenge anybody to find a team that dealt with more adversity, going from the NCAA mess to the academic mess and then getting hit hard by injuries. "Coach Davis would look on the sideline asking if anyone could run down on kickoff," Yates said.



Little, along with Austin, spoke of feeling guilty about their roles in prompting the avalanche of bad news.



"It was tough to know that essentially I started that whole investigation," Little said. "That's one of the things that was very hard to deal with. It is something that will haunt me forever to know that my team could have won the national championship."



Austin, who was flagged by the NCAA for accepting two trips to California and two to Florida from agents, told me that the opportunity to play for and learn from Blake for another season was the reason he came back for his senior year. The irony, of course, is that Austin never played a down in 2010 and his mentor Blake left UNC in a cloud of controversy.



"That's something that I have to live with and think about for countless hours," Austin said. "Coach Blake never did anything illegal for me or anything like that. I went out there with [former UNC defensive lineman] Kentwan Balmer, Cam Thomas. It was a brotherly thing, and we were trying to get better as players. They connected all these dots and stuff like that saying Coach Blake did something, but it wasn't the case."



Austin also said he doesn't believe, as many have speculated, that the entire scandal grew from one of his tweets

 

They mentioned the potential violations - none of which have been proven yet, btw. But yeah, let's act like UNC has a long and storied history of cheating in football. That makes lots of sense.

 

Doesn't take but one instance to be branded a cheater. Sucks it happened to an otherwise outstanding university but it did happen and now UNC has to live with it.