I am nominally a Giants fan. This is because growing up, Lawrence Taylor was playing for the Giants, and he was the most famous Carolina football alumnus at the time. It also didn't hurt that at that time in North Carolina, everyone was a Redskins or Cowboys fan, and I am ornery and contrarian at the best of times.

I say nominal because during the 2000's I drifted away from the Giants, to the point that when they won the Super Bowl in 2008, I backed away from being referring to myself as a Giants fan. I hadn't suffered in the wilderness between 2001 and 2007; I didn't deserve to bask in the SUper Bowl win. I found that my NFL rooting interesting was geographically dependent. The further I was from North Carolina, the more of Panthers fan I was; the home state needed my help. The closer I am to the East Coast, especially in DC surrounded by those Cowboys and Redskins again, I revert to the Giants.

But generally in the Super Bowl I root for the team with the most Carolina alumni. This year this dovetails nicely with my Giants fandom, as Hakeem Nicks is one of the main offensive weapons for New York, while Marvin Austin is on the injured reserve list for the team as well. Oh, and Austin's still a little bitter, judging from this tweet:

where is @cmiller05 wanna take him out to dinner he help me get here #NCAAinvestegator

Sigh. (Chance Miller is the NCAA's Assistant Director of Agent, Gambling and Amateurism Activities.)

Carolina's been in a bit of a Super Bowl drought. The last team to win the game with Tar Heel alumni was the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2009, with Willie Parker, Jeff Reed and Greg Warren. Only Warren is still with the Steelers. UNC has had an alumnus play in the Super Bowl every year going back to at least 2002 though.

So if you don't have a vested interest in today's game, I'd urge to pul for the Giants. Don't do it for my sake, but for Nicks, who has played well enough over the past few years to deserve a Super Bowl ring. And it'll annoy the Patriots fans.

I don't know when National Signing Day became a thing, exactly. I would have had no reason to pay attention to it before joining SB Nation, so I don't know if it was a big thing in the SEC before 2007, or if it's just exploded since then. Either way, by now it's pretty ridiculous. Webcams filming fax machines, all for the benefit of some middle-aged football fans. My Twitter feed was packed with so many details about high school students I was worried the FBI might confiscate my phone.

The ne thing Signing Day always bring to mind is my first true experience with it. On February 7th, 2007, I completely unaware it even was Signing Day, got this e-mail from Peter Bean, founder of Burnt Orange Nation, which I print in its entirety:

subject: Signing day

Nice little class Butch has coming in. Landing Marvin Austin, too? Wow.

Impressive.

PB

And yeah, it was. And now we're waiting to see exactly what NCAA punishment Austin and a rash of other players, tutors, and one very corrupt assistant coach brought upon the university. Signing Day never had much appeal to me before, but it definitely has none now.

Anyway, the second guy from the left in the above picture is a member of Larry Fedora's 23-man inaugural class. Inside Carolina and a host of other sites can tell you all about them. It includes two quarterbacks, one of whom comes from my old alma mater, for which I feel the need to apologize to him for. The class is ranked 42nd, which means absolutely nothing, but appears to be higher than N.C. State's ranking if you have someone you'd like to harass about it. Feel free to discuss anyone who caught your eye in the comments; otherwise, it's back to basketball for the time being.

Any other year, you'd think this story would consume NFL fans. A third-string quarterback, never expected to see the field, finds himself starting for a 7-3 playoff contender after the two guys in front of him go down with injuries. He doesn't light the world on fire, but he wins enough games, going 3-2 before being knocked out early in the season's final game. His team, the Houston Texans win the AFC South, and easily win their first playoff game. And yet no one is talking about T.J. Yates.

In part, this is because all the quarterback talk in the postseason has focused on Tim Tebow. Like Yates, Tebow took over a team midseason and steered them to the playoffs. Like Yates, his arm isn't the engine of his team's success, which is built on the running game and defense. An unlike Yates, the entire wold has gone nuts about the guy.

In part, that's the situation. The Broncos were 1-4 before Tebow became the starter, and they won their first six games once he was. Some of it was Tebow himself, from his success at Florida to his displays of piety, that polarized the world at large, demanding they be divided into pro- and anti-Tebow camps. And most of it was ESPN, who frankly lost their damn minds over the guy.

Meanwhile, T.J. Yates was quietly putting up better numbers than Tebow. Half of the weeks the two played Yates had more yardage than Tebow and a better passing rating; in all but one he had a higher completion rate. Every week, they had the same result, wins until the final three losses to close out the seasons for both teams. Now with Tebow's elimination at the hands of the Patriots, for a few hours at least we can focus on the other new quarterback in the playoffs.

So how has T.J. Yates succeeded in the NFL? I, like most Carolina fans, did not expect him to become the first UNC alumnus to start under center in the NFL. Definitely not during his first three years at Chapel Hill, when he was lucky to escape collapsing offensive lines and the catcalls of fans. And not after a superb senior season propelled him to become a fifth round draft pick for the Houston Texans, who already had Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart. In fact, the first inkling I had that Yates could succeed at the pro-level, if not in Houston, came from reading this Grantland article, which pointed out the common thread in the success of Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady:

Tom Brady and Peyton Manning are quite possibly the greatest anti-blitz quarterbacks in the history of football. And when your team doesn't have one of those guys - or, in the case of the 2008 Patriots and the 2011 Colts, if they're injured - you're not so much worried about whether the backup can run the offense or learn the playbook or even hit the open receiver. You're worried about third-and-7 in the fourth quarter. How will he handle some convoluted blitz involving three defenders all attacking the same gap while the pass defenders aren't where he thought they'd be. To succeed under that kind of pressure, you need something more than arm strength, superior height, and even that coveted kind of on-the-fly fluid, athletic intelligence. Instead, you need, well, what is it exactly? What you're looking for in a quarterback can't be put into words. It's some brew of grit, studiousness, and instant pattern recognition that allows the great ones to put their teams in positions to succeed. There is no way to directly evaluate this.

I read this and thought, "If there's one advantage T.J. Yates has over other rookie quarterbacks, it's that he's been blitzed. A lot." Yates had no offensive line to speak of for his first few seasons at Carolina. By his senior year, his line had improved to adequate. John Shoop's offense, for as much frustration as it caused fans, was designed to get the ball to receivers early, because Yates was destined to finish the play on the turf. His eventual success against these types of pass rushes can be most easily seen comparing this and lat season's sacks allowed by UNC. With much of the same offensive line, the Heels went from 4th in the ACC in sacks allowed under Yates to 11th this year with a new quarterback.

The other key is how quickly Yates was able to pick up the Texans' system. They run an offense very similar to John Shoop's, and Yates spent three months after being drafted this summer learning it from Matt Schaub. And of course, there's the fact he's not asked to do too much. Houston has a pair of great runners in Arian Foster and Ben Tate, and an good receiving corps. But he's only thrown three interceptions to date. He may not be winning games on the strength of his arm alone, but he's captaining a team deeper into the NFL playoffs than any other young quarterback this year.

You can draw an interesting contrast with Blaine Gabbert, first round draft-pick for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Gabbert has been hammered this season, starting immediately and going 4-12 in his first year. But I think back to the Independence Bowl this year, watching Gabbert's replacement lead his team in destroying Yates' alma mater. Missouri's new quarterback, James Franklin, was completely reliant on his coaching staff to make any sort of adjustments to opposing defenses at the line, in a way Yates, and even Bryn Renner, never were. I didn't see much of Gabbert in college, but it's easy to see how that system could be much worse at preparing a quarterback for the pros than what Yates went through.

This, in turn, makes me wonder if T.J. Yates will be the last UNC quarterback to start in the pros, as well.

I'm never sure how to handle stuff like this. On the one hand, nothing's official, but Inside Carolina is reporting that Larry Fedora has lined up almost his entire football staff for the coming season. So do I post about it now? Now and when it's officially announced? Just after the fact? Eh, I don't have a strong opinion either way, so let's just get it out of the way.

As discussed earlier, the defensive coordinator will be Vic Koenning, previously of Clemson and most recently Illinois. Fedora has also brought aboard his co-defensive coordinator and linebacker coach from Southern Miss, Dave Duggan; Duggan spent four years with the Eagles after being the head coach of NFL Europe's Cologne Centurions for two seasons, where he had the top-ranked defense. Also hired was the Golden Eagles' defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Dan Disch, giving us three people with the title of "defensive coordinator" associated with them. I have no idea how that's going to sort itself out.

Fedora also brought along his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from Southern Miss, Blake Anderson. Anderson held the same position at Louisiana-Lafayette in 2007 prior to joining Fedora's staff. Prior to that he was in private business, to which I hope someone has checked to make sure he wasn't working with John Blake. Anderson was a finalist to replace Fedora at Southern Miss, explaining his late hiring. Fedora has also supposedly hired Mississippi wide receiver coach Gunter Brewer, who held the various positions of co-offensive coordinator, passing game coordinator, receivers coach and quarterbacks coach at Oklahoma State before joining the Rebels last season. One would think Brewer will be the offensive coordinator, since he was hired earlier and the wide receiver coach at Southern Miss, Walt Bell, is also coming on board. This was Bell's first season in a coaching position.

Most of the remaining staff also comes from Southern Miss, including defensive line coach Deke Adams and offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic. The one holdover from the current staff is strength and conditioning coach Tom Myslinski, who was hired this past March by Butch Davis. Current tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator Allen Mogridge is the running for the running backs coach position, a position he held under Turner Gill at Buffalo. Mogridge is a UNC alum from the Mack Brown era, but the favorite for the job appears to be Texas A&M running backs coach Randy Jordan. Texas Tech running backs coach Chad Scott is also a possibility.

Can't run, can't defend, can't win.

The best thing I can say about this game is that it wasn't a disaster from the start. In fact, it was a very good start, with the Heels putting together a series of quick passes ending with a 22-yard touchdown strike to Dwight Jones. Carolina had drawn first blood less than three minutes into the game; things we're looking quite promising.

And then the defense took the field. Or a group of people purporting to be the Tar Heel defense did, anyway. Missouri's first touchdown was an understandable lapse, with wide receiver T.J. Moe throwing a forty-yard pass to Wes Kemp; a trick play, but not one UNC hadn't seen in practice. The second touchdown was an eighty-yard drive where five of the nine plays were for five yards or more. And a lot of them was on the ground, including a 26-yard De'Vion Moore dash. It was the start of a worrisome trend – Carolina couldn't defend the run to save their lives. Missouri would have nine rushes of ten yards or more in the first half, and finish with a ridiculous 337 yards on the ground. Quarterback James Franklin was the biggest offender, running the ball himself on back-to-back-to-back plays on both the fourth and fifth scoring drives without much protest from the UNC defense.

Yes, I said fourth and fifth scoring drives. In the first half. The Tigers scored on every drive in the first thirty minutes; UNC, did not. Some of it was the offense's fault, such as when Giovanni Bernard fumbled on the Heels' own 40. Some of it was pure chance, as when a pass was bobbled by Dwight Jones, and then did this happened:

So yeah, not much you can do about that. The incomplete passes, tackles for a loss, and Bernard's eight carries for twelve yards in the first half I can quibble with though.

The second half was at least better than the first. The defense came out invigorated, forcing an interception by Zach Brown on Missouri's opening drive. UNC couldn't capitalize however, and their touchdown on the following drive – a 44-yard shot to Jheranie Boyd – was answered immediately by a short touchdown drive after a fifty-yard kickoff return from Moe. After that, the offense sputtered, not scoring again until four minutes remained. By then it was all over but the broken trophy.

In the end, the game was a fiasco. The running game was completely nonexistent, the passing game was spotty, and the defense was a travesty. The best I can say is that Boyd and Erik Highsmith had big games, and made a good case that Larry Fedora will have a lot of talent to work with next season. In all other ways, the game reminded me of the Georgia Tech matches of the past few seasons, or Clemson where the opposing offenses could score at will. Hopefully this is the last we'll see of that type of game for quite some time.

And this is how the Butch Davis era ends, not with a bang but with a Shreveport.

Bowl games are generally pretty tricky to predict. Neither team has played a game in thirty days; UNC has hired a new head coach in the meantime although he won't take over until after the bowl game. The fans have for the most part moved onto basketball, not because their fickle, but because that team was actually playing games in front of crowd. This is no way to run a postseason.

But here we are, so let's make the best of it. Mizzou fan Bill Connelly has already done a great write-up for the mothership, coming to roughly the same conclusion I did – it's pretty much a toss-up. The Tigers spent their final season in the Big 12 losing players to injuries right and left. The biggest loss, of course, was running back Henry Josey, the Big 12's leading rusher. After losing him early in the Texas game, the Tigers' offensive performance plummeted, resulting in two of their worst games offensively since the early weeks of September. Oddly enough, they won their last three, in part because of a defensive trend that had them holding their opponents to some of the lowest scoring outputs of the season. Will this continue? It was a month ago, so who can tell?

Missouri runs the spread offense, soon to be seen in one of its many variations in Chapel Hill, so this will be a good primer for UNC fans. Quarterback James Franklin can scramble pretty well, but the Heels have been pretty good at handling mobile QBs of late, keeping Virginia Tech's Logan Thomas from piling up yards in the close loss in Blacksburg. The bigger concern, of course, is the deep pass against UNC's dicey secondary. The spread offense is built around failures in one-on-one coverage, and Carlina has provided plenty of those. Franklin's favorite deep targets are Marcus Lucas and L'Damian Washington, both averaging over ten yards a catch. He'll also hit T.J. Moe, their leading receiver, for more short passes.

Missouri's running game stalled with Josey's injury, and replacement Kendial Lawrence has been OK, but not spectacular. UNC should be able to shut him down, unless the passing game forces them to spread themselves thin. Which is what it's designed to do. Franklin is the bigger running threat.

Giovanni Bernard obviously has to be a big part of this game. Especially with the weather looking to be pretty dismal, the Heels will try to do a lot on the ground, and the Tigers' running defense is good but not great. Should conditions get really bad, Ryan Houston might be called on more. Mostly forgotten this season, his strength-based running style might be of use if everyone's slipping around the field. Hopefully in his final game, he can keep his hands on the ball.

UNC's passing attack will be... interesting. Dwight Jones on cornerback E.J. Gaines will be the match-up that fascinates everybody; both are among the best athletes on their respective teams. Missouri is fairly good at getting to the quarterback, but they haven't been exposed to many pro-style offenses. If Renner can get the ball off cleanly and make good decisions, he can have a very good day. If he reverts to the bad decisions he's made in a few other games, it could get brutal very quickly.

The bottom line is, these are both well-matched, perfectly average teams with a tendency to not show up with any regularity. This gem could very well be a blow out for either team, or it could be a nail-biter. (And there's a non-zero chance neither team will take the field, and it'll be a performance art piece.) I think UNC will win, because my blind optimism always thinks UNC can win. But I can give you a hundred reasons why they won't, either. With the Heels, you've got a team that may have given up on their coach, or may be motivated to send him out on a high note, or may just want to audition for the new guy. In Missouri, you have a team low on depth and short n consistency, but with a style of play that could explode. It's truly anybody's ball game, if anybody wants it.

If the year-plus parade of indignities on UNC's football program wasn't enough for you, we've got one more: Carolina has preemptively named Dwight Jones ineligible for next Monday's bowl game after a Burlington club used his name and image to promote a New Year's Eve party. Here's the flyer, which just screams something a college athlete shouldn't do:

Those of you in Burlington frantically changing your plans in the hopes of being one of Jones' "lucky ladies," don't bother. The party has been cancelled, and UNC has already begun the process to try to get him reinstated by the NCAA. They hope to hear back before Thursday, when the team leaves for Shreveport. A similar incident in Florida didn't seem to effect the eligibility of Sammy Watkins or Brodrick Jenkins, but both claimed not to be aware they were being used to publicize the party. There's been no such denial from Jones.

Of course, after the bowl game Jones will have exhausted his college eligibility anyway, which makes this particularly frustrating. Or, as Inside Carolina put it: "Remember kids, only the non-profit NCAA can use your image and likeness for profit."

Me, I'm off to check my books on etiquette to determine exactly what "sexxxy casual" is. Black tie with assless chaps? Shirtless with a cummerbund? I'm so confused.