It was an ill-fated week for FBS football teams from the state of North Carolina. The team from Raleigh lost on Friday night to an astonishingly 5-0 Louisville, East Carolina lost to Rice yesterday afternoon, a moribund UNC Charlotte got trounced by SMU, Duke lost to Notre Dame in primetime in heartbreaking fashion (go Irish), and even the mighty Mountaineers of Appalachian State needed a borderline miracle to escape Louisiana-Monroe with a walk-off game-winning field goal. (For what it’s worth, Wake Forest was also on a bye this week).
There were obviously bad vibes bouncing in an oblong fashion around the Old North State; maybe a looming haint from the rapidly-approaching Halloween season, or perhaps simply bills coming due from early-season luck.