All posts by Cliff Barnes

Duke, Featured stories, The skinny

Both Duke and Wake coaches believe their teams are similar

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At the Wednesday weekly ACC coaches news conference, both Duke coach David Cutcliffe and Coach Jim Grobe had similar answers to this question. How would you characterize the Duke-Wake football rivalry (which renews this weekend)?

COACH CUTCLIFFE: I think it’s two teams that obviously come from similar universities that makes it a rivalry, geographic location make it’s a rivalry. Circumstances, like I said, that most universities are faced with. I think the thing is right now our programs are very similar. You have two teams that are going to play extremely hard, two teams that are going to be disciplined. They’re going to compete like crazy. Since I’ve been at Duke, and really quite often in recent times even before we came, a very hotly contested game, and it’s going to always be an exciting, good football game for the fans.

COACH GROBE: Well, I think it’s a great rivalry because the games have been really, really close. That’s what you look for in a rivalry, and our schools are so similar. We’re academic schools playing in a big-time football league. I think we’ve got both of us have a bunch of kids from North Carolina. A lot of our kids have played against each other in high school, so they’ve probably
developed a little bit of competitiveness going against each other at the high school level, and they get up here and it continues for four years. Our universities are very similar. Every year our games have been really, really close. We’ve had some barn burners playing each other since I’ve been at Wake Forest, and I would expect that that will continue Saturday.

Featured stories, N.C. State, The skinny

Can O’Brien get State on track during second half of season again?

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N.C. State is coming off a bye week to play Virginia. A healthier Wolfpack will be taking on the second half of the season, a time that Tom O’Brien coached teams have done well. How does he do it?

“Our first year was a question of getting the right people in the lineup,” Coach O’Brien said. “We had the wrong people in the wrong spots and was able to restructure the defense and the offense. The second year, we were in a situation like we were now where we had so many injuries the first half of the year that we couldn’t get any continuity until we got to the off week and got people healthy and got back at it again.”

Unfortunately, while bumps and bruises have healed, the Pack hasn’t gotten many players back from the injury list. “So we used the off week to try to get the guys that are going to have to play the second half of the year fundamentally sound and better football players,” O’Brien said. “We are who we are, and we’re going to go play the second half of the year.”

Players who could possibly return for the game at Virginia are A.J. Ferguson (DT) and Curtis Underwood (HB).

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

UNC’s Barth might be redshirted if his leg continues to bother him

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Preseason Groza Award candidate Casey Barth has been injured most of the season and UNC is looking into redshirting the senior kicker from Wilmington.

“Right now we are not ready for Casey to kick,” UNC coach Everett Withers said. “In fact, we’re investigating the situation of possibly redshirting him. We’re going to look into the ACC office about a hardship possibility.”

Withers said he didn’t want Casey to come back until he is 100 percent healthy and his leg continues to bother him. “We just felt like in our best interest and in his also, and his family’s and this football team, not to push him out there, not to rush him.”

Featured stories, Redskins, The skinny, UNC

Hanburger selected as Carolina’s Legend for ACC championship game

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Professional Football Hall of Famer Chris Hanburger has been named Carolina’s 2011 Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game Legend. The Legends (one from each school) will be honored at this year’s Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game weekend.

They will be honored at the ACC Night of Legends event on Friday, Dec. 2, and during ceremonies at Bank of America Stadium for the 7th Annual Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship, which has an 8 p.m. kickoff on Dec. 3 and will be nationally televised
by ESPN in both HD and 3-D.

Hanburger (1962-64), was a standout linebacker and center for the North Carolina teams of coach Jim Hickey in the early-to-mid 1960s. Named a first-team All-ACC selection as a center in both 1963 and 1964, he helped lead the 1963 Tar Heel team to a 9-2 record, a share of the ACC championship and a 35-0 win over Air Force in the Gator Bowl.

Drafted on the 18th round of the 1965 NFL Draft by the Washington Redskins, Hanburger went on to play 14 seasons in Washington, where he earned nine Pro Bowl selections and was regarded as one of the best outside linebackers of his era. Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in August at Canton, Ohio, he played in 187 NFL games and was voted to the All-NFL team four times.

A mainstay of the dominant Washington Redskin teams of the 1970s, he made 19 career interceptions, returning them for 347 yards and two touchdowns. He led Washington to the 1972 NFC Championship and Super Bowl VII. That year, he was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Year. Originally a native of Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, he now lives in Darlington, S.C.

Featured stories, The skinny

Hurricanes assign rookie Faulk to Charlotte

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Carolina Hurricanes today announced that the team has assigned defenseman Justin Faulk to the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League (AHL).

Faulk, 19, made his NHL debut with the Hurricanes in the team’s season opener on Oct. 7 against Tampa Bay. The South St. Paul, MN, native has played in three of the Hurricanes’ six games this season, averaging 18:59 of ice time per game. Faulk (6’0”, 205 lbs.) is in his first full professional season after winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship with the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in 2010-11. The Hurricanes drafted Faulk in the second round, 37th overall, in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

The Carolina Hurricanes will continue their four-game road swing on Friday at St. Louis (8 p.m. ET, FOX Sports Carolinas HD, Hurricanes Radio Network) in the first game of a back-to-back set that wraps up on Saturday at Winnipeg. The Hurricanes will return to the RBC Center on Tuesday, Oct. 25, to face the Ottawa Senators. For information on 2011-12 Carolina Hurricanes ticket packages, please visit www.CarolinaHurricanes.com, or call 1-866-NHL-CANES.

Duke, Featured stories, N.C. State, UNC

ACC announces football game times, TV for Oct. 27-29

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The Atlantic Coast Conference has announced the following game times and networks for Oct. 27-29:

Thursday, Oct. 27
Virginia at Miami, ESPN, 8 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 29
NC State at Florida State, ESPNU, Noon
Virginia Tech at Duke, ACC Network, 12:30 p.m.
Boston College at Maryland, RSN, 3 p.m.
Wake Forest at North Carolina, ESPNU, 3:30 p.m.
Clemson at Georgia Tech, ABC, ESPN or ESPN2#, 8 p.m.

#Network for Clemson at Georgia Tech to be announced after the games of Oct. 22.

Featured stories, The skinny

After a 10-0 week of predictions, Week 9 of high school football season is upon us

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The game of the night may very well be the Cary at Panther Creek match up. Each team has two losses and Panther Creek is playing at home but I’m going with Cary. The Imps did not play last week so they have an extra week to prepare for Panther Creek, which was not impressive in a win against weak Lee. Here are 10 football games being played tonight that are within driving distance in the Triangle area. Most games are at 7:30 p.m. You might want to check with local officials as some games start at 7. In bold below are the predicted winners. Last week my record was 10-0 for a 64-16 season mark.

Apex at Northern Durham

Cary at Panther Creek

East Chapel Hill at Southern Durham

East Wake at Southeast Raleigh

Enloe at Wakefield

Fuquay-Varina at Holly Springs

Garner at Knightdale

Heritage at Broughton

Lee County at Green Hope

Leesville Road at Millbrook

Other games in the Triangle include Middle Creek at Athens Drive, North Raleigh Christian at Ravenscroft and Northern Vance at Cardinal Gibbons. Check the scores at the top of the left navigation bar on this page.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

White House announces that Obama will be at UNC’s opener

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The White House announced Thursday that President Barack Obama will be in attendance Nov. 11 when the UNC Tar Heels play Michigan State on the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson in San Diego.

The Tar Heels are the only team that ended the 2010-11 season in the top 10 to return all five starters.

At Thursday’s basketball media day, UNC coach Roy Williams said that the Carrier Classic will be one of the biggest thrills of his career and that he couldn’t wait for the season to begin.

Williams said, “We’re excited to say the least. It’s my favorite time of the year, the next four weeks. It’s where you really do get to coach. It’s a lot of fun to get on the floor with your team.”

The Tar Heels will have some fun tonight at Late Night with Roy that begins at 5 p.m. with a women’s volleyball match prior to skits and general clowning around by the team and an inter-squad basketball game.

Featured stories, The skinny

Charlotte Checkers owner becomes part owner of Carolina Hurricanes

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Peter Karmanos Jr., Chief Executive Officer, Owner and Governor of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced Michael Kahn as a partner in the ownership of the Hurricanes. Kahn is the Owner and Governor of Carolina’s American Hockey League affiliate, the Charlotte Checkers.

“Both organizations, the Hurricanes and the Checkers, are heavily committed to the growth of hockey in the Carolinas,” Kahn said. “Investing in the Hurricanes not only solidifies my support for Mr. Karmanos and his vision for the sport in the South, but also my support and belief in the growth of the game. The Hurricanes are a top notch organization led by Mr. Karmanos and Mr. Rutherford and I am extremely excited to have been afforded the opportunity to join them. I believe both organizations have very bright futures and I look forward to what is on the horizon for the Hurricanes, Checkers and the sport of hockey itself.”

Born and raised in Atlanta, Kahn has been involved in a family-owned wine and spirits business all of his life. He is the chief operating officer of Empire Distributors Inc., originally founded by his grandfather in 1940. Kahn, who has been nominated as Outstanding Philanthropist of the Year, currently resides in Charlotte with his wife, Wendy, and three sons.

The Carolina Hurricanes today travel to Buffalo, where they will take on the Sabres on Friday (7:30 p.m., FOX Sports Carolinas, Hurricanes Radio Network) in the first game of a four-game road stretch. The team’s next home game is on Oct. 25, when Carolina hosts the Ottawa Senators at the RBC Center. For information on 2011-12 Carolina Hurricanes ticket packages, please visit www.CarolinaHurricanes.com, or call 1-866-NHL-CANES.

Featured stories, The skinny, UNC

Tulsa AD Bubba Cunningham to become UNC’s new AD, report says

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Sources reported in the early evening that Bubba Cunningham, Tulsa’s athletic director, had interviewed and was a serious and likely candidate for the UNC athletic director position, being vacated by Dick Baddour. By late night tonight, Inside Carolina was reporting that Cunningham will indeed be the new AD at Carolina.

“Multiple sources confirmed that three candidates, with Cunningham tabbed as the top choice, were recommended to Thorp at that meeting,” Greg Barnes of Inside Carolina is reporting.

Cunningham, who became athletics director at Tulsa in 2005, has led Tulsa to success since Conference USA’s realignment in 2005. Tulsa has 34 league championships, more than any other school.

One of Cunningham’s jobs will be to hire a football coach, something he did at Tulsa. Cunningham hired former Tulsa football coach Todd Graham, who led the program to three 10-win seasons over four years, the first time it had been accomplished in school history.

Cunningham, a Notre Dame grad, has no obvious connections to North Carolina. He played intercollegiate golf for the Irish.