Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images A weird wrinkle in a weird season There are very few things that are normal about this season, obviously. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the inherent weirdness of this season cannot exactly be overstated, despite my attempts. After positive coronavirus tests and contact tracing in Charlotte led to the cancellation of last Saturday’s game, the Heels found themselves staring down the barrel of unexpected downtime, pending a battery of phone calls to possible opponents to fill the open date this coming weekend. This search proved fruitless, evidently, and now Carolina is looking another consecutive week without the payoff of a Saturday game. Time off can be a double-edged sword. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s been away from work for a long enough time to completely forget what I was doing before the break. Trying to get back in the swing of things after a span of time away can feel like drinking from a fire hose, or trying to entertain oneself at home after six preceding months of being cooped up. Sometimes, it feels like it takes a Herculean effort. The comedown after a long break is rough, sure, but there’s a reason that people look forward to breaks with such breathless anticipation. A decent break from the day-to-day can have an incredible rejuvenating effect, after which I’ve always found myself refocused and better able to handle business (after the re-adjusting I mentioned above). It’s a fairly common story across sports. If a hockey team in the Stanley Cup playoffs wins a series expediently (á la my Carolina Hurricanes in the first round of this year’s tournament), the team faces questions about the way they’ll spend their time waiting for the other side of their bracket to finish their series. There seems to be a prevailing thought that a long break can cause a team to lose their edge. Time will tell if that will be the case for the Tar Heels; whether we see a focused and refreshed team on the back end of this hiatus or a team that comes out flat and needs to be punched in the proverbial mouth to wake up. Maybe this break will serve as a stand-in for the truncated offseason of this summer, or maybe it will only serve as a distraction from the coming game, which still feels like it’s an eternity away. The Eagles of Boston College lurk in the early part of the coming month, doubtlessly salivating over the prospect of a ranked win at home. The way the team from Chapel Hill is able to deal with this unexpected time off will be an interesting glimpse at the internal motivation of the team and the ability of the staff to keep the squad focused. Either way, at least for now, there’s still Carolina football on the horizon. That’s enough for me to be excited about.

Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images As expected, some unpredictability shook up our staff standings It was nice for me while it lasted. After going undefeated last week, I decided it was time to completely mess that up and overestimate how good Duke, Louisville, and Wake Forest would be. Thus, it’s back in the pack I go and new leaders have emerged. Here’s how everyone went this last weekend: As you can see, no one had a perfect week, but Douglas and Joe get the price for nearly getting there, going 6-1 each. There were a lot of 4-3’s, including yours truly, and that was enough to create a three-way tie for second, while Douglas and Joe rode their 6-1 weeks to vault into a tie for first. In dead last? Jake, who correctly predicted Boston College’s upset in Durham, and didn't really get much else right. The slate this week continues to be in flux, and keep in mind that this may even be outdated by the time you read this as more postponements are possible. We’ve already lost Notre Dame and Wake Forest thanks to some positive COVID tests in South Bend. You’re going to see this addressed in a curious way by one of our writers, and it’s caused a change in how we are going to score these predictions going forward. That’s right, Brandon decided to believe the reports out of Blacksburg that the VT/NCSU game won’t be played this weekend and actually took COVID. It’s created a new rule: if he’s right and the game is postponed, he gets a correct guess. If the game is played, he’s wrong. However, if the game is postponed everyone else isn’t penalized. This sets up as another weekend where we should see some separation, as there’s a pretty even split between the Cards and Pitt, Duke and UVa, and Virginia Tech and NC State. Will Brandon’s gamble pay off and give him a leg up on anyone? Should any of us guessed COVID was going to win in another game? We’ll keep an eye on Saturday.

Happy hump day friends! How are ya? I’ve been SO tired the last few nights that after putting P down, I’ve went to bed myself which means this is my first post of the week. I had originally planned to share my chili recipe with y’all, but you were all DM’ing me about our French...{Read more} The post The Best French Onion Crockpot Soup appeared first on Coffee Beans and Bobby Pins.