ROSES to the North Carolina football team, which put smiles on the faces of Butch Davis and Tar Heel fans everywhere with a thoroughly convincing victory Saturday in Davis' first game as UNC's coach.

Granted, the opponent, James Madison, wasn't the mightiest team in the land, but that didn't really matter. Carolina's football team had hovered between mediocre and downright awful for so long that Saturday's season-opening victory truly felt like a new day dawning. It wasn't just the W, although those have been few and far between (Saturday's win was just UNC's third victory in a season opener in the past 10 years). It was the confidence and conviction with which the Tar Heels played. They didn't just get lucky and slip and fall into a win; they played as if they knew what they were supposed to do and were determined and able to do it. That hasn't always been the case around here.

Quarterback T.J. Yates, a redshirt freshman making his first start, turned in a solid game; most impressive was the way he shook off a first-quarter interception and kept right on keeping on. The defense played well, and the special teams blocked a pair of punts. Things will get considerably tougher in the weeks to come, and we're certainly not going to proclaim the Dark Ages over on the basis of one good game. But at least for one lovely Saturday it was great fun to be a Carolina fan again.


This is a little bit far afield, but while we're on the subject we have to throw a bouquet of ROSES westward to Appalachian State, too. Is there anyone outside Ann Abor who is not an ASU fan just now? The Mountaineers on Saturday pulled off what many are calling the greatest upset in college football history, outplaying No. 5 Michigan -- the game's winningest program -- on the Wolverines' home field.

App State isn't exactly Lizard Lick Community College -- the Mountaineers are two-time defending national champions in what we all still call Division I-AA (which, for reasons we don't even want to hear, has been renamed the "Football Championship Subdivision"). Still, no team in that category had ever before beaten a ranked I-A -- sorry, "Football Bowl Subdivision" -- team. Way to go, ASU.


ROSES to Carrboro's Pickett Land & Building Company, which recently donated $10,000 to the Orange Community Housing and Land Trust.

The land trust is a local nonprofit organization that works to provide affordable housing to residents with low to moderate incomes. Since its start in 2000, it has become an essential partner in the constant effort to make permanently affordable housing available in a housing market that is otherwise out of reach for vast numbers of people who work here.

Pickett, a family-owned and operated company and a member of the Green Building Council, made the donation to be used for long-term maintenance of Land Trust homes. That will make a real difference for some homeowners without a lot of resources.