4.10.03
Zuerst: Evidently I'm an idiot, because I can't figure the ACC out. More on this later.
College Football: I will undoubtedly post more later, but I'll start here:
"No. 24 Florida's 20-17 loss to Ole Miss is bad because A) the Gators had won 58 straight in The Swamp over non-ranked teams; B) it's Ron Zook's fourth home loss in two years. It took eight years to lose four at home before Zook arrived; C) it's the second straight to Ole Miss or D) all of the above."
That is what I saw when I opened ESPN's college football page. Last I had heard, UF led 17-13. Guess Ole Miss scored a TD to pull it out. And I'm not sure whether I'm a closet UF fan (I will admit that I'm a fan of Coach Superior) or a UF basher. Probably the latter, considering that I, being only about 4 hours from Knoxville, will, more often than not, root for the Vols. Eh.
Va Tech won. SHOCKER! They lost by 1 against the last line I saw (Tech -27; they won 48-22). KJ ran for 100 for the third straight game (103 to be precise), though it wasn't as impressive as the 180 yds against Texas A&M or the 9.0 yds/carry (total 108 yds) against UConn. And now Syracuse comes calling next week at noon, for homecoming. I remember the last time SU came into town for homecoming; they were ranked something like 15th and Tech was 2nd or 3rd. Gameday came to town, and Tech beat 'em 62-0 (Oct. 1999). With the defence intercepting 4 passes today, and with the special teams blocking a kick, maybe something similar will happen next week. Tech owes SU some revenge for the past 2 years.
My CIC pick was wrong. And here's a thought I had not long after Navy upset Air Force: Did Rutgers catch Navy looking ahead? Something to think about. And, considering that Army is terrible, Navy is in very good shape to win their first CIC trophy since the last year of the George Welsh era, in 1981. Anchors Aweigh, my boy. Anchors Aweigh.
I was wrong about Minnesota and Northwestern. Whoops. Don't know what to say. Maybe the Gophers are for real (yeah, right).
Iowa is within 3 at half against Michigan despite being outgained by something like 175 yards.
Nebraska shut Troy State out. Troy State had to travel to Lincoln, and was coming off an emotional win over Marshall. Call me shocked that they didn't score. This does nothing to prove that they're not overrated. That will come later against K-State (getting their asses kicked right now) and other conference foes (I forget who they have from the South, but I don't think that OU is one of the 3).
Oregon has 2 bad losses in a row...the blowout against Wazzu, and a close loss to a non-BCS team. Guess they don't have to worry about students tossing packets of Dixie Crystal sugar in the stands (unlike in Blacksburg, where the same was commonplace 4 years ago, and is again commonplace). I chose Dixie Crystal because, at least in the last Sugar Bowl that I attended (Va Tech's last trip down there), Dixie Crystal was "proud to be the sugar in the bowl", as announced on the bigscreens during every timeout, both by teams and for TV. Thought that was very cool.
SC is tied with Arizona State at half. In a previous column (I analysed their 10 point win over Utah St.), I mentioned that if they played like that they'd get slapped around by SC and Wazzu (yes, I'm too lazy to find a quote). Should I have said Iowa and Oregon St.?
The last time I remember WVU losing 22-20 (it may not be the last time they actually lost by that score, because I don't remember their scores for more than the 2 seconds after seeing/hearing them it takes me to analyse whether they won or lost), WVU scored a TD with 75 seconds left, and a nameless first year starter QB drove the opponents into field goal range, and a late field goal (in that case game-ending) won it for the opponent. The opponent, incidentally, went on to that year's Sugar Bowl. At this point, you're probably saying "name the damn opponent and QB already". I'll give you a hint. I already mentioned the team's Sugar Bowl appearance earlier in this column, and the QB has a brother who is now at the same university, playing for the same coach, and holding the same title aspirations (I'll give the names at the end of the blog entry).
So here's my question: What is up with the ACC? Am I the only one who can't figure the conference out? Here's what I have:
At the end of the season, I wouldn't be surprised to say that this year wasn't nearly as different as previous years as everyone (myself included) believed: Looking at it, FSU will dominate the conference again. Yawn.
Just heard that the Giants lost today to lose the series to the Marlins 3 games to 1. Congrats to the Marlins. Always good to see that bitterman Barry Bonds denied a title.
People are saying about Notre Dame that they'll be 1-7 going into the Navy game. The implication is that Navy is an automatic victory for ND. Perhaps not this year. Just a thought. Maybe the longest winning streak by a D I-A team against another I-A team (ND has beaten Navy somewhere in the vicinity of 40 times in a row; the last time Navy beat ND, some no-talent named Staubach quarterbacked the Mids) will end up belonging to someone else.
Zuletzt: About the last time I remember WVU losing 22-20. Va Tech won in Morgantown by that score, in November 1999. Tech scores to go up by damn near 2 TDs, and kicks off. The returner fumbles, and this is recovered and returned deep into Tech territory. They score a TD, and recover an onside kick, and score another TD with 75 seconds left. Now, the group of people I was with went apeshit. My sister, in the Tech band which had travelled to Morgantown, actually was televised with a shocked and apprehensive expression on her face. But Michael Vick's big run down the sideline set this up on the last play of the game. And Tech went on to beat Miami's ass at home, spotting them 10 points before busting 43 out on them and breaking it open in the 4th qtr., followed that up by beating Temple, and beating BC (you may have noticed the spectacular sunset which made that week's SI; it was the one with Andre Davis on the cover. I still have a copy of the SI somewhere.
May post later, after more games. R.
College Football: I will undoubtedly post more later, but I'll start here:
"No. 24 Florida's 20-17 loss to Ole Miss is bad because A) the Gators had won 58 straight in The Swamp over non-ranked teams; B) it's Ron Zook's fourth home loss in two years. It took eight years to lose four at home before Zook arrived; C) it's the second straight to Ole Miss or D) all of the above."
That is what I saw when I opened ESPN's college football page. Last I had heard, UF led 17-13. Guess Ole Miss scored a TD to pull it out. And I'm not sure whether I'm a closet UF fan (I will admit that I'm a fan of Coach Superior) or a UF basher. Probably the latter, considering that I, being only about 4 hours from Knoxville, will, more often than not, root for the Vols. Eh.
Va Tech won. SHOCKER! They lost by 1 against the last line I saw (Tech -27; they won 48-22). KJ ran for 100 for the third straight game (103 to be precise), though it wasn't as impressive as the 180 yds against Texas A&M or the 9.0 yds/carry (total 108 yds) against UConn. And now Syracuse comes calling next week at noon, for homecoming. I remember the last time SU came into town for homecoming; they were ranked something like 15th and Tech was 2nd or 3rd. Gameday came to town, and Tech beat 'em 62-0 (Oct. 1999). With the defence intercepting 4 passes today, and with the special teams blocking a kick, maybe something similar will happen next week. Tech owes SU some revenge for the past 2 years.
My CIC pick was wrong. And here's a thought I had not long after Navy upset Air Force: Did Rutgers catch Navy looking ahead? Something to think about. And, considering that Army is terrible, Navy is in very good shape to win their first CIC trophy since the last year of the George Welsh era, in 1981. Anchors Aweigh, my boy. Anchors Aweigh.
I was wrong about Minnesota and Northwestern. Whoops. Don't know what to say. Maybe the Gophers are for real (yeah, right).
Iowa is within 3 at half against Michigan despite being outgained by something like 175 yards.
Nebraska shut Troy State out. Troy State had to travel to Lincoln, and was coming off an emotional win over Marshall. Call me shocked that they didn't score. This does nothing to prove that they're not overrated. That will come later against K-State (getting their asses kicked right now) and other conference foes (I forget who they have from the South, but I don't think that OU is one of the 3).
Oregon has 2 bad losses in a row...the blowout against Wazzu, and a close loss to a non-BCS team. Guess they don't have to worry about students tossing packets of Dixie Crystal sugar in the stands (unlike in Blacksburg, where the same was commonplace 4 years ago, and is again commonplace). I chose Dixie Crystal because, at least in the last Sugar Bowl that I attended (Va Tech's last trip down there), Dixie Crystal was "proud to be the sugar in the bowl", as announced on the bigscreens during every timeout, both by teams and for TV. Thought that was very cool.
SC is tied with Arizona State at half. In a previous column (I analysed their 10 point win over Utah St.), I mentioned that if they played like that they'd get slapped around by SC and Wazzu (yes, I'm too lazy to find a quote). Should I have said Iowa and Oregon St.?
The last time I remember WVU losing 22-20 (it may not be the last time they actually lost by that score, because I don't remember their scores for more than the 2 seconds after seeing/hearing them it takes me to analyse whether they won or lost), WVU scored a TD with 75 seconds left, and a nameless first year starter QB drove the opponents into field goal range, and a late field goal (in that case game-ending) won it for the opponent. The opponent, incidentally, went on to that year's Sugar Bowl. At this point, you're probably saying "name the damn opponent and QB already". I'll give you a hint. I already mentioned the team's Sugar Bowl appearance earlier in this column, and the QB has a brother who is now at the same university, playing for the same coach, and holding the same title aspirations (I'll give the names at the end of the blog entry).
So here's my question: What is up with the ACC? Am I the only one who can't figure the conference out? Here's what I have:
- Florida State is apparently underrated. Yeah, they probably deserved to lose against Ga Tech, but they came back when they had to. And they've beaten the crap out of everyone else since. Maybe Miami will be a test for them.
- Duke and Carolina both suck. This seems obvious.
- Ga Tech hammers Auburn (one of the most overrated teams in my lifetime), then beats FSU in everything but score (yeah, I know, score is what counts. Indulge me). The Jackets then get blasted against Clemson. They then beat NC State. I suppose that I have to draw the conclusion that, non-conference succes notwithstanding...
- NCSU is overrated. Fine, they beat Carolina. They lost to Tech today, and they lost to Wake before travelling to Ohio State. Perhaps I'll reconsider this judgment if they beat Maryland, Virginia or (especially) FSU.
- Virginia and Maryland. Both of these teams lose on the road to non-conference underdogs. But they're playing well in conference (Maryland's abortion against FSU notwithstanding). UVa beat Wake. Maryland is leading Clemson at the half. Ummmm....yeah.
- Clemson. They suffer their worst home loss since they were shut out in September 1998 against Va Tech (this is, probably, Danny West's Death Knell. It set the tone for a horrendous 3-8 season). They rebound to beat Middle Tennessee St. (no big feat), go on to beat the everliving shit out of Ga Tech, and are losing against Maryland.
- And Wake. One big win and people (including me...I actually am in range of Wake's flagship radio station, which broadcasts from Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Mt. Airy and Galax - I have to assume that I'm getting the Galax signal, and fairly clearly I might add) jumped on the "Wake will be a factor in the conference title" bandwagon. The come-from-ahead loss to UVa cured me of that. Maybe, since everyone (except FSU thus far) is on the mediocrity train, they may yet be. But, after losing to UVa the way they did, it's not a bet that I'd be comfortable making.
At the end of the season, I wouldn't be surprised to say that this year wasn't nearly as different as previous years as everyone (myself included) believed: Looking at it, FSU will dominate the conference again. Yawn.
Just heard that the Giants lost today to lose the series to the Marlins 3 games to 1. Congrats to the Marlins. Always good to see that bitterman Barry Bonds denied a title.
People are saying about Notre Dame that they'll be 1-7 going into the Navy game. The implication is that Navy is an automatic victory for ND. Perhaps not this year. Just a thought. Maybe the longest winning streak by a D I-A team against another I-A team (ND has beaten Navy somewhere in the vicinity of 40 times in a row; the last time Navy beat ND, some no-talent named Staubach quarterbacked the Mids) will end up belonging to someone else.
Zuletzt: About the last time I remember WVU losing 22-20. Va Tech won in Morgantown by that score, in November 1999. Tech scores to go up by damn near 2 TDs, and kicks off. The returner fumbles, and this is recovered and returned deep into Tech territory. They score a TD, and recover an onside kick, and score another TD with 75 seconds left. Now, the group of people I was with went apeshit. My sister, in the Tech band which had travelled to Morgantown, actually was televised with a shocked and apprehensive expression on her face. But Michael Vick's big run down the sideline set this up on the last play of the game. And Tech went on to beat Miami's ass at home, spotting them 10 points before busting 43 out on them and breaking it open in the 4th qtr., followed that up by beating Temple, and beating BC (you may have noticed the spectacular sunset which made that week's SI; it was the one with Andre Davis on the cover. I still have a copy of the SI somewhere.
May post later, after more games. R.
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