First, a sure sign that a player had a good day on Saturday: not one, but two fluff articles on Darren Childs. Childs did in fact have an excellent day; the highest praise, I think, is this:
Neither Sintim nor Copper had noticed Antonio Appleby limp off with an ankle injury early in the first quarter, and here was Childs, a seldom-used redshirt junior from San Diego, manning Appleby's spot at inside linebacker in the Cavaliers'3-4 defense.When you can jump on the field and make plays and the starters can't tell the difference? Excellent. Appleby's a fine, fine linebacker, but if he can't play, we'll be alright. It's Dowling you have to worry about.
Yeah, that was our tight end Phillips carrying the ball. No, don't expect that to ever happen again. Seriously. It's for the best.
The RTD's UVA Notes have some interesting bla bla bla about wide receivers and how they're way awesomer than last year, and some other stuff too, but the important - and scariest - tidbit is buried at the bottom: Calvin Baker, fresh off earning his scholarship, may miss the season with that foot injury of his. Ayyyyyy....I don't want to have to see us use Sylven Landesburg at the point, but now Leitao may have no choice. Landesburg is probably the most talented, and certainly the highest rated, recruit that Leitao has brought in, but A) freshman and B) I feel like - without actually having seen him play yet though - his skills are better suited to being left free to score and score without worrying about quarterbacking the offense. Baker is/was the best point guard we have - letting the offense fall to two guys (Landesburg and Sammy Zeglinski) who have next to nil experience running it bodes ill.
Lastly, the Miami game will be at noon on Raycom.
Now, as promised! The fifth Blogpoll Roundtable is up, and following in the tradition established so far this year of a couple of the same teams running the show, it is over at Corn Nation, who blog Nebraska for you.
1. We’re about half way through the season. Has your team met your expectations, wildly exceeded them, or are you about to light the torches and storm your athletic department demanding blood?
Yes. No? Huh. Which season? The one where we looked like a peewee team against Duke, or the one that just happened over the span of three weeks at Scott Stadium? Let's say this: If on August 29 you'd said we'd be 4-3 at this point in the season, I would have said that sounds about right. What's really happened, though, is that the corner pitchfork and torch store sold out early, and now everyone has an unused pitchfork rusting in the corner. Since we are so far 2-for-2 in the rivals department (that would be Maryland and UNC for the uninitiated), I am satisfied for now, and will call my expectations exceeded somewhat, since even before USC, UConn, and Duke happened to us, I did not expect 2-for-2 in the rivals department.
2. In an election year, all sorts of promises will be made, few will be kept. What is one promise or item you thought you could count on that hasn’t come to pass yet this season? Is there still a chance?
This has nothing to do with the chosen affiliation of this blog, but I thought Michigan would be any good at all. Yeesh.
3. Georgia #1... No, USC #1.… No, Oklahoma #1.… No, Texas #1! Who’s the real #1 team, and who do you think will make it to the big BCS National Title game?
Texas and Penn State, which would be a really cool old-school matchup. Texas is #1 and will stay that way: in grand fashion, they've already taken care of the biggest obstacles in their path. Penn State and Alabama both have fairly easy paths to the title (with only Ohio State and LSU, respectively, as bumps in the road) but 'Bama has that SEC CG to play, which will probably be against Florida. Texas has a championship game too but only has to get past whatever bums (sorry, roundtable hosts) the Big 12 North has to sacrifice to them.
4. In only a few weeks, college football fans get to be treated with the obligatory and annual “We Need a Playoff” screaming. Well, you don’t get a playoff, but I’ll let you make one change to the BCS (and no, you can’t cop out and have the BCS commit suicide) to make the world a better place. What is your change?
I refuse to play by the rules here. You get many changes, then the BCS is perfect, and even better, playoff-proof:
- Add the Cotton Bowl and Gator Bowl to make six.
- Affiliate each conference champion with one bowl: ACC with the Orange, SEC with the Sugar, etc. etc. (The Michigan fan in me weeps for the loss of the Big Ten-Pac 10 Rose Bowl, but this is for the good of the game.)
- Have a competition committee seed them, and select and seed six deserving at-large teams to play the conference champs.
- Play three games on New Year's Eve and three on New Year's Day.
- Then have the competition committee select the two most deserving teams from the bowl winners to play for the title one week later.
We can call this one big-ass change if it makes the rules people feel better.
5. Using this year ONLY - no historical references - respond to the statement “The Big 12 is a better conference than the SEC”. There’s nothing sillier than conference wars, but then again, there’s nothing sillier than how SEC fans respond to any challenge to their supremacy. Aim, Fire!
It does not cease to amaze me that the SEC can cannibalize itself and it is called "supremacy"; the ACC can cannibalize itself (and is doing so in spectacular fashion) and it is called "mediocrity". Seriously: Auburn 3, Mississippi State 2? The SEC has yet to do this year what the Big 12 has done: deliver a well-played, hard-fought game between two heavyweight contenders. For a conference that constantly whines about beating each other up and having so many extra hurdles to a national title, you'd think teams like LSU and Georgia would put up a better fight when it's time to throw down with Florida and Alabama instead of getting choke-slammed on national TV.
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