weekend review

Not a lot of newsy stuff this weekend. Which is nice. Saves you and me time. Let's see what there is.....

No official word on the injuries to Antonio Appleby and Ras-I Dowling. Groh doesn't sound mightily encouraged, but then he has never been accused of overbubbly optimism. Poster Battman at TheSabre offers some hopeful news on Appleby, for what it's worth. I'm not gonna lie: Appleby would be a painful loss but we can do without him; Darren Childs played a respectable game in his absence. Dowling, on the other hand, is the second-best player on the defense after Sintim. Without him our pass coverage takes a serious hit and we're left open to the big play.

From Bottom 10 to Boise. ESPN had us pegged as a target of mockery earlier in the year, and readers of Heather Dinich's blog-like column probably tired of her weekly jabs. Win a few games and suddenly you make the weekly bowl projections. At great risk of sounding ingrateful considering where we stood three weeks ago: I don't want to go to Boise and play Boise State. Mark Schlabach tosses a bone our way as well, though it's not hard to figure that he thinks we'll no longer be a factor after this week.

Oh, and the unwritten, unspoken, and nonexistent blogger code says I have to link this, although the probability approaches 1 that you've already seen it. The next time a ref blows a call somewhere, just remind yourself it could be ever so much worse.

Movement on the recruiting front. The recruiting board sees an update this week, as follows:

- Added LB Luke Kuechly. Kuechly has us in a final four that also includes BC, Stanford, and Duke. That's the good news. The bad news is that "the coaches seem really nice" is not the most ringing of endorsements. He's listed as "good" chance for now, but we'll see.
- Added a list of schools under Joshua Evans. Previously it just said "many" there. He's still not exactly the best chance for a commit that we have this year. Florida is usually mentioned next to his name, and they are supposedly going after him hard.
- Added UNC to Brennan Williams' finalists. Odd timing, considering Williams' official to Charlottesville was this weekend. ($)
- Changed Tajh Boyd's finalists ($) to BC, Tennessee, Oregon, and PSU. Seriously, let's not get our hopes up here.

Now for the already-committed players and their weekend games.....

DOMINIQUE WALLACE: I never get tired of reading about this guy. 155 yards, four touchdowns, and for good measure an interception as Chancellor stays undefeated with a win over Courtland.

ROSS METHENY: Uh-oh. Metheny was 27/45 passing for 403 yards (yowza) with 2 TDs and 2 picks. But Sherando lost the game 17-14, and worse yet Metheny tweaked his knee. He was walking around after the game, but still. Metheny is probably guaranteed to redshirt next year anyway, but you never want a guy to get hurt even slightly if he's in the succession line at quarterback.

TUCKER WINDLE: Had 4 carries for 43 yards and a catch for 19 as CC defeated Garringer 42-19. (Again, you'll just have to kind of click through....and again, Windle will be a linebacker in college.)

A spin on the ACC merry-go-round....

FSU knocked off NC State 26-17, which is pretty easy these days, and Scalp 'Em knows he is on an island by calling it not an ugly win. State Fans Nation sees his team bringing a spork to a gun fight.

Maryland shut out Wake Forest 26-0. Turtle Waxing is still pretty depressed about the Terps' chances, but they've got nothing on the raincloud hovering over Old Gold & Blog.

Georgia Tech joined the Make Clemson's Season Miserable parade by beating them 21-17. As GT is this week's opponent, look later this week for a Q&A session with The LegacyX4.

Miami rallied to beat Duke, 49-31. So, transitively speaking, the Canes should beat us by 49, which would be cruel one-upmanship over last year's 48-0 spanking.

Boston College took down the Hokies this week, ha. Gobbler Country is jumping aboard the Fire Stinespring bandwagon, as if the overcrowding is not already breaking all applicable fire codes and threatening to crack an axle. CGB illustrates the point.

Lastly, one note. One slight change has already happened to this week's Blogpoll ballot, as USF gets bumped from 14th to 17th. Go check it out and continue to help me fix it so that it can be the bestest ballot ever.