weekend review

Hooray for a weekend with football in it. They say there was football last weekend too. Could've fooled me, I didn't see any UVA games so it couldn't have been much. This weekend, some stuff happened and some other stuff too, so here we go.....

Recruiting board gets a small update with:

- DE Horace Arkadie added to yellow.

- WR Demetri Knowles moved from yellow to blue.

Dominique Wallace's departure leaves another scholarship opening and the small possibility UVA goes harder after another running back, like Nyjee Fleming. But I don't see that happening. Too many priority targets and frankly, not enough space. There are 18 openings for next year, by my count, but don't forget that Javanti Sparrow could well return.

Then again, the coaches seem to think they need fifty defensive ends. Maybe Arkadie is being recruited as a linebacker. He's in the yellow section despite putting UVA in a top two or three because I can't imagine he's being recruited especially hard. I'd be pretty content if the coaches shut down recruiting except for about ten priority targets, even if they only landed one.

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News items!

Two from the department via the Sabre message board: one, Tim Smith is out for the year. If you'd told me on September 1 that Smith would be out with ankle surgery before October 1, my reaction would have been pretty R-rated. But Burd and Inman have been plenty productive and my initial reaction is that if that keeps up, there's no big loss in having Smith redshirt this year (he's very likely to receive a medical redshirt) and get an extra campaign out of him. I just hope that's not fool's gold given the quality of the competition. Regardless of whether it's a big loss or not, the surgery sounds like the right decision - a 60% Tim Smith isn't really any better than Jared Green.

Mike London tends to announce the weekend's uniform combo on his radio show, and blue-over-white is the call for this week. Which is good, I was worried that the so-called white-out would also mean white jerseys, which should never be worn at home I'm looking at you Georgia Tech.

Speaking of the white-out, with the game at noon on Raycom, I bet the athletic department regrets the decision to announce that particular promotion before the TV lineups were announced. Their recent promotions have been by and large a whopping success - the Building of a Program show and the ODU scrimmage were both huge hits - and it's starting to feel like the program is taking the shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach to promotions. Time to slow down here - now that they've wasted a big white-out deal on a noon game with a backwater network, something similar like an orange-out for a later game like Miami would start to feel contrived and stale.

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Checking in on the high schools:

Hermitage 17, Varina 12 - Varina's defense scored all 12 points; Diamonte Bailey and Hermitage pitched their offense a shutout and held them to 91 yards.

L.C. Bird 29, Thomas Dale 3 - Anthony Harris doin' it all: two touchdown throws and one more on the run, as well as an interception.

St. Christopher's 35, Norfolk Academy 0 - Thompson Brown in the news with 11 tackles in a shutout, and scored a touchdown too.

I.C. Norcom 47, Woodrow Wilson 7 - Kameron Mack's team rolls again.

Green Run 34, Salem 14 - Big win to get the season on track for David Dean.

Landstown 28, Cox 7 - Loss for Ross Burbank.

Kecoughtan 57, Menchville 6 - Menchville: not a good team. This is as good a time as any to point out that much respect came Clifton Richardson's way for not transferring.

Hampton 49, Denbigh 12 - David Watford has it easy most nights.

Glen Mills 33, H.D. Woodson 18 - Darius Redman held off the score sheet as Woodson loses an 18-0 halftime lead on their trip to Pennsylvania.

Stone Bridge 49, Thomas Jefferson 0 - Rob Burns helps hold Jefferson to 13 total yards of offense. You read that right.

Good Counsel 53, Bishop O'Connell 7 - Another shutout for our defenders, this time Vincent Croce. O'Connell scored on a kickoff return.

DeMatha 41, Paul VI 6 - Jordan Lomax blocks a punt.

Bishop Ireton 49, St. Stephen's/St. Agnes 13 - Yeowch for Darius Lee.

Damascus 22, Seneca Valley 16 - Dogfight for Brandon Phelps, but remains undefeated.

Independence 49, East Mecklenburg 6 - Adrian Gamble gets his first win of the year.

Boys' Latin 16, St. John's 12 - Squeaker for Marco Jones. Speaking of whom, here's some reading for you, interview-style.

Mt. Lebanon 28, Hopewell 20 - Got moved thanks to a power outage, but it didn't matter for Tim Cwalina's team.

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And the rest of the ACC?

VT 19, BC 0:

Dave Shinskie's play was "a special kind of horrible" and BC Interruption asks if we've seen the last of him, as BC will be making a quarterback change for next week. Shocking. And it says something really scary about BC's quarterback situation that Frank Spaziani claims it'll be a gametime decision. It's a bad enough sign when you can't figure out who your quarterback is all throughout training camp - if you're still holding competitions four weeks into the season, you truly have no quarterback and might as well toss a coin to see who gets the privilege of starting his college career by going 9 for 19 with three picks.

NC State 45, GT 28:

Winfield at From The Rumble Seat is trying to remain calm:

I don't post anything on Sundays because I am working on this year being more objective in my thoughts with a little less emotion. Rants and raves feel good (a little) but they don't get you anywhere.

Can't blame him, but wait til November, my friend. What good is writing a blog if you refuse to use it as a soapbox to call for the firing of everyone involved with the latest fiasco?

Maryland 42, FIU 28:

Danny O'Brien is starting to make a name for himself in College Park, brewing a bit of a quarterback controversy, and Testudo Times has no faith at all in the Fridge to manage it correctly.

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That's it for the weekend. If we're lucky this week, a little Q&A session looms to celebrate the first ACC game of the year.