weekend review

This is a good Monday for looking back at season previews; specifically, bowl eligibility predictions.  This is because Boston College won their sixth game of the season this Saturday, fairly ruthlessly stomping NC State to both gain bowl eligibility and end NC State's chances of same.  I get to crow since I'm damn near positive I'm the only prognosticator who called this.  (BC, that is.)  Since there's no game predictions to look back on this week, how'm'I doing on the season overall?

I said that four teams would fail to make eligibility: Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, and Maryland.  One has (Maryland) and one (Wake Forest) probably will not - they play Duke and Vanderbilt to finish the season.**  Of the conference newcomers, one is guaranteed to go, since they play each other this coming weekend and are both 5-5.  The loser will have a tough but not impossible time making it, having to beat either BC (Cuse) or Miami (Pitt) in the final week.  So I'll probably be two for four in picking non-eligible teams.

Picking certain teams like FSU and Clemson to go bowling are not worth taking credit for, but I'd say the most likely outcome is that I get eight of ten bowl-eligible teams correct, calling FSU, Clemson, GT, BC, VT, Duke, Miami, and UNC and miss on two (NC State and UVA.)  Also, unless something goes totally haywire I'll get to claim FSU for the ACC title when 80% of the media picked Clemson.

Then there's the Coastal Conference title.  If Duke wins out, they get to go to the ACCCG, which I'm like whaaaaaaaaat.  But I don't think there's a scenario in which my original pick, UNC, can go.  In fact all roads lead to VT except in two cases: 1) Duke winning out or 2) a really tortured and ridiculously unlikely scenario that includes a Mike London win over VT.  So I went out on some limbs; that one broke.

**And how screwed up is college football when Duke and Vanderbilt are considered insurmountable obstacles to bowl eligibility?

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Senior Seasons moves into high school playoff season, with seven of our eleven recruits in action this week:

Peachtree Ridge 59, Lassiter 20: Earlier this season, Jordan Ellis set a school record with five touchdowns in a game.  The record didn't last long, because he scored six this weekend, and racked up 262 yards besides. 

Upland 21, South Hills 14 (Jeffery Farrar)
Central Catholic 47, Bishop Verot 0 (Caanan Brown)
Oscar Smith 35, Bayside 0 (Andrew Brown, Quin Blanding)
Varina 26, Woodbridge 21 (Donovan Dowling)
Woodgrove 45, Loudoun County 7 (J.J. Jackson)

Handy wins, then, for many of our players, and wins for all but Quin Blanding and Bayside, who were predictably mowed down by the Oscar Smith juggernaut.  On the plus side for the Marlins, that was Oscar Smith's second-smallest margin of victory all season.

And, though we're not officially tracking it here since that would be Junior Seasons, Juan Thornhill and Altavista advanced in the first round as well, way down in 1A.

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Lastly, you're not a fan if you don't read the ESPN puff piece on Joe Harris.  Let's face it: one major measure of relevance as a program is if ESPN is doing large features on your players.  As capitulatory as that sounds to the hegemonic obelisk of the WWL.