game preview: East Carolina

TV: Raycom

History against the Pirates: 0-2

Last matchup: ECU 31, UVA 21 (2006)

Team records: UVA 2-3 (1-1), ECU 3-2 (1-1)

Last week: UVA beat Maryland 31-0, ECU off

Line: ECU by 5.5

ECU hangouts: Boneyard Banter

ECU season preview here.

Injury report:

OUT: OT Landon Bradley, LB Aaron Clark, TB Max Milien, FB Keith Payne, TE Joe Torchia

DOUBTFUL: OG Zak Stair

QUESTIONABLE: DE Kevin Crawford, LB John-Kevin Dolce, K Yannick Reyering, TB Hall Simmons

PROBABLE: OG B.J. Cabbell, WR Maurice Covington, TE Andrew Devlin, CB Vic Hall

It was really very rude of this team, going off and proving me quite the idiot last week. I wrote a snarky post that was full of rainclouds and doom instead of the uncannily sharp insight I normally provide, and they go off and bust some Terrapin skull. In the span of three all-too-short hours, a season that appeared to be headed for historical infamy suddenly looked rosy and, dare I say it, bowl-y, again. And as an added bonus, ECU, after a promising start to the season, has hit the skids and is tumbling fast. This looked like a surefire loss three weeks into the season; three more weeks changed everything.

HOW WE CAN WIN

- Everything we did last week? Do it again. In particular the blocking. Austin Pasztor will get the start again in place of Zak Stair. Stair is listed as doubtful but one place he isn't listed is the depth chart; Pasztor starts and is backed up by Patrick Slebonick. The man was a bulldozer against Maryland, but he's a 17-year-old freshman. If he can shake the usual freshman inconsistencies and repeat that performance, that left side of the line will be wide open all day for Peerman.

- Zero in on Patrick Pinkney. Pinkney is the guy that makes the ECU offense go. The running game isn't really special unless it's Pinkney himself with the ball - even then, he's more of a scrambling quarterback than a running one. To make things harder he's accurate on the go. The linebackers must contain, contain, contain, and the cornerbacks have got to have the discipline not to leave their man early or Pinkney will find them for big gains. It's going to take some quality coaching to come up with the right scheme at the right time to keep this guy in check.

HOW WE CAN LOSE

- Complacency. Hard to believe a 2-3 team could be overconfident about anything, but these have been some crazy circumstances so far and most 2-3 teams aren't coming off a feel-good blowout win over a rival. It'd be easy - hell, it'd be human nature - to let the Maryland win simmer for too long, and for the team to find themselves in a 17-0 hole before they know it.

- The O-line play from last week turns out to be an anomaly. Look, they spent four games getting pushed into the backfield, and one not. Odds would seem to favor a return to the ways that led to horrible beatdowns.

HOW THE GAME WILL GO

Last week showed us what kind of talent there really is on this team. The skill position players are better than what offensive line allowed them to show off in the first four games. So now we have a pretty good bead on how the rest of the year will go, and it's simple: Offensive line good, team good, assuming the defense keeps up. It's been feast or famine all year and we can probably expect some more frustrating moments before the end. This should not be one of them. ECU is fading fast and losing key players. With Jamar Bryant out, half of Pinkney's favorite targets are gone, and Ras the Destroyer can lock down Dwayne Harris. This should take away a huge chunk of ECU's passing attack. I expect a win here: even if the the O-line can't repeat last Saturday's performance, I don't expect them to regress all the way back to Duke-game levels of suckitude, and the defense should be able to keep ECU in check.

REST OF THE ACC

Wake Forest 12, Clemson 7, Thursday

North Carolina vs. Notre Dame, 3:30

Georgia Tech vs. Gardner-Webb, 3:30

Miami vs. Central Florida, 3:45

BC, Md., VT, NC State, Duke, FSU off

the recruit: Tyree Watkins

Like some kind of bizarre football Katamari, we roll through the world of football and collect a few small items for your perusal and my piercing commentary. Then we will take a look at committed-but-not-all-the-way-committed recruit Tyree Watkins

First, it appears a temporary bubble is on its way to being built in the parking lot between the Cage and the tracks - this bubble would provide some semblance of an indoor practice facility for the team. There is also talk in the article of a more permanenty facility eventually someday maybe being built. Um, those trailers are still sitting behind the Physics building, right? Just checking. Hope recruits like big white bubbles.

To the puzzlement of many, there was a #28 on the field against Maryland with no name on the jersey; this of course was Rodney McLeod. The ESPNU commentators were amazingly sharp on that one. The prevailing theory was that the coaches realized he and Cary Koch were on the same special teams unit and couldn't wear the same number; consider it confirmed. McLeod may see a number switch soon. The conundrum is that coaches like to keep some numbers reserved for precisely such occasions; between retired numbers and ineligible ones there are precious few available.

Ike Whitaker over in Blacksburg is in trouble, and whining about it, which would carry more credence if he hadn't added another arrest to his record the day after the suspension. He "made it clear that he takes responsibility for the arrest" and that he didn't know how else to handle his suspension but drink. The problem is, that while he has a plan for himself and all that for his post-VT career (which probably started the same day of the suspension) that plan did not include the word "rehab." Tech is now short a wide receiver, which probably won't impact them too much, and a running back, which does hurt their depth.

Some quick other-sports news: The baseball schedule has been released. Not much comment here. The baseball schedule is always pretty much the same: an assortment of in-state and regional mid-major types followed by the ACC minefield. And the soccer team continued its shutout streak against Liberty, with Jimmy Simpson providing some of that secondary scoring that we'll have to have to get any success this season. You can pretty much rest assured that Tony Tchani is good for a goal in any particular game, but he can't do it all by himself. Simpson and Matt Mitchell have stepped up nicely there.

OK - time to see about a recruit:

Name: Tyree Watkins
Position: WR
Hometown: Camden, NJ
School: Camden
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 175
40: 4.5

ESPN: 74, #110 WR
Rivals: 5.7, three stars, #60 WR
Scout: three stars, #90 WR

Watkins is a guy who's not 100% sure about his commitment. Verbal commitments, of course, are worth the paper they're (not) written on, but Watkins' commitment is softer than most. He's also hard to get a read on. ESPN mentions a broken collarbone suffered during the third game of his junior year, which limited him; frankly, we should all be so limited, as he was just shy of 1,000 receiving yards. An injury like that could explain the pretty fierce discrepancy between rankings. WRs don't usually see that much discrepancy - the top five and ten are pretty similar across all the services. It's not open to as much subjectivity as, say, offensive guard.

So it's weird that ESPN and Scout would consider Watkins very meh indeed, while Rivals gives him the best rating they give three-stars - a 5.8 would be four-star territory. The old standby, of course, is the offer list, and it's encouraging and leads you more toward the Rivals ranking than the ESPN. For some perspective, the guy ranked ahead of Watkins on ESPN's list committed to Duke over Troy and Ole Miss. Watkins' offer list includes Penn State, Iowa, and Pitt.

There's even discrepancy on what should be pretty solid measurables. None of the services list the same height or weight or 40 time. What's listed above is ESPN's height/weight, because it's in the middle, and Rivals' 40 time, because Scout lists 4.75 which is crazy different and also linebacker or drop-back quarterback territory.

On the other hand, Watkins isn't actually terribly fast, or at least does not appear so on the highlights. He runs well in space as long as he's going straight ahead; when he tries to outrun someone laterally is when he gets tackled. Defenses do seem to fear him because they are giving him just utterly insane cushions, which his coaches are using nicely to their advantage because quite a number of his highlights are curl routes or long handoffs to let him work with the 10 yards of space in front of him.

This year, however, has not been kind to Watkins thus far. You'll notice he hasn't shown up on Mondays in this space along with the rest of the skill-position recruits; this is not because I can't find Camden results, but because Camden results through four games have been uncannily similar to UVA results through four games. As best I can tell he has not scored a touchdown yet this season (though that comes with the usual caveat that I know shit for a fact) and Camden has yet to win a game (this I do know.)

So what of the commitment? Watkins calls himself a soft verbal and seems to be the type that liked the last visit the best. He was a camp commit this summer, and claimed to be ready to settle down and take no more visits after his trip to Charlottesville to take in the USC game. Of course, those who clicked on that first link will note that it details a visit to Penn State. So we'll see - he seems to like what he sees no matter where he goes. The official visit is scheduled for the Miami game, at which it's our turn to wine him and dine him and hopefully after that he won't want to take any more visits. But it'll still be three months to Signing Day.

Blogpoll roundtable 4.4

The latest Blogpoll Roundtable is over at Barking Carnival, where it is a big week on account of them being a Texas Longhorn blog and it being Texas-OU week. I can never get over the yearly timing of this game. It always surprises me when it comes because mid-October is the time for churning through the conference schedule, not Big Rivalry Week. And by the way, Hook ‘em Horns, because Mom’s a UT grad, and I was brought up, if not exactly a Texas fan, at least to appreciate The Eyes of Texas, which is a likably ominous sort of song. And told that I could go to any college I wanted to, but not a dime of my folks’ money would follow me to Arkansas, OU, or A&M. Especially Arkansas. She hates Arkansas. So when it doesn't conflict with other, stronger loyalties, I like to see Texas win. But enough sucking up to the hosts, and straight to the answers….

Please observe the latest ESPN Heisman Watch. What gridiron presence draws your suspicion and ire?

Two answers: Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree. Look, you can’t have both ends of a QB/WR combo, you just can’t. That’s a great way to say “product of the system”, and it’s Texas Tech, so you knew that already. I’m sure they’re talented guys in their own right, but clearly you can’t compare their numbers to anyone and say, yup, Heisman. If forced to draw suspicion and ire from only one player, I’ll go with Harrell. What’s he got that Kliff Kingsbury didn’t?

In World War I, British troops were famously characterized as “Lions Led By Donkeys.” What Donkey leading a college football team of Lions is leading his troops into the Somme again this Saturday? Who should replace him after the court martial?

As a Virginia fan, other Virginia fans will naturally think the answer is smack in front of my face. Sorry, too easy. And I haven’t quite hopped with both feet onto the Fire Al bandwagon yet. (Fire Mikey, yes. But I suspect head coaches are the point here, so I will not buck the system too much.) We’ll stay in the ACC though and go with Bowden…..Bobby Bowden. Here’s a man whose time to retire came and went and forgot to take him along. Go take a look at some of these recruiting classes chock full of shiny stars that they’ve put together since 2004, and then go see what that’s won them. 2004, 2005, and 2006 saw them 4th, 3rd, and 12th in the national rankings (per Scout.) 2007 should have been a great year – they were 7-6. They’re 4-1 now, thanks more to disgraceful scheduling than anything; if they finish the season with more than 7 wins again I will be surprised.

As for the new hire, I like FSU so much that I suggest they hire that bright young offensive coordinator at UVA, Mikey Groh himself. That should be good for another four or five years of FSU mediocrity. They should at least go outside the program. I don’t think Jimbo Fisher’s gonna work out for them any better than the sunset years of the Bowden era. Like Michigan, they need a shot of fresh blood, and someone who has led their current team to great success and would have to get used to recruiting in a place where guys don’t take any convincing to come to your school. Brady Hoke, say.

It’s conventional wisdom that it is “good for the game” when certain NFL teams - Dallas, Pittsburgh, Green Bay - or certain NBA teams - LA, Boston, New York - are strong. Others would contend that this is the arrogant self-importance of the traditional elite. With the resurgence of historic programs like Alabama and possibly Notre Dame (now believed to be turning-the-corner in 12 of its last 15 seasons) is it good for college football when certain name programs are strong? If not, why not?

Huh. As a Michigan fan and a Virginia fan, I see both sides of this coin very clearly. I lean toward yes, with a caveat. Let me explain. Say the BCS games shook out like this:

Rose: Iowa vs. Arizona
Orange: NC State vs. Pittsburgh
Sugar: South Carolina vs. Oklahoma State
Fiesta: Kansas State vs. Washington State
NCG: Purdue vs. Kentucky

All BCS programs. All old BCS programs. There’s even a traditional Big Ten-Pac 10 matchup in the Rose Bowl. Some of them, like Pitt, even have a modicum of well-known tradition to them, and all certainly consider themselves venerable pieces of the landscape. And it would be awful for TV ratings and interest in general. Boilermaker and Wildcat fans, naturally, would jump up and down like ditzy Price Is Right contestants that just won the jacuzzi. Not many others would care unless Purdue and Kentucky had spent like seven or ten years dominating and finally matched up. I mean, who would we hate? And no matter how epic a game they played, it wouldn’t compare to USC-Texas, Rose Bowl, 2006.

So there has to be some powerhousing going on. In fact, there generally ought to be quite a bit of it. I mean, which Orange Bowl was a more intriguing matchup? Louisville-Wake Forest? Or Michigan-Alabama? Don’t get me wrong. I love upstarts, especially when they are programs like Wake Forest or Mizzou or Kansas that are old-school teams, have been afterthoughts forever, and rise up to challenge the elite. It’s awesome and needs to happen – this is the aforementioned caveat. But when you get to the big intriguing games where college football lore is written, one of the teams has got to be an old powerhouse (USC, Michigan, Florida) or at least traditionally a very good program just a step below the elite (Wisconsin, Auburn, Virginia Tech) otherwise it’s not even half as much fun. Boise State over Oklahoma is a hundred times the story that Boise State over Kansas would have been.

A related question: what team with some record of success could fall off of the face of the earth and CFB wouldn’t miss a beat? Who fancies themselves a name brand, but aren’t?

I think Alabama did this just a couple years ago. What with LSU and Florida running rampant in the SEC, nobody noticed that Alabama stunk. Even now, and I voted them #1 in the Blogpoll, the vibe I get off of them doesn’t really speak of a return to Alabama glory of yesteryear….it feels more like a whole new thing.

Penn State is a close second here. They’re too much of a third wheel in the Big Ten, a conference which has always been Michigan, Ohio State, and eight or nine other guys. And in any year where Michigan/Ohio State decides the conference championship, which is most years, nobody would notice Penn State even if they were just the tiniest notch below.

Texas/OU in Big D. Okie State @ Mizzou. Penn State @ Wiscy. LSU @ Florida. We have Longhorn, Cowboy, Badger, Tiger - which dog is most likely to get it done?

The matchups here where the talent level is even remotely close to even are UT/OU and LSU/UF. I’ll take Texas, because it’s a neutral site and because Tigers and Swamps don’t mix.

What currently unranked team will we be hearing about soon?

Georgia Tech. Four winnable games in a row coming up. That offense is something the ACC hasn’t seen before and doesn’t know what to do with. They could be 8-1 going into Chapel Hill in about a month to face a possibly 7-1 UNC.

What ranked team will finish outside of the Top 25?

Kansas. In the first Roundtable this year I picked them as the team most likely to suffer a precipitous drop. I stand by this, especially after going into Ames, Iowa and nearly getting beat by that conference’s sorriest team. It’s not inconceivable they fail to win a game the rest of the year, but surely at least four losses are theirs in the regular season.

weekend review

Those of you who saw the Blogpoll ballot on Sunday may have noticed a slight corporate flavor to it. As its banner may have hinted, the Blogpoll is now featured at CBSSports.com. And hey, look! There's even a little link right back here at the bottom of the page. Giggity giggity! Alphabetical circumstances cause this link to be at the bottom of the list; were the state named "Birginia" or "Nirginia" we would be higher up, but N-Sabres wouldn't even be half as cool. How this will work is that on Sunday, I post my ballot here; Monday, you can see the early results at CBS Sports; and then on Wednesday, MGoBlog has the full ballot with revisions and analysis, and (presumably) the poll posted at CBS Sports will also change.

Here is the press release. I can't find it on the web, although admittedly I did not look for more than about a minute or so. It was sent to me, anyway, so looking for it very hard was not a high priority.

CHICAGO, IL – CBSSports.com will become the exclusive home of the College Football BlogPoll beginning on Monday, October 6. The CBSSports.com BlogPoll Top 25 is a weekly ranking of the top 25 college football teams as voted on by nearly 100 of the leading college football bloggers, representing every BCS school and several non-BCS schools. TeamWorks Media, a Chicago-based sports and entertainment content company and the rights holder of the College Football BlogPoll, has created a partnership with CBSSports.com.

Since 2005, the most influential, popular and expert college football bloggers have weighed in each week of the season, combining to create a weekly Top 25 ranking unrivaled in its authenticity and transparency. Each blogger's weekly ballot is publicly available, and the bloggers themselves post their ballots on their blogs, subject to the scrutiny of the fans.

As the new home for the BlogPoll Top 25, CBSSports.com will continue this tradition: The BlogPoll's initial results will be released on Monday, displayed side-by-side with the more traditional AP and Coaches' polls. Fans will be encouraged to review the ballot of the blogger associated with their favorite team and, if interested, even challenge them to defend their decision-making. The BlogPoll voters will take this fan feedback into account before submitting their final ballot, released each Wednesday exclusively at CBSSports.com.

The BlogPoll's founder and administrator, Brian Cook -- who publishes MGoBlog.com, the leading blog dedicated to Michigan football -- will continue to provide his weekly analysis, calling out individual bloggers for qualities like excessive deviation from the overall poll and "homerism."

Voting bloggers are vetted for editorial integrity before being allowed to participate and comprise many of the most knowledgeable, responsible and influential experts in the sport. The weekly BlogPoll ballots are among the most highly anticipated posts each week.

CBSSports.com will begin hosting all aspects of the College Football BlogPoll, including the week's preliminary rankings, individual ballots and final rankings, on Monday, October 6. Visit http://www.cbssports.com/ to view the rankings and get in on the action.

"Many of the most knowledgeable, responsible, and influential experts in the sport." Boy does that ever boost the ol' ego. Knowledgeable! Responsible! Influential! The "MOBILE AGILE HOSTILE" of the blogging world. I was half waiting for the other shoe to drop and the phrase "and also that From Old Virginia guy," to get thrown in there.

Catching up on the other football - there is yet more good news here. Friday saw the team knock off UNC 1-0 on a penalty kick. After a four-game stretch in which they allowed 2.5 goals a game, they've now gone five games and given up just one goal. The team is now ranked again - #18. Tomorrow they host Liberty (5-3) and on Friday, Clemson (4-4-1, 3-1). In other soccer news, Tony Tchani is still a freakin' beast.

I love the UVA Notes section in the RTD. Sometimes it provides some really good important tidbits about the team. Other times it is awesome for making fun of. Thanks, Jeff White, for pointing out that the crowd wore a lot of orange despite the call for blue. Slow news week? White also points out that the 'Hoos also "rediscovered the aerial game." This is true. I had damn near forgotten what it looked like when we threw for a touchdown, but Verica and Ogletree reminded me in very stylish fashion. Make no mistake though - this was possible because the ground game opened it up. Ogletree was single-covered on the 51-yard touchdown throw that opened up the scoring, because Peerman had just gashed the defense for 8 yards on 2nd and 6. There was no safety help on the TD throw because Maryland was worried about another 8 yards. Duke was never worried that we might pick up 8 yards on a routine carry - they comfortably dropped 6 into coverage at times because the running game was useless.

When the good news comes, it keeps on coming. Will Barker and Dave Roberts are cleared of theft charges that resulted from the Club 216 incident in August. Roberts still has to go through the whole underage drinking process that tripped up Peter Lalich, though.

And speaking of good news, we have TV coverage news for the UNC game. A 3:30 start time (my favorite time - plenty of pre-gaming and the party can start early upon return) and ABC/ESPN2 will carry the game.

Finally, never overlook a good Charlie and the Chocolate Factory reference. They've been waiting to use that one ever since Verica was named the starter, I just know it.

It's never the wrong time to make fun of Maryland.....

Now for the high schools.

QUINTIN HUNTER: Ouch. 9 of 29 passing for 75 yards against James Monroe. Hunter ran for one touchdown and threw for another, but the story here is the five picks. Yikes.

ROSS METHENY: Back on track in a 47-7 blowout of Central. 16/21 for 236 yards, 3 TDs and a pick.

PERRY JONES: Oscar Smith is nasty good. 48-7 dismantling of Western Branch, in which Jones scored twice and carried 9 times for 72 yards. Tim Smith, who's looking very, very hard at UVA, hauled in three touchdown passes.

TUCKER WINDLE: Scored a touchdown and racked up some TFL in Charlotte Catholic's 30-6 win over E.E. Waddell. (You have to click around a bit because the link doesn't go directly to the article, but it's not hard to find.)

KEVIN ROYAL: Scored two touchdowns but left the game with an arm injury in a 33-27 loss to King. Of note, Silas Redd, a junior in the class of 2010 that we've offered (along with BC), is King's star RB, and he ran for 170 yards and a touchdown in this game.

Only one update to the recruiting board this week. Pat Muldoon added Duke to his top four, making it a top five; he's been downgraded from Good to Fair on the board. Just too many factors here to feel as confident about a UVA pick. Tim Smith was in town on his official visit for the Maryland game, which is good timing but doesn't affect the board. I really like our chances with Smith.

Weekly spin around the ACC....

Duke is Duke again, losing to Georgia Tech 27-0. Never mind that, somebody tell Dane over at TheLegacyx4 that we're not the worst team in the BCS. I'll see your UVA and raise you a Washington State, dude.

Boston College took down NC State in a shootout, 38-31. Eagle in Atlanta has some historical perspective on the stats BC racked up.

VT slogged through a 27-13 win over Western Kentucky. Gobbler Country describes the Turkies last four games as three heart attacks followed by a let-down game.

FSU beat Miami 41-39, in the game that was billed (by me, just now) as the one to decide Which Team Is Back. Scalp 'Em is pretty happy about not playing the game in the OB any more. (Major negative points to the Canes for playing their games in the sterile environment of a pro stadium, by the way. This should never happen in college football except for bowl games.)

UNC shellacked UConn 38-12. If Bad UVA shows up for that game in two weeks, we can say goodbye to that home win streak against Carolina.

Maryland lost. Did you notice? Turtle Waxing has a rant. Virginia, really? Yes, Virginia.

Yes, Virginia, indeed.

it's because of the signs

Whoa now. If you saw that one coming, put your hand in the air. Now put it down, because you are a liar. 31-0 would have been a very plausible pre-game prediction if you gave the points to Maryland. I don't even care that every word of doom, gloom, and snark that I put in the game preview blew up in my face; it's certainly better than having it all come true.

But don't think for a minute that this is only awesome because of the margin of victory. Or because both the offensive line and the defense displayed a previously invisible level of talent. Or because the running game finally made an appearance. Or because we now have an ACC win to show for this season.

No, Maryland fans are what make wins like this so completely enjoyable. Their Scout board has some particular gems. Granted, Scout boards tend to be just one level of evolution above ESPN comments, which themselves are not far above YouTube comments. No matter; the people there at the TSR (Turtle Sports Report) are still Maryland fans, and thus, their anger and hatred is my beautiful weekend.

For example, it makes my weekend just to know that people like this had a bad day yesterday:

UVA Is A Trash Program

Their fans don't deserve to be happy. They don't deserve jobs. They don't spouses. They don't deserve healthy children. They are insects. F*cking disgusting pieces of trash who plague the rest of the country. I hope they all have miserable lives and die as lonely, disease infected vegetables. Their worthless piece of sh!t program can SMyD.

Yep. Nothing says "class" like Maryland. Let's be clear on this, just in case this is too hazy a point I'm making: Maryland has the absolute worst fan base in the entire country. Schadenfreude is never quite so freude-y as when Maryland is involved, because for the most part they are so deserving of it.

Also, you should read this thread for superb hilarity, which would be funny no matter which team is involved: Teams Better At Football Than Maryland

Enough hating on the Twerps, though. What did our team do well last night?

- Block, for one. They consistently got a push off the line of scrimmage, for the first time all year. Austin Pasztor was particularly impressive. Most of our best runs were to the left side. B.J. Cabbell, the pulling guard from the other side, finally was able to pull and not bump into the backside of his own counterpart. Pasztor got his chance because Zak Stair was "Out" on the injury report; Stair just got Wally Pipped.

- It's amazing how good the skill players look when given room to operate. Ced Peerman was a hoss, Mikell Simpson nearly as much. These guys are really good backs, which is easy to forget when the line can't hold back the defenders. Verica's accuracy really shone. He fit some nifty passes into tough spots. I expect big things out of him in the future. And where did he get those touchdown-scampering wheels?

- Sintim and Ras the Destroyer are far and away the best players on defense. It showed again last night. Just as I said last week, that it was no coincidence the defense went to pieces against Duke when they left with cramps. Ras-I had Darius Heyward-Bey covered all day.

- Totally forgiven: the unsportsmanlike penalty against Sintim and the celebration penalty against Ogletree. All Tree did was spike the ball: one of those calls that the refs' hands are tied because the rule was written by fascist dictators. Sintim could maybe stand to jaw a little less, but in both cases, it was nice to see the fire and drive on this team for once; it was also nice to have something that they could get fired up about.

Adjusted stats on Verica coming later.

So. Signs back in the stadium; 31-0 victory over hated rival. Offensive line performs brilliantly. Defense performs brilliantly. Quarterback is deadly accurate. Faith, once vaporized, is restored. Funny how ESPN's cliched little slogans (Every Victory Can Change The Season or whatever it is) can be so amazingly fitting. Is this the Turning Point in the season? It's too early to say. Remember, Maryland looked like ass in their first two games, then thought they had hit a turning point by rocking California's world a few weeks ago. Then this. We're still the team that got destroyed by Duke. But now we're also the team that destroyed Maryland, and having such a win on the schedule brightens the outlook considerably. Because now we know it can be done.

Blogpoll ballot, Week 6

This week's Blogpoll ballot.

- Programming note: You may notice the new logo at the top of the ballot. If all goes according to plan (not my plan), starting on Monday noonish there are likely to be many more people with some kind of opinion on this. That is why this goes up now. Blogpoll ballots will henceforth come out on Sunday, late morning timeframe, and in a post of their own so they can be added to the Clemons section. What this means for you, the loyal reader, is that any comment made on Sunday or earlyish Monday is going to carry more weight than any made after.

Ballot notes:

- The top five of this were easy. Afterwards it got real iffy, real fast. About 10 teams seemed like likely candidates for the 6th spot and beyond. USC? Ohio State? Florida? Virginia Tech? These rankings are supposed to reflect what a team has done, not so much what we think they'd do if they played each other, and so I ended up giving the benefit of the doubt to undefeated teams. So enjoy the view, Vanderbilt, and don't get dizzy.

- Auburn and Oregon? Uh, yeah, we're gonna need to go ahead and move you downstairs into storage. Auburn has two losses and two wins that may as well be losses. When your win over Mississippi State looks like a hockey score, that doesn't really count as a win. Two losses plus bad wins over the dregs of your conference equals out. Oregon has a stronger case but they haven't even looked competitive in their losses. If they're that prone to getting blown out, then they don't deserve a ranking.

- Tulsa, on the other hand, has played crappy teams but destroyed them all. Sooner or later that deserves a boost. Now is that time.

- The other team we say bye-bye to is Kansas. This decision was made at halftime of the ISU game. Yes, regardless of final result.

- Georgia looks like they're getting dinged hard for not playing this week, but it's really just a case of getting leapfrogged by a whole bunch of more deserving teams that did play. Besides, even before the Alabama loss they had been looking weak against South Carolina and ASU.

- One thing I try not to do to much of is go off my ballot from last week, which results in perhaps more shuffling than usual. The methodology is to line up all the teams with suitable records (this week, 4-2 or 3-1 was that cutoff, although no 4-2 teams made the final cut) and compare resumes. This is how you get UGA dropping so far. That 4-1 record of theirs looked a lot better when it wasn't up against as many 5-0s and 5-1s.

Less yacking, more ballot posting, then....

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	--
2	Penn State	--
3	Texas	--
4	Oklahoma	--
5	Missouri	2
6	Vanderbilt	11
7	Utah	3
8	Brigham Young	--
9	LSU	4
10	Virginia Tech	1
11	Southern Cal	7
12	Ohio State	--
13	Texas Tech	3
14	Oklahoma State	1
15	Florida	5
16	Ball State	5
17	Michigan State	6
18	South Florida	12
19	Boise State	3
20	California	6
21	North Carolina	4
22	Georgia	8
23	Tulsa	3
24	TCU	2
25	Connecticut	14

Dropped Out: Auburn (#13), Oregon (#19), Kansas (#24).

THAT just happened

everybody sing....

Virginia was Virginia
when Maryland was just a pup
and Virginia'll be Virginia
when Maryland grows up

how 'bout that?

game preview: Maryland

TV: ESPNU

History against the Terrapins: 32-40-1

Last matchup: W, 18-17 in College Park

Team records: UVA 1-3 (0-1), Md. 4-1 (1-0)

Last week: UVA lost to Duke 31-3; Md. defeated Clemson 20-17

Line: Maryland by 13.5

Maryland season preview here.

Maryland blogs: Turtle Waxing

Injury report:

OUT: OT Landon Bradley, LB Aaron Clark, S Matt Leemhuis, RB Max Milien, RB Keith Payne, OG Zak Stair, TE Joe Torchia

QUESTIONABLE: WR Kris Burd, WR Maurice Covington, DE Kevin Crawford, FB Raynard Horne, RB Cedric Peerman

PROBABLE: OG B.J. Cabbell, DE Matt Conrath, CB Vic Hall, S Corey Mosley, WR Kevin Ogletree, FB Hall Simmons

Fuck.

The only thing worse than losing to a hated rival is the week before a near-guaranteed loss to a hated rival. Part Three of the Take Swift Revenge On Virginia Tour is coming to a Scott Stadium near you. This tour consists of teams against which we pulled out improbable 2007 victories coming back to voice their displeasure in ways that involve at least four touchdowns. The Twerps may in particular recall this. This is not likely to go well.

HOW WE CAN WIN

- Shut them out. This seems to be what it takes to win a game these days. The offense isn't good for much more than a field goal or so, thus any win we get this season will have to be the result of a Herculean defensive effort.

- Hope for a little home-field magic. Wahoos looking for any kind of rationalization at all may note that we have traditionally been terrible on the road. And while we have in fact been blown out of the stadium three times, two were away from home and one was USC. This is called "reaching, big time." Home games tend to bring our the best in our teams, so maybe the combination of home game plus night game plus backs-against-the-wall plus signs in the stands can be worth a little something.

- Forget the ineffective play-calling on 4th and 1. Next time that situation rolls around, grab a jelly donut and heave it in the direction of the Maryland sideline. Hopefully instinct will kick in, Plutoid Ralph will rush out on the field to grab it, and we'll get a sideline interference call and a free first down. And Ralph gets a jelly donut. Winners all around.

- I'm serious about that shut-them-out thing. My faith in the offense has been completely vaporized. Not to mention, half our receivers and running backs show up on the injury report.

HOW WE CAN LOSE

- Very easily.

HOW THE GAME WILL GO

Badly. Keith Payne is out and Cedric Peerman isn't real likely to go either, but the running backs are not the problem with the running game. All of Maryland's principal ball carriers are averaging over 5 yards a carry, and we all saw against UConn how effective the run defense can be. Maryland used a big BIG play from Darrius Heyward-Bey in the second half to steal momentum from Clemson and ultimately win the game; don't expect the Plutoid to wait that long to unleash him on our defense tomorrow. Ralphie isn't stupid; he, like everyone else, knows that once you put our offense in a hole, they're not coming out. Maryland has made everyone forget they were the team that lost to Middle Tennessee State; they are now the team that whipped Cal and knocked off Clemson on the road. Meanwhile we are the team that ended Duke's futility streak. There is no reason to think this won't be yet another blowout. Gawd I hope I'm wrong. There's not much worse than losing to a team whose mascot is a turtle that's flashing you.

QUOTABLE:

"The policy prohibiting signs, banners and flags in all UVa athletics venues has become a distraction and has taken the focus away from supporting our student-athletes. Our football team needs our support right now and that should be our collective focus. With that in mind, I am repealing immediately the policy prohibiting signs, banners and flags in all athletics venues. I encourage all of our fans to be in attendance at Saturday night's football game with Maryland. My hope is our fans will wear orange and be prepared to support the Cavaliers." - Craig Littlepage.

Support the team. Be in attendance. And wear blue.

REST OF THE ACC:

Duke @ Georgia Tech, 12:00

Boston College @ NC State, 12:00

Virginia Tech vs. Western Kentucky, 1:30

Florida State @ Miami, 3:30

North Carolina vs. Connecticut, 7:00

Byes: Wake, Clemson

Blogpoll roundtable

This week's BlogPoll Roundtable is in a cornfield somewhere, hosted by Big Red Network.

(They gotta lotta corn in Nebraska. No, for real. Like many folks do, especially those who've seen Field of Dreams, I used to associate corn with Iowa. Then my family took a car trip that drove us through both states, and I saw the error of my ways. Nebraska is to corn as Saudi Arabia is to sand. Corn is not generally considered exciting, but that much of it is actually rather impressive, especially when whizzing by the car window at a faster rate than usual thanks to Nebraska's excellent 80 MPH speed limit. I digress. A lot. Here are the questions we have been put to this week.)

Q: Of the four presumed national title contenders to go down this past week--USC, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin--which team has the best chance to get back in the race by the end of the year?

Wisconsin? Seriously? One of these days, Wisconsinites are going to shake their cheese-and-Miller-fed heads and realize they haven't been to the BCS, nor won any kind of a share of the Big Ten championship, since 1999, and when they do, that is the exact moment Bret Bielema's job will be in trouble. Wisconsin doesn't count.

Florida and Georgia have to play one another. At best, then, they're both 50/50. The WLOCP is going to knock one or the other out. Florida, however has LSU and Vandy left on the schedule; Georgia has LSU, Vandy, and Auburn, and a rival in Georgia Tech that's spoiling for a win with a funky new offense. Give the edge here to Florida.

USC, now....these guys had a table that was set up to be run, and run hard. They blew it at Corvallis, but then again they typically blow one every year. And the table is still set. They get all the tough(ish) games at home: Oregon, Cal, Notre Dame. And all the easy ones on the road: Wazzu, Arizona. So USC is the answer to this question, and if I had to rank them: USC, Florida, Georgia, big space, more big space, Wisconsin.

Q: But what does this mean for Ohio State? Are they back in?

Only if they run the table. And only if all these undefeated teams lose. Obviously.

But, assume they do run the Big Ten table. (Blech.) There are 11 teams in front of them in the coaches' poll, which is what we'll use because it's the one that counts in the BCS. One of them is Penn State, a team they'd beat on the way, so that's one down, 10 to go. Fully four of them are Big 12 teams, and at most one of them is going to represent in the NCG, so that's three more down. 7 to go. Three more are SEC teams, so, two down. That leaves four teams out of OU, LSU, BYU, USC, and USF that would all have to lose, assuming OU and LSU sufficiently beat down their conference rivals before their respective conference championship games. So....eeehhhhhhmmmm....that's a lot. Even in the wacky world of wacky college football wackiness, that's tough to get, especially because the Buckeyes are no less prone to wackiness than any of these other guys (especially against Michigan, one hopes), and they no longer have any margin for wackiness.

Q: Did the week that was open the door for any of the undefeateds out of some of the non-BCS conferences like the Mountain West or the Big East? (Yup, that's a cheap shot. Thanks, Virginia Tech for not allowing me to make it about the ACC.)

If USF is undefeated, they're in if there aren't two other undefeateds. Technically, the Big East is a BCS conference, though the only reason they still are is because they used to be. A lot more craziness would have to go down for BYU to sneak in. One-loss Oklahoma vs. one-loss USC would cause voters to hand BYU over to the Fiesta Bowl or something.

Q: How do you feel about Craig Littlepage repealing the sign ban at UVA athletic events?

OK, that's not an official Roundtable question. See if I care - it's getting an answer, because it's awesome. Kudos to Littlepage for manning up and admitting a mistake. His official statement is kind of funny and worth dissecting:

"Our football team needs our support right now and that should be our collective focus. With that in mind, I am repealing immediately the policy prohibiting signs, banners and flags in all athletics venues."

This brings up the question: does that mean if the football team didn't suck, the ban would have stayed? Of course, if the football team hadn't crapped the bed against Wyoming, there would not have been any Fire Groh signs in the stands in the first place, and maybe there would have been no anti-sign policy either?

"My hope is our fans will wear orange and be prepared to support the Cavaliers."

This reversal comes not long after the student and fan movement to wear blue instead of orange, as a protest against the color the admin and coach have been wanting to see in the stands. (A terrific idea, by the way. It kind of smacks you in the face with subtlety.) The question is, why are they so hell-bent on fans wearing orange? Sure, schools love to do color-outs - Penn State carries this out quite well - but is it really the case that the school is so desperate for fans to wear orange that the wear-blue movement is what pushed this over the edge? If so, mega-congrats to the people whose idea that was. It's honestly the kind of thing that affirms my love for this school, as cheesy as that sounds.

introspectivityness

BlogPoll is out. It is here. You should go read it, so you can say you knew it before it was all big and special and everyone jumped on the bandwagon and acted like they'd been there all this time.

Well. When you lose to Duke, people start wondering. When you lose by four touchdowns, and it's your slimmest loss margin all year, they go straight past "wondering" and right to WTFing. It sets off all kinds of historical fact-digging, like, Duke hadn't won an ACC game since 2005. Hadn't won a game by that much since 1998. Etc. etc.

Usually, the media is somewhat behind the fans when it comes to calling for the coach's job. This is no different - the Groh Must Go movement was sort of smoldering after 2006 but pretty much had its official coming out party after Wyoming last year, when Beta Bridge sported the message. The GMG proponents then laid low for the rest of the season, because long winning streaks make Fire The Coach guys look kinda dumb when they vocalize that message. But the movement is back, it has loads of new supporters, and it's now officially backed by the media. Paul Woody at the RTD writes what I'm pretty sure is the first real GMG article of the season. I don't necessarily disagree with the premise (the official FOV position, however, is brought to you by Eggo) but I crazy disagree with most of his reasons. Actually, he really only has two specific ones outside of "the team sucks and is getting worse", and these are: losing too many players to academics, and everything related to the Peter Lalich situation. Groh did not suspend Lalich, as Woody claims; it has all the appearances of an administration decision. Groh did not dismiss Lalich as Woody claims; it was definitely an administration decision, and Littlepage said so himself. (It's for this reason that I believe the GMG crowd has likely already got their wish and Littlepage is merely waiting for the opportune moment.)

As for the academic departures, much has been made of these, especially since we could really use a holy terror of a defensive end right now, and Jeffrey Fitzgerald was all set to be just that. I may not exactly know whether or not I want to see Groh fired, but I know this: Never, never, never blame the coach for the academic failures of his players. Woody's reasons for doing so are twofold. One, because he feels the team did not support the players enough in their academics, and two, for recruiting players who don't take their studies seriously in the first place. Listen. You want to keep any shred of standards and still field a competitive team, then you roll the dice every now and again. If you demand a Rhodes scholar before you send out the offer, you become Vanderbilt: a terrific school in far over its head in the SEC, doomed to bottom feed in the standings for all time. (This season notwithstanding.) And if you demand academic qualification at all costs, you become something far, far worse: Florida State.

What's nice to see is the team rallying around the coach, somewhat. At least, Marc Verica is. Verica steps only just a bit outside the typical realm of clichespeak, but any such foray is encouraging:

“It’s unfortunate to see,” Verica said. “I kind of wish people would have your back more, had your coach’s back because this program has done a lot of great things under coach Groh and for things just to be down at this point, to turn your back or to get down on someone, that’s not the right way to handle it.

“It’s easy to access blame and it’s easy to point fingers, but what I do know is that it’s hard to be accountable and to take ownership of things and Coach Groh does that. He is accountable to us; he is accountable to the coaches. He takes ownership of things and so do we.”

In this sense it is a good thing that these last two games have been on the road, because a 31-3 drubbing by Duke would have been received very poorly by 60,000 orange-clad partisans. One can only hope that at least the boos do not rain down on the team upon their entrance on Saturday night; these should be reserved for special occasions such as, "Hey, look, it's Mikey Groh on the big screen!" And, forgotten among the hype, is that "road" thing - we all knew beforehand this team historically plays poorly outside Charlottesville. This is traceable back to the coach too, but it's been balanced out by some terrific games at home.

So booing is not the answer, and fans, please don't. And don't be Mick from Bupkissville, who had a perfectly legitimate question for Groh's radio show, a question I'd love to know the answer to, but prefaced it with a giant Fuck You Coach and a You Suck Coach, causing Groh to ignore the query.

Groh's press conference yesterday betrayed little indication of the rising firestorm surrounding him; few to no questions (that were printed by UVA, anyway) came up about his status. The offensive line was brought up, as reporters tried to phrase questions in such a way as to get Groh to answer one that said "it sucks, doesn't it?" Groh suggests inexperience is a factor, and praises their pass-blocking. Indeed, the pass-blocking has been excellent. One sack per game is a very good number. This suggests to me that inexperience is not a factor at all. They have plenty of experience on the field; they could use some experience with the weight room, because they have yet to get any consistent push off the line of scrimmage.

Lastly, two notes of some import: One, Vic Hall may be replaced as the punt returner. He made terrible decisions in the Duke game, which led me to wonder what kind of decisions he'd make as a quarterback and if perhaps the coaches aren't right after all in playing him where athleticism is required and decision-making is not. Two, congratulations to basketballer Calvin Baker, who has earned himself at least one year of tuition-free attendance at the University.