Now that we don't have Peter Lalich to kick around any more, now what? First, we can always try and squeeze more out of the story, it's been such a joy to follow as it is. Jeff White has the most useful "GONE" article of the myriad "GONE" articles floating around out there - take from it what you will. We also get to hear a little bit o' something from Lalich's attorney, which is interesting. It does seem to place the responsibility for the decision to part ways with Lalich a little more at Craig Littlepage's feet. Which is what Littlepage said in the first place, but you never know.
There is also a little soccer fluff in today's CDP. I am wholly unconvinced that two assists in five games for Jonathan Villanueva justifes the "back on course yay!" headline, but I dunno, maybe he's playing just some stifling defense. But as the team has given up more than two goals a game, I suspect not.
Anyway, as I said.....what next? By this I mean, what on earth happens with the whole sort of general mish-mash going on at the quarterback position? There are six of them on the roster, but only three of them are scholarship guys, and all but two are freshmen. This is not ideal.
For now, we'll drop the three walk-ons (Warner Blunt, Brendan Lane, and Kyle McCartin) from the discussion. Nobody knows anything about them, and if they show up in the two-deep at any point this year then we're in deep trouble. Uh, more so than usual.
The old plan was this: Lalich plays this year and in 2010, and in 2009 we have some form of two-headed monster at quarterback when Jameel Sewell comes back for a last hurrah, hopefully like Schaub/Spinner only way better. Verica provides capable clipboard stand duty and actual ball-flinging in a pinch. Ross Metheny and Riko Smalls (who can hopefully redshirt this year) are in the running for the 2011 job.
As far as 2011 is concerned, nothing's changed. But now Verica is pressed into duty for this year and the next two, and your backup is Scott Deke, who probably didn't do anything against UConn to unseat Verica. (Though, if the team is eliminated from bowl-eligibility, Groh may elect to give the guy a courtesy start. A going-away gift for a guy who's given five years to the program and whose decision to return for a final year is now clearly very helpful to the team.) The major thing, though, is that unless there is some phenom of a recruit coming this year or next, the Metheny/Smalls intrigue starts next year in a very public forum instead of behind the scenes. In 2011, Smalls will be a senior or a redshirt junior and Metheny will be a year behind, but one of them will be third on the depth chart next year, and in 2010 they'll be battling for the backup spot. That's even assuming Sewell does indeed rejoin the team next year, and that Verica doesn't involve himself in any shenanigans.
So. Today is usually the day for the game preview, but there's no game to preview. Getting your starting quarterback kicked off the team means you lose the bye week, so there's only one thing left to look at, which is the rest of the conference. Here's the slate:
NC State vs. East Carolina, 12:00
- There's some real honest-to-God hatred here. There will be more after ECU comes into Carter-Finley and stomps the Pack.
Georgia Tech vs. Mississippi State, 12:00
- Hey, maybe the ACC can finally get a win over the SEC that doesn't manage to once again embarrass the conference.
Maryland vs. Eastern Michigan, 1:00
Clemson vs. South Carolina State, 1:00
- It's still cupcake season.
Boston College vs. Central Florida, 1:00
- The G-Knights gave USF a hard time; be on another-ugly-ACC-loss watch.
Virginia Tech @ North Carolina, 3:30
- Time to see if the Heels are for reals.
Miami @ Texas A&M, 3:30
- Five years ago when this was probably scheduled, it was a colossal matchup.
Wake Forest @ Florida State, 7:00
- FSU still thin due to academic-shenanigans suspensions, but this time they have to play an actual walking, talking football team.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Booted
The Peter Lalich era is over before it really began. And for what?
Starting QB Lalich dismissed by Virginia
It's all there, and despite the occasional tabloidishness of Rivals, it's all true. Lalich's court date was today, having been rather conveniently (were he still on the team) bumped up from next Friday.
The official statement from Il Duce Littlepage:
I call bullshit. I don't believe for a minute that this has the support of Al Groh. If Littlepage had said, "This is my decision and it has the support of head football coach Al Groh, who really likes his job and realizes that I have the power to change his employment status," then yes, I'd believe it. But - hell - I don't even believe 100% that this is Littlepage's decision. If it is, shame on him. If not, shame on whoever made the call, and more so for making Littlepage take the heat.
Because this is crap. And no, not just because we're losing the Quarterback Of The Future. Because Lalich is taking a fall for underage drinking, and then being honest about it. If he had just lied to the probation officer, we wouldn't be here. Am I suggesting that's what he should have done? No. That's what I'm suggesting that the UVA admin is suggesting he should have done. I realize the single sanction is controversial, but I didn't realize you could have it applied for following the honor code. Even if Lalich really is dumb enough to believe that it took an arrest to break his probation.
But you know what? There's something bigger afoot. The administration, whether it was the decision of Craig Littlepage, or John Casteen, or some other pointy-headed policy-making doughbag, just undermined the coach in a BIG way. BIG. Groh was doing everything in his power to minimize the effect of this on Peter Lalich, from playing him against Richmond AFTER the initial arrest, to avoiding use of the word "suspension" when he didn't play at UConn. You hire a football coach to coach his team and to put such players on hit as he sees fit. You endow him with the power to hand out millions of dollars worth of scholarships. Tens of millions. To make the personnel decisions for him is to show a lack of confidence in his ability to make those decisions himself. How soon til he's fired, then? In my opinion, his time is short. You don't undermine your coach like that, so publicly and so brashly, if you have full and complete confidence in his abilities.
I could probably go on. This is a stunning decision. I'll hold back, some, because there has got to be more to this that I - we - don't know, and never will. At least, there had damn well better be. If Will Barker can stay on the team, let alone at a school with a strict honor code, after stealing his beer, surely Lalich must have done something above and beyond breaking his probation that doesn't show up in police blotters.
So take a bow, Marc Verica. You're the quarterback, now and for the next two years unless Jameel Sewell returns.
Starting QB Lalich dismissed by Virginia
It's all there, and despite the occasional tabloidishness of Rivals, it's all true. Lalich's court date was today, having been rather conveniently (were he still on the team) bumped up from next Friday.
The official statement from Il Duce Littlepage:
"Peter Lalich is no longer a member of the University of Virginia football team. We have supported Peter, but believe today a point has been reached where it's best for all concerned that he no longer participate on the team. This is my decision and it has the support of head football coach Al Groh. We wish Peter the best in the future. We will have no further comment."
I call bullshit. I don't believe for a minute that this has the support of Al Groh. If Littlepage had said, "This is my decision and it has the support of head football coach Al Groh, who really likes his job and realizes that I have the power to change his employment status," then yes, I'd believe it. But - hell - I don't even believe 100% that this is Littlepage's decision. If it is, shame on him. If not, shame on whoever made the call, and more so for making Littlepage take the heat.
Because this is crap. And no, not just because we're losing the Quarterback Of The Future. Because Lalich is taking a fall for underage drinking, and then being honest about it. If he had just lied to the probation officer, we wouldn't be here. Am I suggesting that's what he should have done? No. That's what I'm suggesting that the UVA admin is suggesting he should have done. I realize the single sanction is controversial, but I didn't realize you could have it applied for following the honor code. Even if Lalich really is dumb enough to believe that it took an arrest to break his probation.
But you know what? There's something bigger afoot. The administration, whether it was the decision of Craig Littlepage, or John Casteen, or some other pointy-headed policy-making doughbag, just undermined the coach in a BIG way. BIG. Groh was doing everything in his power to minimize the effect of this on Peter Lalich, from playing him against Richmond AFTER the initial arrest, to avoiding use of the word "suspension" when he didn't play at UConn. You hire a football coach to coach his team and to put such players on hit as he sees fit. You endow him with the power to hand out millions of dollars worth of scholarships. Tens of millions. To make the personnel decisions for him is to show a lack of confidence in his ability to make those decisions himself. How soon til he's fired, then? In my opinion, his time is short. You don't undermine your coach like that, so publicly and so brashly, if you have full and complete confidence in his abilities.
I could probably go on. This is a stunning decision. I'll hold back, some, because there has got to be more to this that I - we - don't know, and never will. At least, there had damn well better be. If Will Barker can stay on the team, let alone at a school with a strict honor code, after stealing his beer, surely Lalich must have done something above and beyond breaking his probation that doesn't show up in police blotters.
So take a bow, Marc Verica. You're the quarterback, now and for the next two years unless Jameel Sewell returns.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
the recruit: Connor McCartin
First, the news. The football team will be down one linebacker and the baseball team will add a player as John Bivens switches teams. Bivens is not in the two-deep at linebacker and is (by all accounts, at least in the linked article) a ferocious hitter, so this is probably a net plus for UVA athletics. Kind of like when Tom Hagan quit punting to focus on the diamond, which for the football team was addition by subtraction. You may remember Hagan as the punter who could not for the life of him send a ball any further than about 35 yards, except with a strong tailwind, and singlehandedly lost an FSU game for us. In case you're wondering, Hagan is playing single-A ball with the Hickory Crawdads, and while he doesn't look a threat to make the majors (though the Crawdads are a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate, so you never know) baseball was clearly the right choice over punting, as he was a standout ballplayer in college. Anyway, since we're short a linebacker, now's a good time for another look at an '09 recruit who just happens to be one.
Name: Connor McCartin
Position: MLB
Hometown: Warrenton
School: Fauquier
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 209
40: 4.75
ESPN: 40 (means: "shrug")
Rivals: 5.1, two stars, not ranked at position
Scout: two stars, #55 MLB
McCartin is another one of those guys whose recruiting was over before it really got interesting. It took him all of a weekend to jump on the first offer he got, and it probably helped at least a little bit that his brother Kyle is a walk-on QB on the team. McCartin had every intention of camping at Boston College and at Kansas, but thought otherwise shortly after getting the UVA offer.
So, unfortunately, the usual method of checking out the offer list doesn't really apply, unless you count BC's and KU's verbal promise of one. McCartin was also hearing from other regional schools like Maryland and Duke; this is nice, but getting letters in the mail is not quite the same as getting an offer.
Right now, he's a bit undersized for playing the middle - if you go with the 215 lbs. listed in the CDP article, he's still three pounds lighter than the lightest guy on our roster now, Steve Greer. And I'll wager Greer is bigger than the 218 he's listed at, because 218 was also his high school number listed by Rivals. So while McCartin's not that far off, still, the average linebacker in our two-deep is 234 lbs. Bottom line: Got some growing to do.
But, productivity is no issue. McCartin averaged over 13 tackles a game last year, and for good measure, threw in a few blocked punts, sacks, interceptions, and pass breakups. You know, all that good stuff that a good well-rounded linebacker is supposed to do. And it earned him first-team all-district, all-region, all-whatever.
So, given Groh's propensity for finding good linebackers, and the stats, and the offers that could have come but didn't, just go ahead and chuck the recruiting services' rankings. McCartin anchors a playoff-quality defense at Fauquier, and with three starters departing from the linebacking corps this year, there's little reason why a slightly bulked-up Connor McCartin can't compete for a spot in the two-deep right away.
Name: Connor McCartin
Position: MLB
Hometown: Warrenton
School: Fauquier
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 209
40: 4.75
ESPN: 40 (means: "shrug")
Rivals: 5.1, two stars, not ranked at position
Scout: two stars, #55 MLB
McCartin is another one of those guys whose recruiting was over before it really got interesting. It took him all of a weekend to jump on the first offer he got, and it probably helped at least a little bit that his brother Kyle is a walk-on QB on the team. McCartin had every intention of camping at Boston College and at Kansas, but thought otherwise shortly after getting the UVA offer.
So, unfortunately, the usual method of checking out the offer list doesn't really apply, unless you count BC's and KU's verbal promise of one. McCartin was also hearing from other regional schools like Maryland and Duke; this is nice, but getting letters in the mail is not quite the same as getting an offer.
Right now, he's a bit undersized for playing the middle - if you go with the 215 lbs. listed in the CDP article, he's still three pounds lighter than the lightest guy on our roster now, Steve Greer. And I'll wager Greer is bigger than the 218 he's listed at, because 218 was also his high school number listed by Rivals. So while McCartin's not that far off, still, the average linebacker in our two-deep is 234 lbs. Bottom line: Got some growing to do.
But, productivity is no issue. McCartin averaged over 13 tackles a game last year, and for good measure, threw in a few blocked punts, sacks, interceptions, and pass breakups. You know, all that good stuff that a good well-rounded linebacker is supposed to do. And it earned him first-team all-district, all-region, all-whatever.
So, given Groh's propensity for finding good linebackers, and the stats, and the offers that could have come but didn't, just go ahead and chuck the recruiting services' rankings. McCartin anchors a playoff-quality defense at Fauquier, and with three starters departing from the linebacking corps this year, there's little reason why a slightly bulked-up Connor McCartin can't compete for a spot in the two-deep right away.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
weekend review
I was slightly bummed going into this weekend; I was all ready to look for tickets to the UConn game, it being played near my neck of the woods (and no BC game this year to boot) until the Save The Date card came in the mail for the wedding of a friend. So no trip to Hartford, and on top of that the wedding was right on top of the Notre Dame game, so all I was gonna get to see of that was half of the first quarter or so.
If only the wedding was scheduled an hour earlier. Then I could have avoided seeing three Michigan fumbles in about 49 seconds flat.
The best I can say about this weekend as far as football is concerned is that it was a very nice wedding indeed. Good timing, too.
I haven't yet fired up the TiVo to take a look at that game. I hardly need to. The score and the rushing yards (on both sides) tell me just about all I need to know. Later on this week I'll take a look, mainly to do my review of the quarterbacks and their stats, but also to see if Bob Pruett bothered ever putting eight men in the box like I told him to. (Bet he didn't.)
The good news is that we have a bye week to prepare for Duke. The bad news is that that actually qualifies as good news. Duke has a bye week to prepare for us, anyway. By the way, that game? Gonna be at 12 noon on ESPNU, the channel that takes hideously bad football games that advertisers won't even pay to sponsor on ESPN2 and regular people won't want to shell out a hundo or two to get GamePlan for.
Guh. Enough of the depressing present. Let's take a look at the future, starting with the recruiting board. Updates:
- Removed Anthony LaLota, who committed to Michigan, and Taylor Sowell, who committed to Duke. That's gotta piss off the Heel faithful.
- Rejiggered the competition list for Tavon Austin, who should probably be considered the longest of longshots at this point.
- Did same for Will Hill, though our chances are considerably better here.
Come to think of it, that's kind of depressing too. The board, anyway, in all its LaLota-less glory:
QB Kevin Newsome
- VT, PSU, Mich., UNC, WVU
RB Tavon Austin
- Md., WVU, UGA, Mich., Neb., Tenn., Ill.
RB De'Antwan Williams
- Bama, VT, BC, Md., Rutgers, WVU
WR Justin Brown
- PSU, VT, NCSt., S.Car, UNC
WR Sean Farr
- Md., WVU, Akron, EMU
WR Timothy Smith
- L'ville, S.Car, WVU
WR Antone Exum
- SCar., VT, WVU, PSU, Md., Tenn., Purdue, L'ville, CU, Wake
TE Logan Thomas
- VT, Clemson, WVU, UNC, Wake, Tenn., FSU, PSU
OT Morgan Moses
- pretty much everyone east of the Mississippi
OT Oday Aboushi
- Iowa, Md., Rutgers, PSU, Mich., BC
DE Brennan Williams
- BC, Wake
DE Michael Buchanan
- Purdue, Ill., Cal, Vandy, KU
DE Lanford Collins
- VT, PSU, Tenn., WVU, Md., NCSt., UNC, BC, Ill.
DE Garry Gilliam
- UConn, PSU, Temple, Pitt, Akron
DE Will Hill
- UConn, Mich., S.Car., Tenn., Md.
DE Bernardo Nunez
- lots
DE DeAntre Rhodes
- VT, Md., Clemson, Tenn.
DE Pat Muldoon
- Cincy, BC, Wisc.
OLB Jelani Jenkins
- everyone and their aunt
CB Travis Hawkins
- who isn't interested?
S Javanti Sparrow
- Clemson, UNC, PSU, VT, WVU
DB Joshua Evans
- 28 other schools. for real.
On to the ones that have already given their word.....
DOMINIQUE WALLACE: Got the better of Quintin Hunter's Orange team with 19 carries for 157 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 21-7 win. Hunter threw for 141 yards and scored the only TD for Orange on a 15 yard run.
ROSS METHENY: Led Sherando to a 49-0 win over Hedgesville. Threw for one touchdown and scored another on a 59-yard scramble.
ALEX OWAH: Is leading his district in rushing, but will miss a few weeks with a stress fracture.
PERRY JONES: Oscar Smith beat Indian River 46-14, and Jones rushed for 228 yards and 2 TDs, caught two for 58 yards, and threw a 27-yard TD pass.
KEVIN ROYAL: Scored an 85-yard touchdown in Brunswick's 34-0 win over Hackley.
Lastly in our weekend review, we take a look at the rest of the ACC. Which, no thanks to us, did pretty well this week.
- North Carolina clocked Rutgers, and Carolina March puts it in a little perspective.
- Florida State also waxed the second opponent on the Shameful Disgrace portion of their schedule. Whatever. The NCAA oughta double the upcoming scholarship losses just for playing those two games.
- California rolled into College Park with a shiny ranking number next to their name on the scoreboard, and Maryland PROTECTED THIS HOUSE. Turtle Waxing is looking a gift horse in the mouth a little bit.
- Duke gave the ACC a slight edge in the Congressional Bowl sweepstakes. Whoops - that's E*******k Bowl. (They don't pay me to plaster their name all over everything.)
- V squeaked by G in the Battle of the Techs, and it earned Brian Stinespring a reprieve for a week in the VT blagowebs. Sort of.
- Finally, Clemson knocked off NC State, which thank God for the Pack because we still don't look like the sorriest-assed team in the ACC, yet.
If only the wedding was scheduled an hour earlier. Then I could have avoided seeing three Michigan fumbles in about 49 seconds flat.
The best I can say about this weekend as far as football is concerned is that it was a very nice wedding indeed. Good timing, too.
I haven't yet fired up the TiVo to take a look at that game. I hardly need to. The score and the rushing yards (on both sides) tell me just about all I need to know. Later on this week I'll take a look, mainly to do my review of the quarterbacks and their stats, but also to see if Bob Pruett bothered ever putting eight men in the box like I told him to. (Bet he didn't.)
The good news is that we have a bye week to prepare for Duke. The bad news is that that actually qualifies as good news. Duke has a bye week to prepare for us, anyway. By the way, that game? Gonna be at 12 noon on ESPNU, the channel that takes hideously bad football games that advertisers won't even pay to sponsor on ESPN2 and regular people won't want to shell out a hundo or two to get GamePlan for.
Guh. Enough of the depressing present. Let's take a look at the future, starting with the recruiting board. Updates:
- Removed Anthony LaLota, who committed to Michigan, and Taylor Sowell, who committed to Duke. That's gotta piss off the Heel faithful.
- Rejiggered the competition list for Tavon Austin, who should probably be considered the longest of longshots at this point.
- Did same for Will Hill, though our chances are considerably better here.
Come to think of it, that's kind of depressing too. The board, anyway, in all its LaLota-less glory:
QB Kevin Newsome
- VT, PSU, Mich., UNC, WVU
RB Tavon Austin
- Md., WVU, UGA, Mich., Neb., Tenn., Ill.
RB De'Antwan Williams
- Bama, VT, BC, Md., Rutgers, WVU
WR Justin Brown
- PSU, VT, NCSt., S.Car, UNC
WR Sean Farr
- Md., WVU, Akron, EMU
WR Timothy Smith
- L'ville, S.Car, WVU
WR Antone Exum
- SCar., VT, WVU, PSU, Md., Tenn., Purdue, L'ville, CU, Wake
TE Logan Thomas
- VT, Clemson, WVU, UNC, Wake, Tenn., FSU, PSU
OT Morgan Moses
- pretty much everyone east of the Mississippi
OT Oday Aboushi
- Iowa, Md., Rutgers, PSU, Mich., BC
DE Brennan Williams
- BC, Wake
DE Michael Buchanan
- Purdue, Ill., Cal, Vandy, KU
DE Lanford Collins
- VT, PSU, Tenn., WVU, Md., NCSt., UNC, BC, Ill.
DE Garry Gilliam
- UConn, PSU, Temple, Pitt, Akron
DE Will Hill
- UConn, Mich., S.Car., Tenn., Md.
DE Bernardo Nunez
- lots
DE DeAntre Rhodes
- VT, Md., Clemson, Tenn.
DE Pat Muldoon
- Cincy, BC, Wisc.
OLB Jelani Jenkins
- everyone and their aunt
CB Travis Hawkins
- who isn't interested?
S Javanti Sparrow
- Clemson, UNC, PSU, VT, WVU
DB Joshua Evans
- 28 other schools. for real.
On to the ones that have already given their word.....
DOMINIQUE WALLACE: Got the better of Quintin Hunter's Orange team with 19 carries for 157 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 21-7 win. Hunter threw for 141 yards and scored the only TD for Orange on a 15 yard run.
ROSS METHENY: Led Sherando to a 49-0 win over Hedgesville. Threw for one touchdown and scored another on a 59-yard scramble.
ALEX OWAH: Is leading his district in rushing, but will miss a few weeks with a stress fracture.
PERRY JONES: Oscar Smith beat Indian River 46-14, and Jones rushed for 228 yards and 2 TDs, caught two for 58 yards, and threw a 27-yard TD pass.
KEVIN ROYAL: Scored an 85-yard touchdown in Brunswick's 34-0 win over Hackley.
Lastly in our weekend review, we take a look at the rest of the ACC. Which, no thanks to us, did pretty well this week.
- North Carolina clocked Rutgers, and Carolina March puts it in a little perspective.
- Florida State also waxed the second opponent on the Shameful Disgrace portion of their schedule. Whatever. The NCAA oughta double the upcoming scholarship losses just for playing those two games.
- California rolled into College Park with a shiny ranking number next to their name on the scoreboard, and Maryland PROTECTED THIS HOUSE. Turtle Waxing is looking a gift horse in the mouth a little bit.
- Duke gave the ACC a slight edge in the Congressional Bowl sweepstakes. Whoops - that's E*******k Bowl. (They don't pay me to plaster their name all over everything.)
- V squeaked by G in the Battle of the Techs, and it earned Brian Stinespring a reprieve for a week in the VT blagowebs. Sort of.
- Finally, Clemson knocked off NC State, which thank God for the Pack because we still don't look like the sorriest-assed team in the ACC, yet.
Monday, September 15, 2008
i haven't died
Just so you know. But I have perhaps gone crazy? And as proof of both, I offer my Blogpoll rankings for the week:
Explain yourself, dude. OK. This week I shift hard over to resume voting, with some biases included.
Example of said bias: Team A has done the following:
- Stomped a I-AA tin can.
- Narrowly beaten Ohio.
- Got stomped by a team considered to be elite.
Team A sure looks like Ohio State, but Central Michigan has the exact same resume. OSU is on the ballot because they're still a good team. CMU still needs to earn themselves something. One purely resume alone, I'd probably include a couple of teams and give the Buckeyes the boot entirely.
This should not be taken as predictive at all. I do not think South Florida or ECU would beat most of those teams below them. But USF has a win over a team I ranked, and ECU has those nice shiny upsets to start the season.
Credit is given for woodshedding three bad teams. Penn State, for example. The thought is that good teams are supposed to kick the ass of bad ones - if you do this three straight times, you are probably a good team. For example again, Illinois has been on this ballot three times in a row and is now gone. Losing by 10 to Missouri is forgivable; combining it with a nailbiter win over a lousy ULL team is not.
There is one major problem with resume voting so early, and I am dealing with it by pointing it out to you and then ignoring it. The example is USC. They have stomped two teams with lousy resumes, one of which actually is terrible. This should put them much lower than they are, but clearly, beating Ohio State was a landmark win and deserving of much credit. Thus, a paradox: utterly stomping a good team makes them look really bad and thus appears to lower your own resume. This goes away later in the season. But meantime, I give USC high marks for beating a good team and also put that good team quite low in the rankings as punishment for getting beaten so badly. (Partly. The Bobcats played a big role in that too. If that game had been 42-10 like it should have, OSU would be at least 10 spots higher.)
Anyway, as always, feel free to stamp out any stupidity on my part before it becomes official. Keep in mind the criteria though. What I'm looking (hoping) for is people to point out inconsistencies in my own method and results, not try to rerank based on their own.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | East Carolina |  10 |
| 2 | Southern Cal | -- |
| 3 | Oklahoma | 2 |
| 4 | Missouri | 2 |
| 5 | South Florida | 20 |
| 6 | Alabama | 11 |
| 7 | Penn State | 15 |
| 8 | Georgia |  5 |
| 9 | Florida | 5 |
| 10 | Texas | 3 |
| 11 | Nebraska | 15 |
| 12 | Oregon | 4 |
| 13 | Oklahoma State | 13 |
| 14 | Wisconsin | 4 |
| 15 | LSU | 6 |
| 16 | Utah | 10 |
| 17 | Brigham Young | 4 |
| 18 | Kansas | 6 |
| 19 | Ohio State | 18 |
| 20 | Auburn | 5 |
| 21 | Virginia Tech | 3 |
| 22 | Texas Tech | 8 |
| 23 | Wake Forest | 4 |
| 24 | Clemson | 3 |
| 25 | Vanderbilt | 1 |
Dropped Out: Arizona State (#8), West Virginia (#20), Illinois (#23), Fresno State (#24).
Explain yourself, dude. OK. This week I shift hard over to resume voting, with some biases included.
Example of said bias: Team A has done the following:
- Stomped a I-AA tin can.
- Narrowly beaten Ohio.
- Got stomped by a team considered to be elite.
Team A sure looks like Ohio State, but Central Michigan has the exact same resume. OSU is on the ballot because they're still a good team. CMU still needs to earn themselves something. One purely resume alone, I'd probably include a couple of teams and give the Buckeyes the boot entirely.
This should not be taken as predictive at all. I do not think South Florida or ECU would beat most of those teams below them. But USF has a win over a team I ranked, and ECU has those nice shiny upsets to start the season.
Credit is given for woodshedding three bad teams. Penn State, for example. The thought is that good teams are supposed to kick the ass of bad ones - if you do this three straight times, you are probably a good team. For example again, Illinois has been on this ballot three times in a row and is now gone. Losing by 10 to Missouri is forgivable; combining it with a nailbiter win over a lousy ULL team is not.
There is one major problem with resume voting so early, and I am dealing with it by pointing it out to you and then ignoring it. The example is USC. They have stomped two teams with lousy resumes, one of which actually is terrible. This should put them much lower than they are, but clearly, beating Ohio State was a landmark win and deserving of much credit. Thus, a paradox: utterly stomping a good team makes them look really bad and thus appears to lower your own resume. This goes away later in the season. But meantime, I give USC high marks for beating a good team and also put that good team quite low in the rankings as punishment for getting beaten so badly. (Partly. The Bobcats played a big role in that too. If that game had been 42-10 like it should have, OSU would be at least 10 spots higher.)
Anyway, as always, feel free to stamp out any stupidity on my part before it becomes official. Keep in mind the criteria though. What I'm looking (hoping) for is people to point out inconsistencies in my own method and results, not try to rerank based on their own.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
game preview: Connecticut
TV: ESPNUHistory against the Huskies: 1-0
Last matchup: W, 17-16 (2007)
Team records: UVA 1-1 (0-0), UConn 2-0 (0-0)
Last week: UVA def. Richmond, 16-0; UConn def. Temple, 12-9
Line: Connecticut by 11
Connecticut season preview here
Conventional wisdom says big trouble for the 'Hoos this week. We squeaked out a victory last year, aided by a long field goal drive and some timely defense. In other words, a pretty typical win. Now we are without some of our best players from last year, the starting quarterback has never taken a snap in a college game (speaking of which, more on the Lalich situation here, which I would call a must-read), and oh yeah, it's on the road, where we typically do our very best Temple impression. UConn meanwhile has like 43 starters back. Doom and gloom.....and this is a football game at Connecticut, not hoops.
HOW WE CAN WIN
- Marc Verica must play well. Thank you, master of the obvious. The O-line has proven they can protect the quarterback at least long enough for a quarterback to quickly get through his progressions, or at least get off a good throw to the first receiver he sees, if he's open. They have not protected well enough for a quarterback to consistently get through his third read. Verica's adjustment to game tempo is gonna have to happen quickly. And for chrissake be accurate.
- Eugene Monroe and Will Barker need to have a hell of a game, because UConn's defensive ends, particularly Cody Brown, are holy terrors. They have combined for 6.5 sacks out of a total of 9 through the first two games.
- 8 men in the box, please. Tyler Lorenzen is an option quarterback. UConn is an option team. And RB Donald Brown has racked up 180 yards per game, over 6 yards per carry. Against option teams, the OLB's are particularly important. Stop the run game and make Lorenzen beat us with his arm. Even against Hofstra, on a dry field and not in the dead middle of a tropical storm, Lorenzen was not particularly impressive, and in fact threw three picks. To beat UConn, clog up the run game.
- Pick on Jasper Howard. Kevin Ogletree will almost certainly be assigned to Darius Butler, who is probably UConn's best athlete. I said earlier we need the other receivers to step up to the plate, and they have been doing a decent job. Line up two receivers - Koch and Green, say - opposite Ogletree, keep them away from Butler, and let 6'2" Green abuse 5'7" Howard. It'll make Verica's job a lot easier if he can take advantage of the seven inch height difference.
- In the run game, slam it up the middle. Peerman's off to a great start, and the strength of the UConn defensive line is the ends. Running off tackle with Simpson may prove difficult. Go up the gut. Get a fullback out there and do some old-school Big Ten stuff.
HOW WE CAN LOSE
- Fail to respect the run game. You know it's coming. It's what they do. The D-line did a great job last week, but UConn's line is bigger and stronger than Richmond's. Their receivers are nothing special - if the linebackers are slow to react to the option because they're too worried about pass coverage, game over.
- Too much fancy passing too early. Verica's got to get in his rhythm. Gotta start him with the easy stuff. If the first call is for him to have to throw a precision out route or something, we will not like the outcome. Give him a wide receiver screen or a couple of curl routes, and if the very first play is not a run, slapping Mike Groh is authorized.
- Simply getting beat on the defensive line. As usual. If the D-line is overwhelmed, the linebackers are not fast enough to cover for them all the time.
HOW THE GAME WILL GO
Last year's game was a defensive struggle. This will certainly be a low-scoring affair on our side - anything more than 20 points will be a bonus - so the defense MUST make it the same for them, too. Don't expect Verica to be a world-beater. Don't expect Lorenzen to be one either - the game will hinge on the running backs, Peerman and Brown. Whichever one does a better job of keeping his defense off the field will probably emerge victorious.
QUOTABLE: “It's not about any one particular thing. [Sitting Lalich] just seemed like the appropriate thing to do at this time. There's no hidden statement about what we feel about any alleged or reported incidents or any date coming up or what not. It's just the whole thing has taken on legs; we decided to cut the legs off it." - Groh.
REST OF THE ACC
North Carolina @ Rutgers, going on right now.
Maryland vs. California, 12:00
Duke vs. Navy, 12:00
NC State @ Clemson, 12:00
Georgia Tech @ Virginia Tech, 3:30
Florida State vs. Chattanooga, 3:45
BC, Wake, Miami off
**Programming note: Tomorrow morning, I'm hopping a plane for home. Why people pick fall Saturdays for weddings, I have no idea, but I'm going to one. This was supposed to be the game I got to go to this year, but no dice. I'll have my laptop with me, so posts between now and late Monday night when I return are somewhere between possible and likely.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Marc Verica to start against UConn
I give up. I really do. I have no idea what to make of the signals coming out of Bryant Hall these days. There's this:
And then there's this:
So I dunno. I was gonna have an opinion, but every time I do when it comes to Peter Lalich and his off-field escapades, the exact opposite happens. And is that not the most cryptic punishment quote you ever heard? If in fact it's a punishment? I'm just gonna stop speculating. I don't even know.
Verica's almost an entirely unknown quantity here. He committed so early in the process, way back in 2005, that nobody bothered evaluating him all that much, and he was kind of an afterthought in a class that included Keith Payne and Sean Gottschalk. Now he's the starting quarterback. I am not going to make one tiny shred of judgment on his ability to lead the offense until after I watch the UConn game.
"There's some reporting on this young man that probably would fall under the category of 'tabloid' reporting," Groh said.
"It certainly lacks facts and, in some cases, it lacks reality.
"That's a shame. He's entitled to a private life, just like other 19- and 20-year-old students are. We're satisfied in how Peter has been conducting his circumstances and what he's being asked to do." (Emphasis mine.)
And then there's this:
Sophomore Marc Verica (Lansdowne, Pa.) will make the first start of his career at quarterback for the Cavaliers (1-1).
“We stand by Peter and in talking with him have made a decision which is best in the short term for him, the team, and our University,” Virginia coach Al Groh said in the release. “We have a strong set of standards and values on our team that reflect those of the University and we do not compromise those values to win football games.”
So I dunno. I was gonna have an opinion, but every time I do when it comes to Peter Lalich and his off-field escapades, the exact opposite happens. And is that not the most cryptic punishment quote you ever heard? If in fact it's a punishment? I'm just gonna stop speculating. I don't even know.
Verica's almost an entirely unknown quantity here. He committed so early in the process, way back in 2005, that nobody bothered evaluating him all that much, and he was kind of an afterthought in a class that included Keith Payne and Sean Gottschalk. Now he's the starting quarterback. I am not going to make one tiny shred of judgment on his ability to lead the offense until after I watch the UConn game.
Blogpoll Roundtable!
The state of Georgia is aiming for the monopoly on the Blogpoll Roundtable. This week it is hosted by Braves and Birds, a place where they speak of all things Atlanta. There is a theme - you can think of this as the Virginia Football Comment Card. Here we go....
Scheme? What scheme? How am I supposed to know what the scheme is when it produces 17 points in two games? It's a little bit more exciting brand of football than what we used to run with. Before, we'd fail to convert third downs by dumping underneath to the tight end for a pickup of four yards on third-and-8. Now we fail to convert third downs by heaving misguided laser beams 20 yards downfield.
This is somewhat unfair, of course. Lalich is doing reasonably well for a quarterback that doesn't really have a running game and could use just half a second extra in the pocket before he has to get rid of it. We have definitely gone more spread-ish than we were a year ago. Last year was traditional UVA offense taken to the extreme. Now there's a touch of Purdue in what we do, because we now have wide receivers that are good for something other than blocking for screen passes.
3. Rate your stadium's cleanliness and menu options.
I dunno, I haven't been in a few years. Clean? It's definitely clean. That much I remember. No worries there. In four years as a student I don't think I ever bought a single concession though. Overpriced bottled water yada yada - that's a concern everywhere.
4. As an incentive to provide your valued feedback, you will be entered into a drawing for exciting prizes! What one prize would you like for your program?
5. Since we're all about choices, take one of the following two options for entertainment's sake:
1. How would you rate your program's service to you in the first two weeks of the season?
You ever had a restaurant that you liked going to, and you were starting to get used to it and enjoy it, and then they closed for a while with the promise of exciting new renovations and a really killer new menu, and things were gonna be oh so awesome just as soon as they opened for business, but one of the waiters got fired in the meantime, and another one left for another restaurant because he needed the money, and when they finally did open back up the food was worse and the new waiters were jerks? Yeah, me neither. But I tried to think of some other marketing flops, and believe me I ran the gamut - all the way from Battlefield Earth (the horrible movie), IYDKYDG (the stupid Coca-Cola promotion from when I was one of the impressionable teenagers they were failing to reach), and Bodo's Bagels (the Corner store that took like eight years to open.) So bear with me. This season's been like that (the restaurant thing.) We had a lot of anticipation for this. USC coming to town, and Retro Day - I mean, the marketing department went all out here, and it's good stuff. Only problem is, the wait staff failed to deliver. Big time. Those were two of the worst Virginia games I've seen, and I've seen some bad ones.
Oh. And the restaurant now has a no-speaking policy. You might disrupt the dinner of the person at the next table or say something mean. We wouldn't want that.
2. How happy are you with your program's overall scheme? We are in a period in which the spread has become a total obsession in the media. If you're a fan of a spread team, are you happy with the way your program has implemented it? If you're a fan of a non-spread team, do you wish that your program would convert to this Xenu of offenses?
This is somewhat unfair, of course. Lalich is doing reasonably well for a quarterback that doesn't really have a running game and could use just half a second extra in the pocket before he has to get rid of it. We have definitely gone more spread-ish than we were a year ago. Last year was traditional UVA offense taken to the extreme. Now there's a touch of Purdue in what we do, because we now have wide receivers that are good for something other than blocking for screen passes.
3. Rate your stadium's cleanliness and menu options.
I dunno, I haven't been in a few years. Clean? It's definitely clean. That much I remember. No worries there. In four years as a student I don't think I ever bought a single concession though. Overpriced bottled water yada yada - that's a concern everywhere.
4. As an incentive to provide your valued feedback, you will be entered into a drawing for exciting prizes! What one prize would you like for your program?
5. Since we're all about choices, take one of the following two options for entertainment's sake:
a. What's your most memorable experience involving a comment card?
b. If your program were a casual dining chain, which one would it be? Yes, this is a tricky question because the defining characteristic of a casual dining chain is its sameness. No one said this Roundtable would be easy. Bonus points if you can make a compelling case that your program is Chotchkie's or Flingers.
Definitely not Chotchkie's. No flair allowed! The Cheesecake Factory. It's expensive, that's definitely a start. You're never really sure whether you're supposed to show up dressed up or not. Do I go old-school and wear a tie, or just say hell with it and rock the orange t-shirt?
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
we don't care about the football stuff
"In an interview session that was mostly devoted to football," the RT's Doug Doughty managed to not care about what the interview session was mostly devoted to. Shenanigans were the order of the day in the resulting article, or more importantly the denial thereof. We're talking of course about Peter Lalich, who denies using marijuana, or any illegal drug at all, during his probation. All this he-said-he-said stuff, ayyyy. It's easy for a guy to deny stuff and not that hard for reporters with nothing better to do to find evidence of it anyway, but I believe Lalich here. If he says he didn't, he didn't, and I feel fairly confident in saying that because it seems likely Al Groh feels the same way - the guy played against Richmond after all.
Press conference highlights are very non-highlighty. No, we didn't learn anything about UConn from playing USC, because they have a very different scheme, and the talent level WHOA hold on let me catch myself right about the place Plutoid Ralph should have stopped. No, we didn't learn anything about UConn from their last game because the rain was literally coming from the ground up. Got their players' numbers memorized real good though, check this out, I even got their left tackle. Oh, and Denzel Burrell roolz.
UVA Notes from the RTD, summarized as only I can:
- You can pay more than you would for an actual basketball game to hear the heavenly words of Jim Calhoun at the coaches' clinic.
- Ryan Benincasa has been beating everyone we can throw at him in the faceoff circle in lacrosse practice. This places him on par with our opponents, who also beat everyone we threw at them.
- Groh's looking for chances to play Steve Greer and Cam Johnson. They didn't play against Richmond because "the game was real tight, and the guys out there were doing a good job." (Groh's words.) Also, Groh didn't want to have to face any questions about why we lost to a I-AA team and flushed our Congressional Bowl hopes down the toilet with two true freshmen on the field at his favorite defensive position with two perfectly healthy seniors on the bench. (My words.)
- Zane Parr and J-K Dolce did in fact play against Richmond, which I couldn't help but notice because they made life mad difficult for Eric Ward.
Lastly there is this article from ESPN regarding soccer coach George Gelnovatch. Specifically, it hints at a hot seat and unhappy alumni, it was printed September 5, and it's a highly ironic article because the other thing that happened September 5 was the school's announcement that Gelnovatch has been extended through 2012. I am the least qualified person ever to comment on Gelnovatch's suitability for coaching this team, although I will say that the sideways comparison to Bruce Arena in the ESPN article is slightly unfair - if we are going to look for a coach that measures up to Arena, we will be looking for a long time. The team did knock off George Mason and Hofstra this weekend to recover their record to 2-2; both opponents are more or less patsies. Chris Agorsor scored goals in both games and seems to be well on his way to living up to the bevy of accolades he got coming out of high school. Next is VCU, who hasn't beaten anybody of note and has lost to our ACC brethren, UNC and Wake.
Tomorrow: the year's second Blogpoll Roundtable!
Press conference highlights are very non-highlighty. No, we didn't learn anything about UConn from playing USC, because they have a very different scheme, and the talent level WHOA hold on let me catch myself right about the place Plutoid Ralph should have stopped. No, we didn't learn anything about UConn from their last game because the rain was literally coming from the ground up. Got their players' numbers memorized real good though, check this out, I even got their left tackle. Oh, and Denzel Burrell roolz.
UVA Notes from the RTD, summarized as only I can:
- You can pay more than you would for an actual basketball game to hear the heavenly words of Jim Calhoun at the coaches' clinic.
- Ryan Benincasa has been beating everyone we can throw at him in the faceoff circle in lacrosse practice. This places him on par with our opponents, who also beat everyone we threw at them.
- Groh's looking for chances to play Steve Greer and Cam Johnson. They didn't play against Richmond because "the game was real tight, and the guys out there were doing a good job." (Groh's words.) Also, Groh didn't want to have to face any questions about why we lost to a I-AA team and flushed our Congressional Bowl hopes down the toilet with two true freshmen on the field at his favorite defensive position with two perfectly healthy seniors on the bench. (My words.)
- Zane Parr and J-K Dolce did in fact play against Richmond, which I couldn't help but notice because they made life mad difficult for Eric Ward.
Lastly there is this article from ESPN regarding soccer coach George Gelnovatch. Specifically, it hints at a hot seat and unhappy alumni, it was printed September 5, and it's a highly ironic article because the other thing that happened September 5 was the school's announcement that Gelnovatch has been extended through 2012. I am the least qualified person ever to comment on Gelnovatch's suitability for coaching this team, although I will say that the sideways comparison to Bruce Arena in the ESPN article is slightly unfair - if we are going to look for a coach that measures up to Arena, we will be looking for a long time. The team did knock off George Mason and Hofstra this weekend to recover their record to 2-2; both opponents are more or less patsies. Chris Agorsor scored goals in both games and seems to be well on his way to living up to the bevy of accolades he got coming out of high school. Next is VCU, who hasn't beaten anybody of note and has lost to our ACC brethren, UNC and Wake.
Tomorrow: the year's second Blogpoll Roundtable!
Monday, September 8, 2008
weekend review
Strap in. Biggish post coming up. Got a lot of stuff to cover. Got this week's Blogpoll submission and explanation of myself. Got to take a look at what our recruits were up to on Friday night, we'll take a look at the recruiting board, and a little bit of a jaunt around the ACC to see how they felt about the weekend. Hot insider item: Maryland didn't like it.
This is the Poll:
What's that, you ask? How does Ohio State keep the top spot despite looking like the JV team against Ohio? Simple: they were the top team last week, and they won. Besides that, USC didn't play - a convincing USC victory over somebody would probably have pushed them to the top. This is still the "predictive" part of the year, where I'm mostly unimpressed by a team kicking around some tin can from the Sun Belt, and I'm mostly unswayed by "bad" wins. Yes, Wake fell a couple spots despite this philosophy, but the muddled 15-25 area is much more volatile than the top 5.
East Carolina, obviously, is the talk of the town. Virginia Tech fell a couple more spots with a fairly unimpressive win over Furman, which has the coolest logo in all of DI-AA, but since ECU followed up a Week 1 shocker with a Week 2 shocker, you have to figure that may actually reflect a little more on ECU being good rather than VT being bad. Penn State shows up after curb-stomping Oregon State. Yes, Oregon State is a bad team, but Penn State acted like a good team and did what good teams are supposed to do. Tennessee and UNC, with a loss and a terrible win, respectively, on their records, get bumped.
Next week is going to be interesting and probably raise some red flags over at headquarters. After three weeks, most teams have played three games; to me, this is enough to vote entirely on resume. This could very well put East Carolina up a lot higher than they are now, and given the tin cans they've got coming up in the next four weeks (yes, us too) they could well be the beneficiaries of my rule that a 7-0 team or better always gets ranked higher than a team with a loss. Teams like LSU will suffer in the rankings, big time; LSU has stomped Appalachian State, will probably stomp North Texas, and that is not really all that cool.
As always, feel free to unfuck me if you think I need it.
Ok, moving on. How did our recruits do this weekend?
Ross Metheny: Opened his season by passing for 169 yards on 11 of 13, with 3 touchdowns, in a 37-10 Sherando win over Musselman.
Perry Jones: Scored two touchdowns in Oscar Smith's rout of Hickory.
Quintin Hunter: Completed 7 of 17 passes for 168 yards and 1 TD; ran for 126 yards on five carries with a long of 63 and scored another TD. Orange beat Culpeper 40-0.
Dominique Wallace: The headline screams WALLACE DOES IT ALL. (!!!) Wallace carried the ball 16 times for 207 and caught a pass for 16 more, and scored all five touchdowns himself in Chancellor's 35-6 over Massaponax. Wallace ran for three, caught one, and ran a teammate's fumble another 79 yards for the final score.
Paul Freedman: Caught a touchdown pass in CCC's 19-0 win over Miami Bay Point.
Recruiting board!
Updates:
- This is rather old news, but Brennan Williams cut his list even further, and we're still on it, so yay. For him, it's either BC, Wake, or UVA.
- Added schools for Antone Exum and fixed his position. We've offered as a WR, so that's where he gets slotted. However, he plays quarterback and DB in high school and wants to play QB in college.
- Removed WR Rex Burkhead, who was never really thinking UVA real hard, but finally listed a more or less official top six that we are not in.
- Logan Thomas added Florida State and Penn State to his top seven, making it a top nine.
- Added Boston College to Oday Aboushi.
- Removed OT Patrick Ward, who named a top four that takes him nowhere near Charlottesville.
QB Kevin Newsome
- VT, PSU, Mich., UNC, WVU
RB Tavon Austin
- Md., WVU, UGA, Mich., Neb.
RB De'Antwan Williams
- Bama, VT, BC, Md., Rutgers, WVU
WR Justin Brown
- PSU, VT, NCSt., S.Car, UNC
WR Sean Farr
- Md., WVU, Akron, EMU
WR Timothy Smith
- L'ville, S.Car, WVU
WR Antone Exum
- SCar., VT, WVU, PSU, Md., Tenn., Purdue, L'ville, CU, Wake
TE Logan Thomas
- VT, Clemson, WVU, UNC, Wake, Tenn., FSU, PSU
OT Morgan Moses
- pretty much everyone east of the Mississippi
OT Oday Aboushi
- Iowa, Md., Rutgers, PSU, Mich., BC
DE Brennan Williams
- BC, Wake
DE Michael Buchanan
- Purdue, Ill., Cal, Vandy, KU
DE Lanford Collins
- VT, PSU, Tenn., WVU, Md., NCSt., UNC, BC, Ill.
DE Garry Gilliam
- UConn, PSU, Temple, Pitt, Akron
DE Will Hill
- UConn, Md., Mich., UNC, S.Car
DE Anthony LaLota
- BC, UF, Mich., ND, PSU, Rutgers
DE Bernardo Nunez
- lots
DE DeAntre Rhodes
- VT, Md., Clemson, Tenn.
DE Pat Muldoon
- Cincy, BC, Wisc.
OLB Jelani Jenkins
- everyone and their aunt
CB Travis Hawkins
- who isn't interested?
S Javanti Sparrow
- Clemson, UNC, PSU, VT, WVU
S Taylor Sowell
- Miami, VT, WVU, GT
DB Joshua Evans
- 28 other schools. for real.
So, we won on Saturday, and you know this. What about the rest of the league? Some snippets from around the ACC blogworld, sprinkled with editorializing from your humble blogger.
Boston College and Georgia Tech opened the ACC season with the kind of lame, uninspiring game that the ACC is probably going to pump out in spades this year, and even the non-religiously-football-watching crowd can tell it sucks. The GT take isn't much better. One called it "super ugly" and the other said "painful to watch", and I'm not even gonna bother telling you which is which.
Florida State housed some team that the school paid several hundred thousand dollars to come in and do their Sunday best to keep Bobby Bowden out of trouble with the alums. Next week they will do the same, and if there's any justice they will travel to Winston-Salem and get flattened in two weeks.
Wake Forest gave zero people any reason to think the ACC will not totally suck. Ole Miss could not win a single SEC game last year and came thisclose to knocking off our (supposed) second or third best team in their own house. Old Gold & Blog is remarkably calm in times when most people would say, "yes we won BUT" and commence to running in panicked circles around their living room.
Gobbler Country would like you to boo Sean Glennon. This is not a hard request for most Tech fans.
Maryland BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Small reminder that that was oh so close to being us last year. That out of the way, who cares? HA. Maybe, just maybe, their plutoid-size coach should check to see which teams are "pretty good" (hint: not yours, coach) before opening his mouth.
This is the Poll:
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State | -- |
| 2 | Southern Cal | -- |
| 3 | Georgia | -- |
| 4 | Florida | -- |
| 5 | Oklahoma | -- |
| 6 | Missouri | -- |
| 7 | Texas | -- |
| 8 | Arizona State | -- |
| 9 | LSU | -- |
| 10 | Wisconsin | 1 |
| 11 | East Carolina | 15 |
| 12 | Kansas | -- |
| 13 | Brigham Young | -- |
| 14 | Texas Tech | -- |
| 15 | Auburn | -- |
| 16 | Oregon | 2 |
| 17 | Alabama | 2 |
| 18 | Virginia Tech | 2 |
| 19 | Wake Forest | 2 |
| 20 | West Virginia | 10 |
| 21 | Clemson | 1 |
| 22 | Penn State | 4 |
| 23 | Illinois | 2 |
| 24 | Fresno State | 2 |
| 25 | South Florida | 2 |
Dropped Out: Tennessee (#24), North Carolina (#25).
What's that, you ask? How does Ohio State keep the top spot despite looking like the JV team against Ohio? Simple: they were the top team last week, and they won. Besides that, USC didn't play - a convincing USC victory over somebody would probably have pushed them to the top. This is still the "predictive" part of the year, where I'm mostly unimpressed by a team kicking around some tin can from the Sun Belt, and I'm mostly unswayed by "bad" wins. Yes, Wake fell a couple spots despite this philosophy, but the muddled 15-25 area is much more volatile than the top 5.
East Carolina, obviously, is the talk of the town. Virginia Tech fell a couple more spots with a fairly unimpressive win over Furman, which has the coolest logo in all of DI-AA, but since ECU followed up a Week 1 shocker with a Week 2 shocker, you have to figure that may actually reflect a little more on ECU being good rather than VT being bad. Penn State shows up after curb-stomping Oregon State. Yes, Oregon State is a bad team, but Penn State acted like a good team and did what good teams are supposed to do. Tennessee and UNC, with a loss and a terrible win, respectively, on their records, get bumped.
Next week is going to be interesting and probably raise some red flags over at headquarters. After three weeks, most teams have played three games; to me, this is enough to vote entirely on resume. This could very well put East Carolina up a lot higher than they are now, and given the tin cans they've got coming up in the next four weeks (yes, us too) they could well be the beneficiaries of my rule that a 7-0 team or better always gets ranked higher than a team with a loss. Teams like LSU will suffer in the rankings, big time; LSU has stomped Appalachian State, will probably stomp North Texas, and that is not really all that cool.
As always, feel free to unfuck me if you think I need it.
Ok, moving on. How did our recruits do this weekend?
Ross Metheny: Opened his season by passing for 169 yards on 11 of 13, with 3 touchdowns, in a 37-10 Sherando win over Musselman.
Perry Jones: Scored two touchdowns in Oscar Smith's rout of Hickory.
Quintin Hunter: Completed 7 of 17 passes for 168 yards and 1 TD; ran for 126 yards on five carries with a long of 63 and scored another TD. Orange beat Culpeper 40-0.
Dominique Wallace: The headline screams WALLACE DOES IT ALL. (!!!) Wallace carried the ball 16 times for 207 and caught a pass for 16 more, and scored all five touchdowns himself in Chancellor's 35-6 over Massaponax. Wallace ran for three, caught one, and ran a teammate's fumble another 79 yards for the final score.
Paul Freedman: Caught a touchdown pass in CCC's 19-0 win over Miami Bay Point.
Recruiting board!
Updates:
- This is rather old news, but Brennan Williams cut his list even further, and we're still on it, so yay. For him, it's either BC, Wake, or UVA.
- Added schools for Antone Exum and fixed his position. We've offered as a WR, so that's where he gets slotted. However, he plays quarterback and DB in high school and wants to play QB in college.
- Removed WR Rex Burkhead, who was never really thinking UVA real hard, but finally listed a more or less official top six that we are not in.
- Logan Thomas added Florida State and Penn State to his top seven, making it a top nine.
- Added Boston College to Oday Aboushi.
- Removed OT Patrick Ward, who named a top four that takes him nowhere near Charlottesville.
QB Kevin Newsome
- VT, PSU, Mich., UNC, WVU
RB Tavon Austin
- Md., WVU, UGA, Mich., Neb.
RB De'Antwan Williams
- Bama, VT, BC, Md., Rutgers, WVU
WR Justin Brown
- PSU, VT, NCSt., S.Car, UNC
WR Sean Farr
- Md., WVU, Akron, EMU
WR Timothy Smith
- L'ville, S.Car, WVU
WR Antone Exum
- SCar., VT, WVU, PSU, Md., Tenn., Purdue, L'ville, CU, Wake
TE Logan Thomas
- VT, Clemson, WVU, UNC, Wake, Tenn., FSU, PSU
OT Morgan Moses
- pretty much everyone east of the Mississippi
OT Oday Aboushi
- Iowa, Md., Rutgers, PSU, Mich., BC
DE Brennan Williams
- BC, Wake
DE Michael Buchanan
- Purdue, Ill., Cal, Vandy, KU
DE Lanford Collins
- VT, PSU, Tenn., WVU, Md., NCSt., UNC, BC, Ill.
DE Garry Gilliam
- UConn, PSU, Temple, Pitt, Akron
DE Will Hill
- UConn, Md., Mich., UNC, S.Car
DE Anthony LaLota
- BC, UF, Mich., ND, PSU, Rutgers
DE Bernardo Nunez
- lots
DE DeAntre Rhodes
- VT, Md., Clemson, Tenn.
DE Pat Muldoon
- Cincy, BC, Wisc.
OLB Jelani Jenkins
- everyone and their aunt
CB Travis Hawkins
- who isn't interested?
S Javanti Sparrow
- Clemson, UNC, PSU, VT, WVU
S Taylor Sowell
- Miami, VT, WVU, GT
DB Joshua Evans
- 28 other schools. for real.
So, we won on Saturday, and you know this. What about the rest of the league? Some snippets from around the ACC blogworld, sprinkled with editorializing from your humble blogger.
Boston College and Georgia Tech opened the ACC season with the kind of lame, uninspiring game that the ACC is probably going to pump out in spades this year, and even the non-religiously-football-watching crowd can tell it sucks. The GT take isn't much better. One called it "super ugly" and the other said "painful to watch", and I'm not even gonna bother telling you which is which.
Florida State housed some team that the school paid several hundred thousand dollars to come in and do their Sunday best to keep Bobby Bowden out of trouble with the alums. Next week they will do the same, and if there's any justice they will travel to Winston-Salem and get flattened in two weeks.
Wake Forest gave zero people any reason to think the ACC will not totally suck. Ole Miss could not win a single SEC game last year and came thisclose to knocking off our (supposed) second or third best team in their own house. Old Gold & Blog is remarkably calm in times when most people would say, "yes we won BUT" and commence to running in panicked circles around their living room.
Gobbler Country would like you to boo Sean Glennon. This is not a hard request for most Tech fans.
Maryland BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Small reminder that that was oh so close to being us last year. That out of the way, who cares? HA. Maybe, just maybe, their plutoid-size coach should check to see which teams are "pretty good" (hint: not yours, coach) before opening his mouth.
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