game preview: Idaho

Date/Time: Saturday, October 1; 3:30

TV: ESPN3

History against the Vandals: 0-0

Last matchup: N/A

Last week: USM 30, UVA 24; Fresno St. 48, UI 24

Line: Virginia by 16.5

Opposing blogs: none

Injury report: N/A

This game is kind of my poster child for why I want to play nine games in the ACC.  Do we really need a random WAC-snack game?  Are the fans going to show up for this one?  (I'm guessing not.)  Of course, it's also the poster child for the opposition in that argument: yes we need a WAC-snack so we can get ourselves bowl-eligible, cause it's not gonna happen if we replace Idaho with Clemson.  (No, probably not, but maybe Wake Forest instead.)

Anyway, if you ask me this is pretty much the most completely random matchup I've ever seen in 11 years of following UVA.  At least it's an improvement over a home-and-home with UTSA.  I mean, who does that?

-- UVA run offense vs. Idaho run defense

Top backs:
Perry Jones: 59 carries, 255 yards, 4.3 avg.
Kevin Parks: 50 carries, 282 yards, 5.6 avg.

UVA offense:
181.25 yards/game, 4.5 yards/attempt
43rd of 120 (national), 5th of 12 (ACC)

Idaho defense:
124.5 yards/games, 3.56 yards/attempt
46th of 120 (national), 4th of 8 (WAC)

The big question of the week is Kevin Parks and his ankle.  After four games we're starting to get enough of a look at the offense to be able to say that Parks is the most effective back in the ground game.  The workload split has been about 2-2-1 between Parks, Perry Jones, and Clifton Richardson; Jones is solid with good vision and excellent skills as a receiver, but the other two bring physical talents that Jones does not.

For their part, Idaho's run defense should be given more respect than the name "Idaho" commands.  The Vandals got killed by Texas A&M but it wasn't the fault of the run defenders, as they held A&M's workhorse back Cyrus Gray to 3.5 yards a carry.  Gray got to 101 yards but he needed almost 30 carries to do it.  The secret to Idaho's success is the back seven.  The defensive line doesn't get involved in playmaking much; the safeties are brought up in run support, and they and the linebackers are relied upon to get the stops.  Middle linebacker Tre'Shawn Robinson leads the team in TFL and is tied with safety Gary Harris for the lead in tackles.  The top four tacklers are the safeties and two linebackers.

It's hard keeping Parks off the field, but I'd like to see it this week.  With a lesser opponent and then a bye week, this'd be a decent chance to get Parks good and healthy for the ACC long haul.  Let's go ahead and predict that Parks and Richardson swap places in that 2-2-1 workload split, and Parks gets the fewest carries of the three.  But Texas A&M has a very solid rushing offense that Idaho was able to control.  We don't have a very wrinkly running game and this isn't really a question of line vs. line, so I don't expect to get much better results than the 4.5 ypa we've been getting.

-- UVA pass offense vs. Idaho pass defense

Quarterback:
Mike Rocco: 74/119, 62.2%; 792 yards, 1 TD, 7 INT; 6.66 yds/attempt

Top receivers:
Kris Burd: 22 catches, 250 yards, 0 TD
Perry Jones: 17 catches, 158 yards, 0 TD

UVA offense:
243.3 yards/game, 6.4 yards/attempt
91st of 120 (national), 11th of 12 (ACC)

Idaho defense:
301.8 yards/game, 8.3 yards/attempt
106th of 120 (national), 8th of 8 (WAC)

(sigh) is it quarterback controversy time already?  It is, brought on in part by the soreness in Mike Rocco's midsection after taking one too many shots to the gut.  Rocco is still the most efficient mover of the offense, though.

Unfortunately, this is the part of the offense that has regressed somewhat as the season goes on.  The run game here is strength vs. strength; this is weakness vs. weakness.  A huge part of the reason Idaho has been bad is because the pass defense has been terrible.  There is no such thing as a pass rush; Idaho has only recorded two sacks all season.  Teams are averaging over 8 yards an attempt and 300 yards a game.  Nobody other than crappy I-AA opponent North Dakota has had any trouble moving the ball through the air.

So this is a perfect opportunity to get somebody on track, whether it's Rocco or David Watford or even Ross Metheny.  As long as Rocco is healthy, I expect it'll be him, and the quarterback workload will continue as before.  Precedent says that London has a much slower trigger finger on pulling quarterbacks than Groh did.  The question is: how effective can he be?  I will guess at pretty decent.  Accuracy has not been Rocco's problem.  He shouldn't be under any pressure on Saturday - expect no sacks especially with the short passing game that Bill Lazor has favored this year - and in general, his bad interceptions have come as the result of pressure.

If Rocco doesn't play, I think Ross Metheny will and will get plenty of reps.  I don't expect the entire game to be handed over to Watford.  But as I said, Rocco plays if healthy - or even healthy-ish - and he'll improve on his completion percentage (which is already solid) and his passer rating (which is dismally low) and go for 250+ yards.

-- Idaho run offense vs. UVA run defense

Top backs:
Ryan Bass: 29 carries, 117 yards, 4.0 avg.
Princeton McCarty: 28 carries, 109 yards, 3.9 avg.

Idaho offense:
67.25 yards/game, 2.4 yards/attempt
117th of 120 (national), 8th of 8 (WAC)

UVA defense:
119.75 yards/game, 3.5 yards/attempt
44th of 120 (national), 5th of 12 (ACC)

Part of the reason for the horrible rushing numbers that Idaho displays is that they're also worst in their conference at allowing sacks, but let's not sugarcoat things - this is a garbage running game.  Idaho operates out of the pistol, which is designed to be a running formation, but it's not getting things done.  The Vandals run the ball only about 42% of the time; you'd think that'd be from playing from (way) behind all the time (I did), but they also passed much more than ran in their 30-point win over UND.  (Then again, if you're confused about Idaho's offensive philosophy, you're not alone; so are their fans.  One man's conclusion: "It keeps a low profile so as not to offend anyone.")

So it really just goes back to ineffectiveness.  Idaho stayed away from the run last year as well, racking up less than a quarter of their total yards on the ground.  They had four new starters on the line last year and just weren't good there.  As long as the defense can figure out the pistol formation (it's designed to keep you from figuring out which side the run is going to) they should give UVA fans a little bit of a warm and fuzzy about their abilities.  Idaho's longest running play from scrimmage is 22 yards; I think not only do we silence the big-play bug for this week (nothing over 15 yards will be my call) I think we'll also see the defense hold the Vandals to less than 100 yards total on the ground.  If Bowling Green can do that, we can do that.

-- Idaho pass offense vs. UVA pass defense

Quarterback:
Brian Reader: 85/149, 57%; 842 yards, 8 TD, 1 INT; 5.65 yds/attempt

Top receivers:
Mike Scott: 26 catches, 328 yards, 1 TD
Armauni Johnson: 14 catches, 192 yards, 2 TD

Idaho offense:
226.3 yards/games, 5.8 yards/attempt
101st of 120 (national), 7th of 8 (WAC)

UVA defense:
196 yards/game, 6.0 yards/attempt
27th of 120 (national), 2nd of 12 (ACC)

If Idaho doesn't move the ball on the ground, they must do so through the air, right?  A little.  Brian Reader isn't a strong-armed quarterback - in fact, he's very like Rocco only with better taking care of the ball.  Idaho only gets about five and a half yards per attempt out of him because he only completes 57% of his passes, but this is where the focus of the Vandal offense will be.

Reader's favorite target is without a doubt Mike Scott, a waterbug type who can scoot.  Scott's longest play this year is 51 yards; that was not Reader who delivered that ball, however.  Armauni Johnson is a big guy at 6'3", and between them they have almost half of Reader's completions.  Johnson will be targeted in the end zone should Idaho find itself approaching hallowed ground.  Because of the size differential, I think the coaches will prefer that Chase Minnifield cover Johnson while Demetrious Nicholson takes Scott, even though Scott is clearly the go-to receiver.

Reader's been on his butt a lot, though, having been sacked 12 times; this puts Idaho in the bottom 20 in the country.  Southern Miss's refusal to stand up and play offense like gentlemen meant the UVA defensive line had trouble getting to Austin Davis; we may see something similar this week with Idaho working out of the pistol, although probably not to the extent that USM did.  If Idaho plays football like men do, and not all this hustling up to the line and then getting the playcall, UVA could finally have an opponent it can make a target out of, which is why I worry that they won't.

Regardless, though, UVA has been effective against the pass.  This is the game right here.  If our relatively strong pass defense can nullify Idaho's passing attack, then the only thing for our offense to determine is whether or not we cover the spread.  Reader brings efficiency but not much big-play potential, which is exactly the kind of offense we're happy to face.

Outlook:

Before the season it was widely considered that this would likely be the worst opponent we'd face all year.  William & Mary has sucked more than expected - only beating VMI by 17 is not impressive - but when you're playing patsy to MAC teams and getting cuffed around by Bowling Green in your own building, the fact that you're not the worst opponent on someone's schedule is not your own fault.  It would be a Very Bad Upset to lose here, because this is the last Bowl Eligibility Special of the season.  Idaho's offense is largely one-dimensional and their defense is totally ill-equipped to take advantage of the UVA offense's biggest weakness.  This sets up well to go into the break on a high note.

Prediction summary:

- Kevin Parks gets fewer carries than both Perry Jones and Clifton Richardson.
- The UVA run game stays near its average of 4.5 ypc.
- Mike Rocco will still get the lion's share of snaps if healthy; if for some reason he can't go, Ross Metheny will at least get significant snaps.
- Assuming Rocco plays, he will deliver noticeable improvement on his passer rating and completion percentage, and pass for 250+ yards.
- Idaho will not record a sack.
- Idaho will have no running plays over 15 yards.
- The UVA defense will hold Idaho to less than 100 yards total rushing.

- Final score: UVA 35, Idaho 13.

Rest of the ACC:

Wake Forest @ Boston College, 12:30 - Time to find out if it's for real that BC sucks.
Maryland vs. Towson, 3:30 - Please don't embarrass the ACC this week, Maryland.  Or do, actually.  I don't care.
Georgia Tech @ NC State, 3:30 - GT's offense is crushing weaklings and NC State's defense is banged up all to hell.
Miami vs. Bethune-Cookman, 3:30 - Wuteva.
Clemson @ Virginia Tech, 6:00 - This is the marquee game of the week; isn't 6:00 usually the time of day that you play, like, VMI?
Duke @ Florida International, 7:00 - Duke at Florida International?
North Carolina @ East Carolina, 8:00 - UNC meant to schedule the South version but got mixed up.

weekend review

Well, that was disappointing.

You'll recall in the game preview that I dredged up some thoughts from the aftermath of the previous game in this home-and-home with Southern Miss: the game was the last straw, for me, of the Al Groh era.  I came to a similar conclusion this week.  I see the game this Saturday as having been lost for two reasons:

- Inferior quarterback play as compared to the opponent.
- Coaching.

There's nothing we can do about the quarterback thing right now.  Austin Davis is a very experienced senior who's in his fourth year of starting and is wiping Brett Favre out of the Southern Miss record books.  Mike Rocco has less than 12% of Austin Davis's career passing attempts.  We have nobody more experienced than Rocco.  There's nothing we can do about this quarterback gap except develop what we've got and wait a couple years.

Coaching is different.  I've become convinced that the game of football has passed by Jim Reid.  I'll stipulate to this: he's a 3-4 guy being asked to run a 4-3.  Part of the reason the scheme is so simple is probably because he's never worked the nuances of the 4-3 before.  This is not his fault; on the other hand, it doesn't make him any better for the job.  I simply think he's got no answer for the kind of offensive schemes that have developed in the past 15-20 years.  Reid is still coaching in the 1980s.

Southern Miss ran a quick-tempo spread-ish look at us, with quick-hitter passing routes that our very traditional defense was powerless to stop.  But the play that ended the Jim Reid era in my mind was the 3rd and 23 that Southern Miss converted.  Reid preaches that the defense must aggressively flow to the ball, and flow to the ball they did.  The players fixated on the ball, not their opponent, and lost track entirely of Tracy Lampley on the opposite side.  The defense flowed one way, the ball suddenly flew the other, and the only prayer at making a play was a hopeless attempt at an arm tackle.  That play is not especially complicated - it's the perfect nothing-to-lose call for that occasion - and I don't think it ever occurred to Jim Reid that such a play can exist.

For most of the rest of the day, the defensive playcalling was completely out of sorts.  It felt like Reid was playing Madden for the first time; having no idea what to call for a particular situation, often he said "screw it" and pushed the buttons for a blitz.  Larry Fedora coached circles around our defense all day long.

I don't know if we can get much better on defense under Reid.  I suppose it is premature to mentally close and lock the door on the Reid era the way I was forced to come to grips with the Groh era, but if Reid's UVA career were an injury report I've just downgraded my opinion from probable to doubtful.  I see the appeal of a pure football guy like him at practice and on the recruiting trail, but if you want to run the 4-3 defense, perhaps it's time to hire a 4-3 coach.

Other game observations:

- Despite the wired-in tendency of UVA fans to fire up quarterback controversies at the drop of a hat, I don't see one happening yet.  Mike Rocco had his worst day of the four that he's started, but I loathe the microwaveable attention span that it takes to demand he be replaced after four starts.  I mean, if you don't get that a first-time sophomore starter is going to have his ups and downs, then please, have some Ritalin or something.  David Watford, at times, looks pretty good - even to the point where sometimes you don't see much dropoff from Rocco.  And it's tempting to suggest (or demand) that London make the switch now.  I'll predict right now that Rocco starts against Idaho, though.  Rocco throws a more consistently accurate ball than does Watford, I suspect that more of the playbook is open to Rocco, and it's Rocco - as long as his midsection is feeling fine - that still gives us the best shot at winning.

Remember, too, that Marc Verica was booed off the field against North Carolina last year - in the third quarter after throwing much interceptions - and Rocco finished the game after a series or two from Ross Metheny.  Verica kept the starting job regardless and finished the season that way.  Given that precedent I don't expect Rocco to lose his job if he's healthy.

- Argh fake punt.  Argh another drop by a senior receiver.  (Not long after a terrific diving catch by said senior receiver.)  Argh extra tape on Kevin Parks's ankle.  Welcome to the frustrating wide world of fixing a busted program.  Consistency is not the hallmark of rebuilding.  Even the punting stank, which is something I don't expect out of Jimmy Howell.

- It is interesting that when Rocco left, Watford finished and Metheny stayed on the sidelines.  The depth chart this week no longer has an OR between the backups; this appears to essentially be confirmation of what we saw in the game.  That Watford is the backup, Metheny the third string.

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All that said, let's get to the prediction review this week.  I think I probably did not very good.  I won't know til I'm done typing this out.

- UVA runs for more than 170 yards and more than five yards per carry, which were the numbers against UNC.
Hmmm (checking).....nope.  Hell, we barely scraped five yards a pass play.  17 yards short of my yardage prediction and way short on the average.  This is undoubtedly a big reason why we lost: the run game took as much of a step backwards as the quarterback.  Consistency dammit.

- Mike Rocco averages better than 13 yards per completion.

Holy fuck.  No.

- Jamal Woodyard carries for more than 100 yards.

I was 101 yards off, as Woodyard went backwards.  He had -1 yards on five carries.  Here is your Surprising Bright Spot of the game: our run defense crushed Southern Miss.  Take away the fake punt, which went for 31 yards, and Southern Miss averaged less than a yard a carry.  Consistency dammit.  By which I mean do that again to someone else.

- Cam Johnson picks up at least two sacks.

I can't do it.  I wanted to give myself this one but I can't.  I'll be rockin' a big oh-fer on this week's predictions but oh well.  Johnson picked up a sack in the third quarter, so I was halfway there.  Later, Southern Miss ran a zone-read; quarterback Davis kept it and was tackled - by Cam Johnson - behind the line of scrimmage....but not far enough that a loss of a full yard was credited.  Even if it had been, it's not really a sack since it was a running play.  Southern Miss's quick-hit offense prevented UVA from getting much pressure in Davis's face.

- Austin Davis's completion percentage is held to less than 55%.

64% is greater than 55%.

In going zero-for-the-week I drop to 12 for 31, and in score predictions I'm now 3-1 and 2-2 ATS.  Well, I told you I knew less about Southern Miss than most of our other opponents.

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Maybe our recruits did better than we did this weekend.  It's time for Senior Seasons, where we find out.  First I must boast at you that the Blue Devils of my alma mater Grosse Pointe South defeated hated crosstown rival North for the second year in a row.  South is 4-1 and qualifies for the playoffs with two more wins in the next four games.

Now for what you care about:

Victory Christian 41, Mount Dora Bible 0: Playing quarterback, Demeitre Brim ran for two touchdowns and 159 yards.  VCA is now 2-2.  For those of you who take stock in such things, Brim commented on the article.  It's one of those fancy forward-thinking social-media-connected websites that, when you comment, you comment as your Facebook persona (which ensures that I will never comment on such websites) and Brim's picture is him in front of the large fancy V-sabre that I think is in the stadium offices and halls.  (Or the McCue Center, but I've never been to the latter.)  Take it how you will.

Franklin 21, Philipsburg 13: Two touchdowns for Kye Morgan; long runs of 80 and 67 yards.  Franklin is 2-1.

Worcester Academy 40, Phillips Exeter 27: Newest commit Canaan Severin had four catches for 73 yards and a touchdown.  WA is 1-0.

Bayside 50, Kempsville 0: Anthony Cooper had a pick-six on defense.  Bayside is 3-1.

Ocean Lakes 21, First Colonial 6: Eli Harold ran for all three touchdowns.  Ocean Lakes is 3-1.

Hermitage 14, Varina 2: Maurice Canady was forced into quarterback duty with Varina's quarterback suspended for quite some time.  Canady ran for 67 yards on 21 carries and was 5-for-19 passing.  Because of Canady's lack of QB experience, Varina ran only 9 different plays of the 65 in their playbook.  Hermitage is now 3-0; Varina, 2-1.

Buford 35, Lovett 7 (C.J. Moore - Buford is 6-0.)
DeMatha 27, Dunbar 19 (Michael Moore - DeMatha is 2-1.)
Malvern Prep 55, Penn Wood 7 (Michael Mooney - Malvern is 3-1.)
North Penn 28, Central Bucks South 14 (Matt Johns - CB South is 2-2.)
Montgomery 38, Stratford 7 (Kelvin Rainey - Stratford is 1-3.)
Salem 27, Green Run 13 (Mark Hall - Green Run is 1-3.)
Cox 17, Landstown 6 (Kyle Dockins - Landstown is 3-1.)

Thanks to rain delays, Hampton (Jamall Brown) and Woodside are playing as I type; it's halftime and Hampton is up 17-10.

Last weekend:

(Two of our recruits live in areas without daily newspaper coverage.  Greyson Lambert is from a pretty rural part of Georgia and Sean Karl is from Long Island.  I suppose Long Island's deal is that the New York Times and the tabloids don't condescend to bother with high school sports.  Anyway, Lambert's and Karl's results are on a one-week delay because the papers that cover them are published too late for this update.)

Anyway, after all that: Lambert had a bye last week, and Sean Karl and ESM lost to Comsewogue (making them 1-1) but I don't know the score because the only paper that has it is dickishly making you pay to read articles online.  Screw that business model, man.

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Oh, and since this "weekend review" stuff is also meant to cover things that happened last week that didn't get mentioned: yes, I'm almighty surprised that the Big 12, despite also officially losing Texas A&M, continues to cling to its existence.  As a nine-member conference it is probably in fair shape, although that seems like a skinny number when everyone but the collapsing Big East has at least 12.

I wonder if the SEC will stay with 13?  The MAC has shown that it's not completely impossible to have a divisional setup with seven on one side and six on the other, but I just have a hard time imagining the SEC liking that as a long-term solution.  Even though nobody lives in the state of West Virginia, its flagship school still seems like the most likely choice to join the SEC eventually if they decide to go to 14.  They might not, though; it's not hard to imagine the SEC presidents deciding that a tortured schedule is preferable to diluting the money pool.

This conference merry-go-round was a lot more predictable it seemed like more teams would be jumping ship, but frankly now that things have "settled down" a bit it really only seems like now we're waiting for more shoes to drop.  The way things are now is untenable.  The Big East is either going to fall apart or add more schools; its football side can't survive with seven teams, and that's even assuming TCU makes it to the Big East in 2012.  The minutes from the meeting that followed the first ACC raid in 2003 are eight years old, but revealing; the big takeaway seems to be that the dynamic between the football and basketball schools is even riftier than I've been saying.  Or at least was; although I doubt much has changed.  How the Big East proceeds from here will have yet another domino effect, because it can't stay the way it is.

you have to give al groh this

His defenses at least waited til the second half to fall to shit.

Yeah, normally I write this column on Sunday after I'm done with my Blogpoll ballot, but I don't have anything better to do right now, and why waste a perfectly good foul mood? This was supposed to be the most winnable of the three test games that just occurred, and instead it turns out to be Free Football Night at Scott Stadium. Wear your Carolina blue and white and get a complimentary souvenir courtesy of our friendly quarterback crew!

Or maybe I'm being too harsh. Here, let me try the rational, objective approach. Let's list some positives and negatives from the game. Surely we can find something to talk about.

Positives:

- The new, more metallic blue helmets look really sharp during night games under the lights.

Negatives:

- The defense.
- The offense, other than Keith Payne.
- The special teams.
- The coaching, probably.
- Orange-on-orange uniform combo.
- The defense.

Well, that's quite a list. Let's tackle that one-by-one.

- First off, the players are fired from uniform selection duties, or they should be until they win. For the EMU game, simple old-fashioned blue-over-white. Need to remove distractions. And that's too bad, 'cause I'd really like to see the orange-over-white. But teams that lose by 34 don't need either the distraction or the privilege of frivolities like fashion design.

- Actually, the special teams weren't really a negative - not that they got much of a chance to flash their stuff. Except the kick return squad. Lot of field time, there. I should add that if we ever allow him to do his thing, instead of opting for the direct QB-to-defender method of transferring possession, that Jimmy Howell is really an excellent punter these days.

- I'll let the coaches' honeymoon last a little while longer, if they promise to do some tackling drills and never again call four straight Keith Payne runs up the gut that result in a turnover on downs. Like the whole state couldn't see that one coming. Ross Metheny was in at the time - if you're evaluating freshmen quarterbacks, anything other than an off-tackle handoff would be a good way to do it.

- The running game was actually not horrible. In fact it was perfectly functional, and had there been any kind of support from any other facet of the team, we'd be heaping praise upon Keith Payne for his effort tonight. As it is all he gets is to stop running gassers early.

Besides the obvious issues under center, I'll give one other player who had a very rough game and needs a lot of work: Morgan Moses. Big Mo moved side to side like he was standing in wet cement. I think I'd rather see him understudy at guard behind B.J. Cabbell (who played reasonably well and was the prime mover in opening that massive hole for Payne on Payne's touchdown) where he can be more of a mauler. I don't think a man that size is ever going to move side-to-side too well; at guard he won't have to, and he could probably be a holy terror when pulling to the other side.

- Alright. The defense. As if it wasn't obvious against Florida State, the "offense needs to stay on the field longer to rest the defense" excuse is as acceptable as a $3 bill anymore. When you're down 7-0 after the very first play from scrimmage, it's time to give that idea a rest. Now the defense is just bad.

And frankly, it's baffling. This is supposed to be an easier defense to learn, which means that the growing pains into a new system should be minimized. The linebackers are regressing, which I suppose you can chalk up to the fact that most of them are playing a new position in a new system. But why is the secondary so horrible? The responsibilities aren't that different, and that's supposedly the veteran core of the defense. It's officially time to worry about Devin Wallace - he got burned nice and toasty all night. The quarterback issue is frustrating but explainable. The defense is frustrating and completely baffling, which is a lot worse.

So what about the rest of the season? In order to get bowl-eligible, we'd have to beat one of either Miami or VT plus everyone else on the schedule. So that's the last time this year you'll see the word "bowl" around here. If next week is not a win, you might as well empty the bench; Eastern Michigan is one of the absolute worst teams in all of I-A football. Worse than Richmond. After that, I see two chances to put another number in the win column: Duke and Maryland. To take any measure of success at all from this season, both are must-wins. I shouldn't have to explain why.

illusions

Reminiscing on upsets past and joyous times of yore has a way of clouding the in-between. With Florida State in town, talk was of 1995 and 2005, and that was fun. In between those two big wins, of course, I graduated junior high, high school, and college, and FSU visited Charlottesville four other times and handed our ass to us with parsley and tartar sauce. Hooray, another one for the pile.

Any illusion that the offense can be consistently functional againt a bowl-worthy defense should be shattered about now, and abandoned in the way that one day you realize you're not growing up to play baseball in the majors. In two games against defenses worth a damn, the offense has scored exactly two touchdowns when those defenses were actually trying, only one of which was the result of an actual drive. Florida State brainfarted on defense, and Marc Verica and Kris Burd smartly took advantage. After that, Verica's inner Interception Man appeared and finished what FSU started.

UVA did, by the way, almost nothing I thought they should do in the preview. Never to say that that stuff would have worked, but their way didn't, either. To wit:

- John-Kevin Dolce, all 250 pounds of him, was consistently on the field on running downs and consistently ended up 5 yards downfield before the running back was at the line of scrimmage. The man is at his best when given a step of space where he can use his athleticism, like on the pass rush - he doesn't otherwise have the beef for DT and the FSU running game took full advantage.

- Rather than punt at the sidelines, or rugby kick, or do something different than a straight up boom at the sky, UVA allowed Greg Reid to field everything he could get near. And FSU's field position benefitted beautifully from it.

- The FSU linebackers were allowed the luxury of keying on the run game, and they made every stop. There was very little play-action and tight end involvement to keep the linebackers busy and very few draw plays, too. Result: 2.9 yards per carry for the tailbacks.

Fact is, Florida State has more talent everywhere you look, at every single position on the field except for possibly cornerback, and this last is also hard to defend given the play of those backups. (More on that later.) That is probably one of the only really complete teams in the ACC.

On that note, the optimism: that is probably one of the only really complete teams in the ACC. Except for those that expected to hoist the crystal in January, there isn't a 2-2 team anywhere that thinks their season is over. Two more losses like that might change my perspective a little, but take a look at what Georgia Tech and UNC have accomplished this season and see if you don't think they're beatable. Watch that Duke-Maryland game again and see if you don't really like what you see. There's still plenty to look forward to this season, which is all you can ask for, really.

Stuff that didn't fit:

- My God, Devin Wallace had a really bad day. At least three, if not all four, of FSU's touchdowns can be more or less directly attributed to something he didn't do very well, be it tackle or cover. Wallace and Dom Joseph have been fairly solid in their careers, but neither of them would ever want to repeat their Saturday performances.

- It absolutely is not time to replace Marc Verica. I've always said his performance on the season shouldn't be judged until halfway through, and I'm sticking with that even if he throws five picks against GT. One, there are still bowl hopes, and not gumdrop rainbow ones either. Two, Metheny looked pretty good but FSU had their second string out and was hardly trying. And three, the people ready to throw Verica under the bus will probably be the same people ready to do the same to Metheny or Rocco in 2012 and '13. There's a certain breed of fan that just is never satisfied with what they're getting. They're rooting for the laundry, frankly. I happen to think that rooting for the team also means rooting for the players, and it's hard not to root for a guy who worked hard, gained the starting job, lost it, worked some more, got it back, and is looked to for leadership by the whole team.

I said it long before the season, repeatedly, and I'll say it again: that's a discussion we should have after the FSU-GT-UNC stretch, and only if we really look well out of bowl contention and Verica has been totally ineffective. If UVA wins just one of the next two, they'll be 3-3 going on 4-3. That'd be no time for a change at the helm.

- On the other hand, there are some depth chart changes that I'd either really like to see or wouldn't be surprised to. Like I said earlier, JKD should revert to his pass-rush role; he's getting blown up against the run. GT will exploit that mercilessly. And the O-line is hopefully still an evaluation in progress. I'd also like to replace the blank spots on the depth chart behind the two-deep at defensive back with actual scholarship players, but we can't have everything.

have we learned anything?

Here we are, a month into the season. UVA's got wins in the games that were supposed to be wins, and a loss in the game that was supposed to be a loss. In this respect they're no different from 90% of teams in the country. The problem with that is it makes it awfully hard to tell what things will look like going forward, and it makes the weeks interminably long. You want to find out how the team really looks against the competition that matters.

Which is a vast improvement over 2009, which was over as soon as it began. Losing to William & Mary tends to clarify the picture in all the wrong ways. Better to wonder how you'll look against Florida State than know you're going to lose to Duke.

Right now, though, wondering is about all there is. I'd fret about the running game's relative inefficiency against VMI, but it looked good against USC. I'd celebrate Marc Verica's mistake-free day and the quality outings from freshmen Ross Metheny and Mike Rocco, but VMI makes superstars-for-a-day out of a lot of people. I did like to see the defense allowing just 49 yards on VMI drives that started after the first quarter - helluva number - but I said beforehand that the Keydet rushing attack stank to high heaven, so I can't claim to be pleasantly surprised.

(Well, mostly mistake-free from Verica, anyway. Verica's capable of some beautiful throws and they were on display on Saturday, but he's also usually good for one really bad idea per game, and his Dipshit Decision of the Day came on UVA's second drive as he turned a 6-yard sack into a 17-yard sack by hauling ass toward his own goal line. Much better than an interception, though.)

So the real test of the season comes in the next three weeks, and those weeks just ooze with intrigue. Florida State, whom we haven't seen for four years. Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where UVA typically struggles but handed GT their last home loss on the most recent trip. Al Groh coaches there, you know, but I bet nobody will mention that at all during the run-up to the game. And then there's UNC, at home, with a big streak to protect. Seems like every season I manage to identify a crucial series of games - this is it here. Even a single win would protect our bowl hopes, even with the requirement to win seven. And that's the best news of all, because all three games are totally winnable.

Thoughts that didn't fit....

- Does Keith Payne ever actually get tackled, as in wrestled to the ground? His runs seem to end mostly in a large standing gaggle of shoving players that eventually grinds to a halt, thus ending forward progress, rather than an actual tackle. Sometimes this gaggle crawls slowly forward, gathering players like a weird helmeted version of Katamari Damacy, and in this way ten yards are gained and the strange career of Keith Payne grows in legend.

- I don't like monochrome uniforms and never have, but this version of blue-on-blue is an improvement over the last. But I don't think the white-on-white will be.

- Was that a kickoff return for a touchdown? Like, all the way to the end zone? Do you know how long it's been since we did that? So long that I thought it'd been since my student days. The last one I could think of was the Marquis Weeks runback against UNC in 2002 to spark that big second-half comeback. Right opponent, right player, off by two years. So it's actually been six years. Again: usual caveats about VMI vs. opponents that can be expected to put up some resistance. It was still fun.

- Speaking of not learning anything, garbage-time action didn't do any better than training camp did when it comes to picking a backup quarterback. Both Metheny and Rocco looked good. Rocco was up and down - more up than down. I fault him on the interception, for this reason: it's nigh-impossible for the observing fan to determine whether the receiver or quarterback is at fault for a bungled throw like that. So I have to give the benefit of the doubt to the veteran receiver instead of the rookie. And the ball shouldn't have been thrown even if the receiver had been there: that safety would've ensured the ball was never caught. Can't lock in on the route so hard you forget about the personnel.

Then again, Rocco's arm motion doesn't look like the ball is coming out of his elbow. Metheny's weird like that. But both look accurate. And Metheny's arm strength must be halfway decent: his one incompletion came with an especially duck-like motion and off his back foot, falling over, and he still managed to overthrow the receiver.

- Lastly: Rocco. A fanbase still pissed off (sometimes rightly, sometimes not) about Al Groh's extensive use of true freshmen in 2009 had alarm bells go off when the true freshman quarterback stepped onto the field to get some garbage time in once the game was out of hand.

This amused me. There is, of course, a very, very vocal contingent of the fanbase that despises the ground Groh walks on, and largely sees Mike London as the anti-Groh and is inclined to defend him on those grounds alone if they have to. London is a very different coach, but not so different as to have none of Groh in him. If I were to tell you of a UVA coach that burned a freshman defensive back's redshirt on special teams and autocratically told his coordinator to run a different system from the one he specialized in, Groh would come to mind first; London didn't fall far from the tree in those two respects.

As for Rocco, I'm not the least bit upset to have seen him play yesterday, and it has nothing to do with London or Groh. Anyone who dislikes the call is reasoning that it'd be better to have Rocco as a fifth-year senior - theoretically his best year - than for a few plays as a true freshman. But this is making an assumption about the year 2014, which in college football is two eternities and an eon away. Nobody can even say with 100% certainty that there'll even be an ACC as we know it by then, let alone that Mike Rocco will be/would have been UVA's starting (or even) quarterback. But we do know this with certainty: next year, Marc Verica will not be the starter, and we'll need a new one. And we know that we have no idea who that new guy will be, and further it'll be the single, absolute most important decision Mike London and Bill Lazor will have to make. Why not give yourself as many evaluation points as possible to make the choice? Playing Metheny exclusively gives him a leg up on the competition and halfway anoints him the 2011 starter; what if he can't take advantage? Then you've hurt yourself by not developing Rocco (or whoever) to the fullest in preparation for the job. Here's hoping for another blowout this year, maybe against EMU or Duke, and for another chance to see them both in action.

weekend review: game face

It was 91 degrees outside in my neck of the woods this weekend and not remotely football weather, but that doesn't stop it from being a game week. And that means it's time to get the blog's game face on. So first: recruiting board. Monday thing during the season. Couple of additions this week as Mike London stretches his recruiting arm to Georgia:

- Added LB Troy Gray to blue.

- Added TE Max Mason and WR Demetri Knowles to yellow.

No, still not much going on in the recruiting world. Wait til this weekend when official visits can start.

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I don't know how often we'll see the depth chart updated on the official site, but they did so this week, which is kind of exciting. So there's a depth chart update here too. Among the highlights:

- I was a dum-dum and forgot to take the decommitted Matt Bailey off last time. So that's done.

- My hunch was correct: Ross Metheny and Mike Rocco are the backup QBs, but in no real order as yet. Odd man out in the rotation is Michael Strauss.

- The top two RBs are Perry Jones and Raynard Horne.

- Tim Smith is listed as a backup WR, with Dontrelle Inman a starter. These last two positions are probably going to be almighty interchangeable though.

- Jake Snyder breaks through as a backup DE.

- John-Kevin Dolce is officially the starter at DT over Matt Conrath, which is, ah, surprising. Dolce is hopefully as strong as advertised, because he's also going to be giving up 50+ pounds to his opponents. DT is always a platoony kind of position anyway - even Groh rotated people pretty frequently here - so it's not like Conrath is suddenly going to go ghost on us.

- Lot of "ORs" at linebacker, as in "Steve Greer OR Aaron Taliaferro", but I still think Greer, if he doesn't start off taking a majority of the snaps, will be doing so eventually. Some are surprised to see Laroy Reynolds sharing the starting job with anyone, but what do you expect from a converted safety who spent most of last year on special teams?

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And college football season means it's also high school football season. It's early yet and not every team started their season this past weekend, but some have. So here's how our recruits have been doing:

- Bayside 21, Green Run 10 in Virginia Beach. David Dean's team lost to Demetrious Nicholson's Bayside, but it was a sluggish affair for the much higher-ranked Bayside. Nicholson, who hasn't committed anywhere but will probably take an official to UVA, played both sides of the ball and caught four passes for 76 yards.

- Cox 30, Kellam 17 in Virginia Beach. Opening season win for Ross Burbank.

- I.C. Norcom 26, Northeastern (NC) 6 in Portsmouth. Kameron Mack's team gets a win over a not-great out-of-state team.

- Petersburg 43, Halifax County 20. Kevin Green will likely be a linebacker or a tight end or something at UVA, but he's Petersburg's quarterback.

- Good Counsel 21, St. Xavier (OH) 6. Big time matchup of two of the nation's power programs. Vincent Croce was in on at least one turnover. The game wasn't as close as it looked; Good Counsel broke it open in the fourth after trailing 6-0 most of the game. Potential recruit Sean Duggan, who has UVA in a smallish list of leaders, is a St. X linebacker.

- Glen Oak 42, H.D. Woodson 2. Darius Redman's team gets squashed.

- Mallard Creek 26, Independence 6. This actually happened two weeks ago. Two of North Carolina's best; Adrian Gamble's team comes out on the wrong end. South Pointe is next week for Independence, home of maybe the top recruit in the country in Jadeveon Clowney.

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Lastly, it's not only football season, it's football season! European football, that is. The Virginia Classic is next weekend with games against UAB and St. John's - both are eminently beatable. Virginia Tech is also in town, but UVA's game with them will wait til the ACC season. They're not good either. Picked 9th of 9 in the ACC preseason coaches' poll.

Speaking of which, weird. UVA is #2 in the preseason national poll, but picked 3rd in the ACC by the coaches. You'd have to figure the coaches know a little better, and are asking questions like where's the offense going to come from without guys like Tony Tchani, who went pro after his sophomore season? But most of the main operators of last season's record-setting defense are back, so let's watch and see if goalie extraordinaire Diego Restrepo can duplicate his incredible two-month shutout streak of last year.

numerology

The incoming freshmen were added to the official roster today, and I like to think you can learn stuff by looking at the numbers they were assigned. Let's take a look, shall we? Here are the numbers:

Oday Aboushi - 72
Lovante' Battle - 37
Luke Bowanko - 74
Sean Cascarano - 79
Paul Freedman - 88
Will Hill - 93 (he was already there as an early enrollee)
Quintin Hunter - 15
Perry Jones - 33
Corey Lillard - 29
Jeremiah Mathis - 58
Connor McCartin - 51
Ross Metheny - 13
Justin Renfrow - 54
Laroy Reynolds - 26
Kevin Royal - 82
Bobby Smith - 85
Tim Smith - 14
Jake Snyder - 90
Javanti Sparrow - 16
Hunter Steward - 76
Brent Urban - 99
Cody Wallace - 78
Dominique Wallace - 21
Tucker Windle - 39

Observations, speculations, etc.:

- Conspicuously absent is Morgan Moses. Prep school now seems a near certainty. No truth to any rumors that Moses is so dominantly massive that the delay is due to the school petitioning to allow him to wear #100.

- Dominique Wallace has been given a running back's number. Some say he would make an excellent linebacker and might eventually be slotted there, but guys with #21 don't practice with the linebackers. This pleases me. Dominant linebackers are fun, and there's a school of thought that says Wallace would make a terrific linebacker, but personally, running back is my favorite position. There's no substitute for an unstoppable force at running back behind a line that's at least respectable. It's how you control the game on offense, and it's spectacular to watch. And Wallace has a chance to be an unstoppable force at running back. I can't wait.

- Either Luke Bowanko is a guaran-damn-teed redshirt, or the presence of Patrick Slebonick is a mistake. Slebonick, as you might recall, was not asked back for a fifth year, or that was the report in January. But there he is. Slebonick, were he to play this year, would exist on the fringes of the depth chart, but he would be on the depth chart nonetheless, and the two have the same number (74.) You can give two guys the same number, they just can't be on the field at the same time.

- The other same-number clash on the O-line between two scholarship players involves #78, shared by Cody Wallace and Isaac Cain. Wallace is listed as "Unk" instead of "Fr." - either he should be worried, or he should kick the ass of the intern assigned to fat-finger the roster in. Wallace is also a guaranteed redshirt, though you don't need the number on the jersey to tell you that, just look at the number in the weight column.

- Speaking of weight, look at Sean Cascarano. 255?? Is that for real? His recruiting profiles all listed him as 270.

- Nobody gets #7. Interesting. I thought Metheny might get it, but he's #13.

- #39 is a really weird number for a linebacker, but that's what Tucker Windle got. There's just no room in the 40's and 50's.

- Tim Smith with #14. I know WR's often get numbers in the teens, but that sticks out a little bit. Looking forward to seeing that kind of impact on the field.

- Laroy Reynolds and Javanti Sparrow still haven't been officially slotted on offense or defense. They both have WR/DB by their names. Sparrow has a number (#16) that's more a WR's number than a DB's (but there are exceptions) and Reynolds is the opposite at #26. Doesn't mean anything official, but I think it's at least a hint toward which way they're leaning.

- Observations on the pictures: Maybe it's the lighting, but Oday Aboushi looks a lot less chubby in the face than before. (Before, After.) Like he's lost some baby fat. Still listed as 300 pounds though. Dominique Wallace has some 300-pound dreads, which are excellent. Can't decide whether Metheny, Reynolds, or Bobby Smith is the goofiest-looking. Tim Smith and Brent Urban are going to be carded at establishments for the next twenty years, although Urban being 6'7 might eventually dissuade a few would-be bouncers. Sean Cascarano is the only one with hair to match the orange on his uniform, which makes it all the bigger shame that he has no profile linked. As a rule, the entire team seems to have been told to pose for the pictures as if they just buried their dog.

Anyway, I've updated the depth chart accordingly. Last year's senior class is now gone, and replaced with next year's recruiting class. The scholarship count, as best I can tell, stands at 87. I took Moses off and put him with next year's class, and I took out Kyle Long, too, the chances of him coming now look dim. Also gone: TE Rod Wheeler. Slebonick returns for now, and for whatever reason I didn't have Isaac Cain on there, my bad. So that's what brings us to 87. That means two more people have to leave the team, but the rumblings are there about who that might be (Jameel Sewell? Uh-oh?), and meeting the 85 limit doesn't look like it'll be so hard any more.

Last, but not least - in fact, probably "most": a new UVA blog has arrived on the scene. Go check it out, you must do this. It is called The Great Blog of Virginia, and if the scenery is any indication it looks promising indeed, though it breaks with not-long-at-all-established tradition of pulling the blog name from the Good Ol' Song. There are entirely too few Virginia blogs inhabiting the blogowebz at the moment, so go check it out.

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.

weekend review

Ah, sweet hilarity. The first blurb in RTD's UVA Notes section on Sunday was headlined "Spin Control," and it's hard to tell whether they were referring to Groh's press conference or the article itself. Groh says, "Despite what we see up there (on the scoreboard, you know, the one that said Duke Lots, Virginia Not So Much), in a lot of different areas we saw some positive movement with the team."

Uh, OK. You know what, you don't even need my commentary, you can see it coming a mile away. Hint: the first word starts with "B" and ends with "ullshit."

Next we move on to further hilarity:

Even so, the Cavaliers got strong performances from Rashawn Jackson and Keith Payne and finished with a season-high 110 yards rushing......Yesterday, the Cavaliers totaled a season-high 304 yards...

Both from the same "note." Of course, we picked up 20 yards on three carries on the final drive to end the game when Duke cared just barely enough to tackle, but we'll ignore that for now. 110 yards, boy howdy, and 304 total. Right now we rank 118th and 119th in the land, respectively, in those categories. Just imagine if we could have gotten 110 rushing yards and 304 total yards every game, why, we'd be all the way up to 103rd and 106th. Cry-muh-nitly. Even on his best day, Mikey Groh can't drag us into the top 100.

One thing they can't put a positive spin on is Keith Payne's injury, a hand issue. The best that can be said is that it's not a season-ending deal or one requiring surgery. Well, I'll put a happy face on it if they won't: it doesn't matter, because even if Peerman can't go against Maryland either, Simpson and Rashawn Jackson can run smack into a wall of advancing defensive linemen as well as anyone. But don't let me blow sunshine up your ass or anything.

Well, I've just been Mr. Raincloud so far, haven't I? How about some good news then? Friday was our one chance this fall to say SUCK IT TECH as the soccer team went to Blacksburg and knocked off the Hokies, 2-1. VT is a terrible terrible soccer team and we tend to dominate them. Matt Mitchell took care of all the scoring, which is nice that we're not relying entirely on the freshmen to do this. Next up is a Friday match against UNC, which is a pretty darn good team.

One more tidbit before we go to the high schools: the ECU game on 10/11 will be at noon and not broadcast on any channel that I've got here in Rhode Island.

All right, let's see what happened in the high schools this weekend:

QUINTIN HUNTER: Not a good week, as Orange dropped one to Monticello 44-13. Hunter was just 5/22 passing for 97 yards, 1 TD and two picks, and carried 15 times for 115 yards.

ROSS METHENY: Completed 13 of 22 for 202 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT in Sherando's 21-19 loss to Handley.

LAROY REYNOLDS: Caught a touchdown pass as Maury beat Norcom 17-7.

PERRY JONES: Scored a touchdown in Oscar Smith's 37-0 romp over Grassfield. Tim Smith, who has UVA in his top three, scored three.

KEVIN ROYAL: Moved to tailback and carried 20 times for 111 yards and two touchdowns in Brunswick's 20-12 win over Kingswood-Oxford.

Around the ACC:

Murralin 20, Clemson 17. Mickey Plyler breaks his call-for-the-coach's-head-on-a-platter cherry. Block-C requires two separate posts to get through all the meltdown madness from happy Clemson fans, one of which hasn't even happened yet. Scroll about a third of the way down that last link for a little perspective on our very own Al Groh. I frankly think the problem with Clemson is not so much Tommy Bowden as much as those horrendous purple unis.

UNC knocks off Miami. Tar Heel Mania is sorry for being mean to Cam Sexton. Beating Miami has a way of making fans of the team that did it very very happy, even if Miami isn't really all that good.

If Boston College beats hell out of RIU in a driving monsoon and nobody shows up, does anyone care? (Picture is at Eagle In Atlanta.)

FSU beat Colorado. Scalp 'Em has thoughts. Me speak short sentences.

Navy dropped Wake, and Old Gold & Blog worries that the Deacs' national title aspirations are finished.

NC State got housed 41-10 by USF, and State Fans' Nation remains pissed that we, Virginia, are not on their schedule. We feel your pain, man. We wish you were on our schedule too.

Finally, VT took down Nebraska. Effin' CGB is effin happy, eff you very much.

That's all, folks! Those expecting to see some kind of recruiting update, never fear. I am working on one with a little bit better format than the usual. It will have colors'n'shit. And it will have its own separate post so that it can go into the brand-spankin' new Clemons Library section.

Oh! One more thing. Next week, look for some very exciting news regarding the BlogPoll. I am not at liberty to say more. I may not even technically at liberty to say as much as this, but this is a smallish blog still and I doubt the big surprise is all that spoiled. It's a unique thing and très passionnant.

weekend review

I still have not actually watched the UConn game. I'll most likely do that tomorrow, albeit in fits and starts on the TiVo, and mainly for the purpose of doing my review of Verica's performance. I have no desire to sit there like I don't know what's gonna happen next and watch our defense get gashed for half a mile of rushing yardage.

Let's start this thing off with some good news for once. The soccer team showed signs of life on Saturday by thrashing NC State. They've struggled, but did very well in the ACC opener against a team that isn't exactly an ACC contender. Let's hope there's a parallel there for the football team. What we've seen from the soccer team so far is what you'd expect from a very young team with supreme talent, which happens to be what they are. Of the 14 goals scored this season, just 3 are from non-freshmen: 2 from sophomore Jimmy Simpson and 1 from junior Matt Mitchell. Chris Agorsor and Tony Tchani are bound and determined to have a knock-down drag-out fight (figuratively speaking, thankfully) for the goals lead this season; Tchani leads 5-4 at the moment.

Next up: Central Connecticut State, who has rolled up a 4-1-1 record against largely second-tier competition. Fun fact: CCSU is basically Little Britain, with 6 fellows from jolly old England, and that doesn't count the guy hailing from the Isle of Man.

Now back to football and the gloomcloud that comes with it. The RTD today does a nice job of reminding us who we're missing for whatever reason: academics, shenanigans, injury, transfer to other sports, or some combination of the above. The toll is thus: 2 quarterbacks, 2 defensive ends, 2 cornerbacks, 3 linebackers, and a wide receiver, including at least four players (Cook, Fitzgerald, Gottschalk, and Lalich or Sewell) who'd be starters and more who'd be in the two-deep. I won't expound on this much. You know as well as I do what we're missing here.

Oh looky here. A recruiting board. And it looks much the same as it did last week. Nobody committed or narrowed their list or anything. The updates are:

- Added some actual schools for Bernardo Nunez. He claims no leader (Rivals $) at the moment, but mentioned a number of different places he wants to go on visits to. So those schools are piled up under his name.
- Put Michigan and Duke back in Brennan Williams' top 5.

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, Mich., Duke
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
- OU, Md., Oregon, Pitt, ECU, NCSt., Rutgers
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.

Now for the high schools.....

DOMINIQUE WALLACE: Carried 14 times for 113 yards and three touchdowns in Chancellor's 40-13 win over Riverbend. Wallace is the area's rushing leader with 528 yards and 6 touchdowns in four games.

CONNOR MCCARTIN: 4 carries, 28 yards; 2 receptions, 29 yards in 42-14 Fauquier victory over Mountain View. McCartin is a linebacker recruit.

COREY LILLARD: Ran for 69 yards and a TD in Liberty's 41-32 win over Stafford. Lillard is a DB recruit.

ROSS METHENY: Completed 8-of-10 for 89 yards and 2 TD's in Sherando's 55-7 stomping of Warren County. Metheny has yet to play every drive for his team in a full game, because Sherando is 3-0 by scores of 37-10, 49-0, and 55-7.

PERRY JONES: Scored twice in Oscar Smith's blowout win over Great Bridge. 50-14, in case you're wondering. Oscar Smith is a fucking machine.

KEVIN ROYAL: Scored on a 45-yard pass, but Brunswick lost to Hopkins, 27-12. Fun fact! Kevin Royal is from Greenwich, CT, where the local newspaper (from which all Royal links come) is aptly called the Greenwich Time.

The week was a good one for the ACC: UVA did not play, so the conference did not lose any nonconference games. Which is nice.

- Georgia Tech rolled Mississippi State 38-7. Georgia Tech Sports was in attendance and rather obviously liked what he saw.

- NC State beats ECU* 30-24 relinquishes the title of Sorriest-Assed Team In All The ACC (SATIATA), which I would be really happy for them for doing except guess who gets to pick up the crown? And we need only lose to Duke to jam that mother squarely on our head and go streaking. State Fans Nation hates him some ECU fans and loves him some Russell Wilson.

- Maryland crushed Eastern Michigan 51-24. Eastern is the direction-est of all the D-I Directional Michigans, and has a really hard time in football because they share a county with a football behemoth.

- Boston College handled UCF, 34-7. BC Interruption is not mollified by the lopsided score and senses a quarterback controversy a-brewin' in Chestnut Hill.

- Clemson beat SC State. By a lot.

- VT won another 20-17 game, over UNC this time. Gobbler Country wonders how on earth. Tareye or Buckheel didn't seem to notice, because Yates Yates Yates. One can hardly blame the Heel faithful if they're more worried about the next six weeks than the last one.

- Miami did their part against the power conferences (if not exactly the power teams therein) by beating Texas A&M 41-23. It was not a good week for maroon-and-white teams against the ACC.

- Lastly, Wake Forest looked half-assed against FSU (no thanks to three missed FGs from their All-Galaxy kicker) but fortunately for them FSU looked like complete and total ass, as Wake got out of Tallahassee with a 12-3 win. Old Gold & Blog looks on the sunny side and praises the defense, which got three straight picks against two different Seminole quarterbacks to quash any comebacks. Take possession, pickoff. Take possession, pickoff. Take possession, incomplete, incomplete, pickoff. lollerskates. At least Christian Ponder threw two passes into oblivion before his interception; Richardson just got right down to business and threw two straight first-down picks.

There it is - your weekend in review. Your last little tidbit of info: The Maryland game on 4 October will be at 7:00 (night game, yay! I have fond memories of these, which is surprising considering the usual effect of 10 hours of pregaming on one's memory) and will either be on ESPNU or ESPN360, which would mean either I have to shell out for GamePlan, or I just put on my TiVo recording of last year's thrilla in College Pazilla and pretend Chris Long is still in orange and blue, blowing up quarterbacks.

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.

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:

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.