twenty-one

National champ-peen-ship, y'all.  I'm long since on the record as admitting I don't get around to watching nearly as much UVA soccer as I'd like.  (I've considered remedying this next year by ignoring football, but that'd be all talk and no action on that front.)  In fact this season I've seen exactly two soccer games: the women's semifinal against Texas A&M and the men's national title against UCLA.  I had to miss the men's semis and women's finals for reasons of State.

It didn't take me long to decide I hated the announcers.  I wasn't even paying attention to them in the A&M game so I have no idea, but it was only about 20 minutes into the UCLA game before I decided the announcing was a zero on a scale of Pam Ward to Keith Jackson.  Their contempt for UVA's game plan was plain as day and got plainer as the first half wore on.  Although I did enjoy their description of the UVA strategy as "cynical."

Guess which strategy UVA went with?

You can't totally fault them, if the idea is that games should always be exciting shootouts.  But UVA came into the game 111th in the country in scoring average.  One-hundred and eleventh, it's not an extra-1 typo.  In only one tournament game did the Hoos score more than once.  UCLA came in with only one tournament game of fewer than three goals.  So it should be no surprise that Gelnovatch decided not to run 'n' gun with the Bruins.  "The beautiful game" it was not, but Gelnovatch isn't paid to entertain the pundits.

And frankly, it worked to almost complete perfection.  Actual perfection would've been a 1-0 win with the one goal probably coming off of some kind of set piece.  You don't counterattack to try and score, because that would expose you; you counterattack with the aim of getting a corner kick.  If it doesn't go in, which it usually doesn't but it's more than worth a try, bunker back down and try again.  I laughed when halftime rolled around and the announcers said UCLA had to be very pleased with the first half and then both coaches said the first 45 went completely UVA's way.  I might've considered it a Bruin domination, if UCLA had generated more than the occasional chance, but UVA's keeper Calle Brown was barely tested.  Owning the possession battle 45 yards out is one thing; it's another thing entirely to dictate the game.  UVA did so without having the ball.

The second half - a little more pressure, the Bruins clearly took their coaching to heart and were less patient, more attacking, but also a great deal more frustrated.  UCLA's Edgar Contreras ought to have been red-carded for a head-butt, but I can't completely fault the refs as the camera was right on it in real time and I still missed it until the replay.  But it was a clear sign that UCLA was used to being able to break down a defense, and UVA's brick wall was getting to them.

The game is likely to attract precisely zero new fans to the game of soccer, but just look at all the bothers I give.  You know I love me some pack-line defense, and so, apparently, does George Gelnovatch.  Tony Bennett wins basketball games 45-26, but he wins basketball games.  At the end of the day, here's the stat that matters most: 21.  And the one that matters second-most is 0.

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The first major bit of football attrition hit last week when Eli Harold declared for the draft.  That makes two; David Watford also decided to transfer, but the effect of that will be almost nil.  Except to eliminate bizarre message board posts wondering why he's on the field in any capacity at all, as if not being a good quarterback is the same as not being a good receiver.

UVA dodged a bullet when Max Valles announced that he'd be returning next year, quashing rumors to the contrary.  Smart - Valles would've been going almost entirely on physical attributes.  A year of opening some scouts' eyes would help him.  Harold, though he could benefit from another year, is probably in good shape anyway.  He showed this year that he can defend the run and isn't just a one-dimensional pass rusher.  Once he gets in front of scouts at the combine, he should make an appearance on draft boards and could easily be a second or third round pick; his ceiling, if the workouts look good, would be the low first.

As for our defense, it's a fairly major hit, but there's a long-run silver lining: next year, Harold and the Moores (Michael and Kwontie) would once again have dominated the playing time.  Great, because they'll do well, but no experience for the boatload of guys behind them.  Trent Corney should start off as the third DE, but there's a trio of redshirt freshmen who will get a chance to make a wave or two as well.

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And the second major bit of football attrition is on the coaching staff, as Scott Wachenheim is off to VMI to play head coach.  Good for him - it's his first head-coaching gig, though he did have the title of OC and assistant HC at Liberty for a few years.  There can't be a tougher place in the world to win at football than VMI, except maybe the Citadel.  From his perspective, this is definitely striking while the iron is hot - the chances that most of this staff is out of a job next year are awfully high, and you might as well grab a promotion while it's there.  Even if London was on rock-solid ground, I think he'd go anyway, but still.

Wachenheim leaves with one of the most mixed legacies I've ever seen for an assistant coach.  He was vilified at times for the play of the O-line, and I think at least partially deservedly so.  But he leaves on a positive note, having gained a lot of credit for making the O-line not be a total black hole of suck despite being held together with Scotch tape and having to use 260-pound converted DE (or TE or whatever) Jack English as a left tackle.  And I think also deservedly so.

It leaves UVA with two openings to fill, including the impending (or already-occurred) retirement of Tom O'Brien, whose UVA career was basically a dud.  There's an inexplicable level of support for Ron Mattes, who was here like, a year, and performed no miracles.  He'll be here as soon as Bill Musgrave comes back, I'm sure.  A much more likely name, and these tea leaves sure read awfully clearly, thanks to Streaking the Lawn's Tweety account, is current Edmonton Eskimos O-line coach Jonathan Himebauch.

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For lack of anything to do in this basketball wilderness, I put together another season sim, since it had been a couple weeks and stuff happened.  You can find it below and on the original season sim post, for easier comparison to the previous version.

NC State and Notre Dame are on the rise; both won an early-season ACC game against Wake and FSU, respectively, and ND has been handling a lot of business as well.  NC State, not so much, but then, Wofford is actually awfully highly-ranked for a SoCon team.

Being as UVA has also been handling business, the Hoos leapfrogged Louisville, which itself didn't exactly fare badly, just not as well as UVA.  Maryland and VCU are both higher-ranked than all but five ACC teams, and UVA crushed both on the road.  It's becoming clear that there's a top three in this league, and as such, the race for the top seed has obvious huge implications.

existential crisis

I always lament that I don't get to talk about soccer enough, because football is the 800-pound autumn gorilla.  (I mean, I guess I could double my output in the fall, but I don't exactly get paid by the word here.  I have other stuff to do too.)  But what better time to talk about college soccer - and in this case, specifically men's soccer; women's soccer doesn't have the same pressures on it - than when it appears to be facing a doomsday scenario?

That's what it means, I think, when the college coaches get together on a plan that would fundamentally alter the season in a way that no college sport has ever done.  In a nutshell: the season would be 25 games (plus postseason) and split between the fall and spring semesters with a break of a couple months in between.  The College Cup, instead of being held smack in the middle of Christmas season, would be in June, and early enough so as not to compete with the College World Series but after the lacrosse Final Four.

The idea here is to spread out the coach-player development relationship a little.  From the above article:

Student-athletes may not participate in countable athletically related activities for more than 20 hours per week during the short soccer season under current regulations. That figure drops to eight hours in the off-season with a two-hour limit imposed on working with the ball.

Two hours a week for two-thirds of the calendar year is part of the reason college soccer has such a hard time keeping its best talent.  It's an obvious detriment to the career of someone who aspires to a national team or a club abroad.

The benefits of the proposed change are many, and adequately listed at the above link; it's not really worth going over them one by one.  Suffice it to say, I think this change would be a great idea.  So do a lot of people.  Just not the ones in charge.  In fact, the people in charge are some of the ones who'll be putting the squeeze on the hardest.

It's no secret that Jurgen Klinsmann is busy reforming the US development system, and college is decidedly not in his plans.  And to tell the truth, that's probably just fine with the NCAA and its power brokers.  Men's soccer is often seen as an obstacle to Title IX compliance, or to the growth of sports that schools feel will better enhance their reputation.  Witness Richmond chopping soccer in favor of lacrosse.  Towson cut the sport recently too, as did Mount St. Mary's.  Maine did so a couple years ago, and Adelphi College had a D-I team (along the same lines as Hopkins having a lacrosse team) and dropped it to D-II with the rest of their sports.  And now that football and basketball players are making noises about wanting bigger slices of the pie (and sooner or later they'll get it) soccer is an easy target for schools that have to make budget cuts somewhere to comply.

John Infante of Bylaw Blog fame wrote that the proposal "has virtually zero chance of ever being enacted," because he and virtually everyone else suggest that the NCAA has no interest in it.  "Last item on the agenda," writes Infante.  I take it one step further.  NCAA leadership would almost certainly be fiercely and violently against such a plan - they will see this as an opportunity to prove their commitment to amateur athletics.  Anything couched as improving professional development runs totally against the Shining Ideal Of The Student-Athlete, and the NCAA will not stand for that.  In fact, from their perspective, the further they can push college soccer from the professional development structure, the better.  Oh, don't get me wrong: they really like being basketball and football's development structure, because there's money to be made there.  Soccer is a money pit, not a money tree.  Killing soccer as a viable route to the pros would give them an example to point to when they preach about the Glory Of Amateurism - and besides, a lot of ADs would then have an even better excuse to shunt aside a sport that loses money by the barrel and whose existence makes it all the harder to answer to Title IX fanatics.

Since 1991, something like 20-25 men's D-I soccer programs have been cut.  About one a year.  (If I could find the damn link for that again, I'd use it, but you'll just have to trust me on that.)  While the overall effect has probably been neutral or maybe even upwards thanks to D-I expansion, I wouldn't expect that to continue.  Another 20-25 programs might disappear in the next ten years.  MLS is pouring resources into the creation and building of development academies for each of their teams, and expanding the league besides (meaning, even more development academies.)  College is going to be less and less of a winning proposition for players with aspirations.  It'll be a mere diversion for "players going pro in something other than sports," like with other largely invisible sports like wrestling and volleyball.  That's just how the NCAA likes it.  More of an amateur feel, and incidentally, a lot cheaper.  Good on the coaches for trying to stave off the darkness, but it's not so much that their proposal will be dead on arrival.  They're calling 911 and the dispatcher is telling them if they're like to die, they had better do it and decrease the surplus population.

weekend review

Mannnnn..... I put off writing this as long as I could because it was definitely one of those weekends that makes me wish I had a different obsession.  Or at least different teams.  I should go pretend-root for the Boston teams, I hate them all (the pro ones) and I could then at least take a perverse pleasure in watching the sport gods think they're spiting me.

Almost nothing went right - even when my teams weren't playing they were getting jobbed by the jobbing jobbers down in Brazil.  (OK, OK - of the many things FIFA does badly, and possibly corruptly, the WC draw probably isn't one of them.)

From just a UVA perspective, the women's soccer season went poof in penalty kicks, and the men's basketball season is already going poof before our eyes.  Losing to Wisconsin is one thing; losing to a satellite campus is another entirely.  Now there are two full weeks to stew over it.

Fall sports aren't over quite yet, though; one last gasp remains in the form of men's soccer, which plays Maryland this Friday.  Fun fact: out of eight teams making up the men's and women's College Cups, six are ACC squads.  UVA is two of them; FSU, VT, Maryland, and ND are the others.  VT came oh-so-tantalizingly close to filling that dippy trophy case, but got nosed out of the semis by Florida State.  The 75 points you get in the Director's Cup for getting that far will probably be a third of Tech's total for the year.  A school with already far too many national titles won the women's tournament, so let's hope the pattern holds, and the school with the second-most men's titles adds another star to the crest.

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Two of our senior-year commits played some football this week.  Both of them Browns, come to think of it.  Caanan and Clearwater Central Catholic reached the state title game in Florida, and lost 34-7.  Andrew and Oscar Smith played a defensive struggle against Colonial Forge and won, 17-0, moving them to the state championship against Centreville.  In Scott Stadium, of course.  And for that matter, UVA's 2015 commitment, Juan Thornhill, also plays for a state title next week.

Lastly, the recruiting board gets a little update of its own:

-- Re-added CB DaiQuan Lawrence to blue.  Lawrence committed to Wake Forest over UVA but re-opened his recruiting following Jim Grobe's resignation.

-- Added DE Darrious Carter to blue.  Carter is currently a Temple commit.

-- Added CB Cornelius Floyd to yellow.


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This is the dead period of final exams; I love the Christmas season but hate the 10-14 days between basketball games during finals.  And it's a full two weeks this year.  With such a gap, it's time to go full speed into the ACC previews for basketball, and I may have to run some two-a-days this year as there are three extra teams and I'm getting a late start.  And there are four more verbals on the list which I can sprinkle in.

really late weekend review

I suppose propriety dictates I say some stuff about last night's VCU game.  Fine then:

-- Some folks are calling it an ugly game.  All the fouls and such.  The clock screw-ups didn't help, but I like college basketball for all the different styles of play.  Truth is, you see one NBA game, you've seen 90% of them.  College lets two wildly distinct styles clash, and this was a perfect example.  UVA was sped up faster than it wanted to be, even in the halfcourt, and VCU could not often set their press such as they'd like because UVA's defense was too good.  Whatever you call that game, it wasn't "havoc," but VCU still found a way to impose its will at times.  Give me a highly competitive game like that one over the ballet that some people seem to demand out of their hoops, I don't care how many fouls you have to call.

-- Is it possible to have such a massive free-throw advantage and still find the refereeing slanted too far towards the other team?  I think so.  It takes more than one crappy call to get Tony Bennett riled up, and riled up he was when Anthony Gill got called for a foul he didn't commit.  Tony had to pull him, for reasons of three fouls early in the second half, but it was plain he didn't fault Gill.  I could even read his lips as he sent Gill off with a pat on the back: "that's good D."

-- London Perrantes will probably be the starting point guard eventually this season.  There's no hesitancy on Tony's part to put him in for important minutes.  Tony did not do the same with Teven Jones (whose nine minutes against VCU, by the way, I mostly liked) last year at all.  I don't think Malcolm Brogdon is doing badly, but he's not really a natural.  You might think that Jones could work his way into the lineup as the backup PG, and he just might; the barrier to that is that Tony appears to want to play Brogdon quite a bit.  So what, you ask.  Well, playing Brogdon exclusively at the 2 means squeezing Joe Harris and Justin Anderson.  A lineup with a point guard, Brogdon at the two, plus Harris and Anderson, that obviously leaves room for only one of our very talented frontcourt four.  Or, you know, sitting Harris or Anderson.  Giving Brogdon point guard minutes means not having to choose as much between him, Joe, and Justin.

-- Not gonna blame the loss on free-throw shooting when VCU was 6-for-15 at the line.  You can't say "if we'd shot better but VCU has to shoot just as badly."  On the other hand, hitting a couple more threes would've been nice.

At any rate, moving on.  Losing is bad and all, but there's a winning streak ahead, a tournament of sorts, and a chance to pick up some momentum going into the Wisconsin game - a team which just knocked off highly-rated Florida, so they're no schmucks.

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News and such:

-- Soccer tournaments: Unfortunately the ladies didn't make it through the ACC tournament, but they earned a #1 seed in the NCAA tourney anyway.  As if there was any doubt of that.  In fact all four NCAA #1 seeds are ACC teams.  UVA hosts St. Francis (PA) on Friday.

-- Every damn year.  For the sixth season in a row, the men eliminated Wake Forest from the ACC tournament.  You might think I'm kidding, and I'm not, and one of those years was the national championship year when the Hoos booted Wake from the ACC tournament and then just for giggles also ousted the Deacons from the NCAAs.  Could you imagine if in something more visible like basketball we lost to the same team in the ACC tournament every single year since 2008?  Oh, and most of the time, including this season, we've been the underdog seed; 6 against 3, this year.

The next step is also on Friday, where UVA will take on Notre Dame in a game broadcast on ESPN3.

-- VT's nine-strikes-and-you're-out policy finally caught up to Cody Journell, whose many, many brushes with raging stupidity finally exhausted Frank Beamer's patience.  Journell, you'll remember, broke into someone's house, using a BB gun, (to steal his weed back, as he amazingly admitted to police) and was given the services of slimy fixer Jimmy Turk to get his felony breaking and entering knocked down to a misdemeanor so Tech could continue to claim zero tolerance for felonies.  Then he opened a can of pepper spray "by accident" in a BW3.  Then he was suspended for unknown foolishness, earlier this season.

Every college team, including UVA, has players do dumb things that get the police involved.  Some just are OK with that.

-- The ACC hoops tournament is in Greensboro this season and next, but the ACC announced that in 2015-2016 it'll be in Washington, DC, which I'm sure has nothing to do with the sudden lack of presence in that area when Maryland leaves.  Regardless of the reason, it'll be nice to have it anywhere but NC for once and even nicer to have it close by our fanbase.

-- The 2014 recruiting board will be updated in just a second here, but interestingly (especially for lean times such as these) the 2015 board, when it debuts, will already have a commitment on it in the form of Altavista athlete Juan Thornhill.  A commitment likely to stick even if the coach he signs for isn't Mike London, as Thornhill is a Virginia fan.

-- ESPN's Lions writer does this thing where he asks different Lions a different question every week.  This week it was: what would you want a free year's supply of.  Kevin Ogletree is no dummy at all: gasoline.  It reminded me of another anecdote from way back that illustrates the naturally high intelligence of a UVa grad: I remember seeing a little local TV feature about the Lions rookies having to sing a training camp song for the veterans.  Germane Crowell saw his fellow rookies get mercilessly booed no matter what they sang or how well they sang it, so his choice was the Star-Spangled Banner, figuring (correctly) that nobody would boo that.

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I said last week there would be a recruiting board update when it became necessary, and it became necessary.

-- Added ATH Donovan Dowling to orange.  I have said, have I not, that Mike London would probably fill out this recruiting class the same way he always does: with an instate athlete-type who projects to either WR or DB and who had not yet received any offers worth committing to.  The Varina pipeline comes through here to fulfill the prophecy.  No relation, by the way, to Ras-I.

-- Added DE Cory Jones to yellow.  A late-late-bloomer from DC that regional coaches are keeping an eye on.

-- Removed RB Madre London (Michigan State) from yellow.

Chances are at this point that recruiting consists almost entirely of the guys above the yellow only, with the possible exception of Cory Jones.

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Senior Seasons to wrap this up:

Upland 24, Rancho Cucamonga 6: The article didn't say any names, but it sounds very much as if Jeffery Farrar was suspended for this one for a fight during last week's game.  Upland is 7-3.

North Gwinnett 44, Peachtree Ridge 22: Jordan Ellis's touchdown and 61 yards were nowhere near enough to prevent the blowout loss.  Peachtree Ridge is 7-3.

Haverford School 27, Episcopal 7: Evan Butts caught a 73-yard touchdown, but that was his team's only score.  Episcopal is 7-3.

Bayside 27, First Colonial 7: Quin Blanding scored two touchdowns - one running, one receiving -  and Bayside snuck into the playoffs...but all they did was win the honor of being the first team to be reamed by Oscar Smith.  Bayside is 6-4.

Central Catholic 37, Anclote 14 (Caanan Brown) - CCC is 8-2.
Shiloh 31, Central Gwinnett 14 (Darious Latimore) - Central is 2-8.
Jordan Matthews 37, Cummings 6 (Will Richardson) - Cummings is 3-8.
Oscar Smith 60, Hickory 7 (Andrew Brown) - Oscar Smith is 10-0.
Woodgrove 35, Loudoun Valley 0 (J.J. Jackson) - Woodgrove is 7-3.
King George 27, Chancellor 0 (Steven Moss) - Chancellor is 1-9.
Highland Springs 45, Varina 35 (Donovan Dowling) - Varina is 8-2.

That wraps up the regular season, and it's the end of the line for four teams.  Episcopal plays in their own little private-school league, which doesn't do playoffs.  Central Gwinnett, Cummings, and Chancellor had losing seasons, big-time-style, and will not make the playoffs.  (Though, thanks to VHSL realignment, being 1-9 hasn't stopped some teams from being in the playoffs.  Wut?)

Oscar Smith will host Bayside, so at least one season will continue next week (probably Oscar Smith's) and one will end (probably Bayside's.)  The only other team to play in a playoff game and not host will be Peachtree Ridge.

weekend review

Let's get jump-started this week with Senior Seasons.  I need to keep things interesting, two-thirds of the way through a poop football season.

Upland 45, Alta Loma 20: Jeffery Farrar picked off two passes and took one to the house in a game where Upland leapt out to a big lead and never looked back.  Upland is 5-3.

Norcross 24, Peachtree Ridge 20: Norcross is one of the county's top teams, and they held Jordan Ellis to 61 yards on the ground.  Peachtree Ridge is 6-2.

Oscar Smith 62, King's Fork 12: Andrew Brown picked off a shovel pass in another Oscar Smith blowout win.  Oscar Smith is 8-0.

Central Catholic 44, Admiral Farragut 3 (Caanan Brown) - CCC is 7-1.
Parkview 21, Central Gwinnett 13 (Darious Latimore) - Central Gwinnett is 2-6.
Cummings 44, Bartlett Yancey 13 (Will Richardson) - Cummings is 3-6.
Episcopal 28, Springside Chestnut Hill 20 (Evan Butts) - Episcopal is 8-1.
Bayside 28, Kempsville 6 (Quin Blanding) - Bayside is 4-4.
Spotsylvania 14, Chancellor 12 (Steven Moss) - Chancellor is 1-7.
Woodgrove 38, Dominion 0 (J.J. Jackson) - Woodgrove is 5-3.

How about this for a fun fact: Last week at this time there were five undefeated teams in all of D-I soccer, men and women both.  They were:

Notre Dame, Cal, and Washington men
UVA and FSU women

Cal and Washington lost this weekend, Cal to San Diego and UW to UCLA.  The other two non-UVA teams just happened to both be playing UVA - and both just happened to lose to UVA.  That leaves just the UVA ladies, sitting at 18-0 - unbeaten and untied.  Notre Dame had been ranked #2 in the country before their loss to UVA, and the women, with their win, clinched the #1 seed in the ACC tourney.

The only thing that stands in the way of a nifty narrative of UVA knocking out the last two other unbeatens in the country is the West Coast time difference; Washington's game ended on Sunday after the UVA-FSU match.

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That will be about it for this week, except to point out that, with VT's loss to Duke this weekend, I feel oddly confident in saying that the VT game is probably our best shot at a win the rest of the season, even though we play a much worse team in UNC before then.  Scoring 10 points on Duke is pretty bad.  Pretty, pretty bad.  If we don't get Brent Urban and Demetrious Nicholson back, it ain't happening, but with those two, hey.  Our own offense is trying to rise, zombie-like, from the dead, and it doesn't take much defense to stop VT.  The major hurdle will be VT's pass rush, which will be the toughest one David Watford has seen all year, plus trying to gain more than 10 yards all game on the ground.

The cut-short content today will be made up for this week with much basketball preview action.  The season opener is less than two weeks away.

weekend review

Well well.  Let's start this off with what must be the first piece of good football news in weeks: a recruiting board update that includes a commitment.  Whoda thunk it?  Here's the new score:

-- Added CB Darious Latimore to orange.  Latimore is a guy I did know about, and with SEC offers fairly close to home, didn't think would be worth adding.  A guy who likes us better than Tennessee is a guy who I think has his head on straight and probably nobody else does.  But a guy who's willing to commit now has to know the score and doesn't care, instantly making him the safest commit on the whole list.

Latimore is a consensus mid-to-low three-star guy with mid-three-star offers: Tennessee, Vanderbilt, Georgia Tech, and Kansas State.  Assuming Jeffery Farrar is also a cornerback, he makes the second in the class, which in turn is just about the sweet spot for that position this year.

-- Moved DE Melvin Keihn from blue to green.

-- Moved OT Alex Bookser from green to yellow. 

-- Moved DT Derrick Nnadi from yellow to red.  These three are reflective of the poor shape of the win-loss record and roughly what I think the effect is on the recruiting board.

I still rather expect that Mike London will find another Mason Thomas type somewhere in-state to fill out some numbers, because that's what he does; whether such a player will be impactful is generally up in the air, although it should be noted that Divante Walker has been making appearances on both special teams and defense this year.

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Sock-hair.  And more good news!  Not as much in the men's department, where they managed only a tie in Blacksburg.  Virginia Tech is a team you'd like to beat, but the Hokies are 1-2-5, so draws are kind of their thing.  The ladies, on the other hand, went down to Chapel Hill - without USWNT member Morgan Brian, earning her third cap against Australia - and did something extraordinary.  According to the official recap: "the Cavaliers [handed] North Carolina just their second multi-goal loss since 1986, a span of 690 games."

That's amazing.  In 27 years UNC has lost by more than one goal just twice - one of them last week.  Carolina has a surprising three ACC losses this year, but still.  UNC was also missing a top player to USNWT action, but still.  This ladies' team is a mighty offensive powerhouse, with some real depth - there are three players in Brian, Makenzy Doniak, and Brittany Ratcliffe who are crushers of dreams and a full complement of forwards and midfielders who know how to find their playmakers.  In Brian and Danielle Colaprico, UVA has the top two assist leaders in the ACC.

The impression I've had from watching this team - admittedly against the two worst squads in the ACC, Pitt and a portion of the NC State game - is one that attacks not with relentless aggression, but with a calm self-assuredness.  As if they know that as long as they keep the pressure on, they're better than the defenders and eventually something will go in.  They play with confidence, knowing they don't need to be flying forward at all times in order to score.  It's fun to watch a Virginia team that is better and knows it.

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A couple of news notes:

-- It looks like Miami will finally hear the word from the NCAA.  Sanctions come tomorrow.  Guaranteed nobody will be happy.  After the NCAA botched the investigation, it's not likely the punishment will appease people who want to see blood for, you know, allowing players to live like pimps on delicious booster cash.  Meantime Miami president Donna Shalala is being a colossal whiny bitch, claiming that "we have been wronged in this investigation."  So if the punishment is no dessert for a week, she'll appeal.

-- You remember Trae Golden, maybe.  He was recruited fairly heavily by UVA, then went to Tennessee where he suited up against the Hoos in JPJA last year - and will now do so again at Georgia Tech.  GT could be solid this year.

-- Basketball media days were last week - and I consider the result a surprise.  In a show of respect for what Tony Bennett has put together, the Hoos are 4th in the preseason media poll.  Given the amount of impressive new blood joining the league - the lowest-ranked new member in the poll was Pitt at 6th of 15, with ND 5th and Cuse 2nd - that is high praise indeed.  It says "we expect you to make the ACC semis and, obviously, the NCAA tournament."  Like, 4 or 5 seed stuff in the NCAA tournament.  Plus they put Joe Harris on the preseason all-ACC team - and not a single Tar Heel.

We all know what the media poll really means once the rubber hits the hardwood, but there's another truism about college programs: they're only as good as their publicity.  If the media says you're awesome, people start to believe it.  This isn't the same as constant TV coverage with Dick Vitale and all the rest, but it's a little bit something regardless.  It says there are expectations, and that the games we play will be Big Games for reasons besides the opponent.  You have to back that up obviously, but it's a start.

And just as a footnote, that other team in Virginia is last.  With 65 points from 54 voters, a minimum of 43 media types figure the Hokies for the worst team in the ACC.  Playing them a guaranteed twice a year is going to be a little advantage over the rest of the league for the foreseeable future.

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Darious Latimore joins the club just in time for this week's Senior Seasons feature.  It's easy for me, too, because I can use the same source I use for Jordan Ellis.  They're from the same region of Georgia and their schools are not terribly far apart.  They don't play each other, though.

Episcopal 30, Penn Charter 0 - Evan Butts scored twice, once on a conventional reception and once on a fumble return as a defensive end.  He also racked up 98 yards receiving.  Episcopal is 7-1.

Upland 27, Los Osos 10 (Jeffery Farrar) - Upland is 4-3.
Central Catholic 47, Calvary Christian 23 (Caanan Brown) - CCC is 6-1.
Brookwood 23, Central Gwinnett 14 (Darious Latimore) - Central Gwinnett is 2-5.
Cummings 37, Carrboro 20 (Will Richardson) - Cummings is 2-6.
Oscar Smith 42, Grassfield 0 (Andrew Brown) - Oscar Smith is 7-0.
James Monroe 42, Chancellor 12 (Steven Moss) - Chancellor is 1-6.
Loudoun County 31, Woodgrove 28 (J.J. Jackson) - Woodgrove is 4-2.

Oscar Smith also beat Nansemond River 48-7 last Monday in a rain-delayed game that didn't make it into last week's update, and Chancellor lost to Caroline 26-20 on the same date.

weekend review

The not-yet-jaded among you (you're so adorable) may find some reason for optimism in this week's ACC results:

-- For one, GT got pretty well rolled by BYU this week.  That's good, right?  Since we beat BYU and have yet to play GT.  That should offer some hope for that particular game.  I think it's more likely that we'll look at the BYU game the exact same way we looked at last year's Penn State game.

-- Also, Clemson struggled, at home no less, against Boston College.  Maybe they're vulnerable - or maybe they just got caught looking ahead to next Saturday and Florida State.

-- Pitt-VT looked kind of like UVA-Pitt would've looked minus stupid turnovers.  And with a flicker of a passing game from VT.  Stat of the week: Trey Edmunds carried the ball nine times.  His longest carry was 14 yards.  He finished with 13 yards.  If by some miracle Brent Urban's injury is minor (it's probably not) VT's offensive line is ridiculously vulnerable.

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The depth chart isn't too heavily changed up.  I think the "or" at DT next to Brent Urban says a lot about his status, though.  Despite my Eeyoring, London says Urban's injury is "not season-ending" which I take as code for "but he's not exactly coming back soon, either."  Demetrious Nicholson gets an injury-related "or" as well, and Brandon Phelps gets a decidedly non-injury-related "or" and now shares the top spot with Rijo Walker.  There's a lot of fan bellyaching about Phelps because he "doesn't make plays" but that's exactly what you want out of a free safety: total invisibility.  Nevertheless, some big pass plays from Maryland should indeed cause a little re-examination of the position.

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Senior Seasons time:

Peachtree Ridge 38, Mountain View 13: Jordan Ellis scored three of his four total touchdowns in the third quarter and racked up 174 yards on the ground on 23 carries.  Peachtree Ridge is 6-1.

Episcopal 34, Germantown 25: Evan Butts had four catches, including an all-YAC 81-yard touchdown (and two TDs overall) in Episcopal's sixth win.  Episcopal is 6-1.

Green Run 21, Bayside 16: It's not a great season for a Bayside team that's usually among the better ones in Virginia Beach.  Quin Blanding ran some wildcat offense, running for 110 yards and both of Bayside's touchdowns, but Bayside lost their fourth of the year.  Bayside is 3-4.

Glendora 24, Upland 21 (Jeffery Farrar) - Upland is 3-3.
Graham 13, Cummings 7 (Will Richardson) - Cummings is 1-6.
Woodgrove 34, Park View 0 (J.J. Jackson) - Woodgrove is 4-1.

A couple games - Oscar Smith and Chancellor - got weather-delayed til Monday so I'll include them in next week's feature.

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This week the still-undefeated, still-#1 ladies soccer team makes another ESPN3 appearance: Thursday night at 7:00 when they take on NC State.  Why they chose that game and not Sunday's big one against UNC, I'll never know.  The men are not so visible and won't be watchable live (and on the ACC's website rather than ESPN) until November, but they did do a solid job this weekend in earning a draw against #5 Maryland.  The teams combined for six goals in the first 27 minutes and then remembered they were playing soccer and not supposed to score as if it were a lacrosse game.  They'll take on the always-lousy Hokies next.

weekend review

As promised, the weekly regular kicks off with the weekly spin around the ACC:

-- Clemson is not exactly giving anyone reason to believe they're a good bet to fulfill their role as the ACC's media favorite.  Their win over NC State was grindingly efficient, not dominating.

-- Three overtimes to beat Marshall?  Part of the problem is that They Stole My Weed Officer was suspended for that game, but then - how many strikes does this Journell chump get anyway?  As long as Ethan Keyserling keeps missing kicks, the answer is "as many as he needs."

-- Pitt's offense may yet prove me wrong - you'll remember I called it the worst one in the ACC.  It probably isn't.  But then, Duke's defense harkens back to Duke defenses of old, of traditional Duke teams that went 1-11.

-- Let's hope West Virginia really, really sucks.  Deon Long appears to be the real deal at Maryland, though.

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Time for a quick switch now, over to women's soccer.  The official site called the game a "come-from-behind win", which, technically it was, but that phrase conjures up images of losing most of the game before a spirited, late-game comeback.  Nuh-uh.  I admittedly watched that game hoping for a nice easy slaughter - come on, the #1 team in the country vs. a lower-level ACC team - and that's just what I got.  I wish every team would deliver like that.  Final stats: 37 shots to 3 and 13 corner kicks to 0.  The ladies looked ruthless and businesslike.  Oh, that shot didn't go in?  No worries, another one is coming in a couple minutes.

You can see why Makenzy Doniak is leading the team in goals - it seems like she's on the receiving end of literally every other pass.  She cleaned up a corner kick for her first goal, planted herself in the perfect place on the field for her second, and on UVA's first goal, drew the Pitt keeper in her direction and caused her to totally forget about, you know, the one USNWT-capped player on the field.  Oh yeah, her.  She's dangerous too.

(Speaking of Morgan Brian, would it be so much to ask for the next game's announcers to remember her last name and not constantly be calling her "Morgan Henry"?  Where did they dig up that name?  Does an appearance on the national team not merit at least learning her name even if you call the entire rest of the team Golda Meir?)

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The depth chart got a little tweak this week for the Pitt game.  Yes, Daniel Hamm is there.  Goody goody.  I want to see him in action against an ACC team, and if Shepherd and Mizzell are still all banged up, we'll get that chance.  Maybe even if Shepherd or Mizzell are still hurt.

A surprise name shows up at SLB: Max Valles, bumping Demeitre Brim down a notch.  I don't think Valles is being used as a real linebacker, though; the coaches are talking about Valles in terms of what he brings as a pass rusher.  So, in sort of the old Al Groh down-linebacker role.  Sort of.  Jon Tenuta is different, of course, but Valles isn't in the game for his coverage skills against tight ends.


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Senior Seasons feature:

Upland 55, Silverado 21: Jeffery Farrar had a 66-yard interception return as Upland is getting out of the really tough early portion of their schedule and into teams they are ridiculously better than.  Upland is 2-2.

Peachtree Ridge 31, Mill Creek 30: Jordan Ellis carried 31 times for 146 yards.  Peachtree Ridge is 4-0.

Episcopal 29, Hill School 9: Evan Butts caught a touchdown.  Episcopal is 4-0.

Central Catholic 49, Shorecrest Prep 0 (Caanan Brown) - CCC is 3-1.
Cummings 27, Roxboro Person 26 (Will Richardson) - Cummings is 1-4.
Oscar Smith 27, Western Branch 14 (Andrew Brown) - Oscar Smith is 3-0.
Tallwood 18, Bayside 15 (Quin Blanding) - Bayside is 2-2.
Brooke Point 34, Chancellor 14 (Steven Moss) - Chancellor is 0-4.
Woodgrove 51, John Champe 0 (J.J. Jackson) - Woodgrove is 2-1.

weekend review

No game this week means I don't get to have as much fun writing as I'm used to, but we'll plow ahead anyway.

Impressions from around the ACC this week:

-- VT's offense remains putrid.  This week, ECU managed to stymie the Hokie running game to the tune of 1.6 yards a carry.  Not to be left out of the show, Cody "They Stole My Weed, Officer" Journell biffed a pair of 40-ish-yard field goals and an extra point.  If the football gods are cruel, Virginia Tech and Michigan State will meet in a bowl game this year, with one of them winning 6-0 in 7OT on an interception return.  Or, given the relative quality of the defenses (very good) and offenses (ick) on those teams, college football's first overtime safety.

-- Wake Forest is pretty bad.  Jim Grobe is going to have the hottest seat in the ACC this year.

-- Maryland looks better so far than I've been giving them credit for, but they haven't been tested, either.  Let's see what happens next week.  If they can beat West Virginia they'll be way ahead of track for bowl eligibility.

-- Even with my faith in Boston College I didn't expect them to beat USC, but they were doomed the moment USC trudged off the field with a loss to Washington State.  USC wasn't going to let it happen twice.

News and other stuff:

-- The men's soccer team is off to a rough 0-2 start in the ACC, but the women are on a mission.  UNC was a unanimous #1 pick in the coaches' poll last week, but Notre Dame made short work of that, and that cleared up space for at the top for UVA, your new #1 team in the country.  That's Top Drawer Soccer's ranking; the coaches' poll will be tomorrow and I'd guess UVA will be on top of that one, too.  The ACC is a minefield, of course, with five of the nation's top eight teams.  ND, UNC, Wake, and FSU share the rankings with UVA.  The girls won't play any of those teams until October 10 when they host the Irish, but this Sunday will see them on ESPN3, taking on Pitt.  I don't plan to miss it.

-- Both Perfect Game and Baseball America named Nathan Kirby the top prospect in the NECBL this summer; Cam Tekker was also PG's #10 prospect.  The NECBL is a notch below Cape Cod, but it's a quality league nonetheless.

-- In South Carolina, there's a school called North Greenville, which plays football as a D-II independent.  This school just beat the gray wool pants off of VMI this week.  VMI ran for fewer than a yard a carry, largely a factor of their inability to keep North Greenville pass rushers away from their quarterback.  Getting killed by Oregon is not a thing that would get in the way of our goals this year; not killing VMI, however, would be.

-- Friday will be an important day for Tony Bennett, as in-state prospect Robert Johnson announces his decision.  Johnson is choosing between UNC, IU, FSU, and UVA; everything I've seen suggests this one is totally up in the air.  It's not often UVA has that kind of chance against a school like IU or UNC.  Johnson is a four-star shooting guard and Rivals's #42 player in the country.

Senior Seasons:

Clearwater Central Catholic 21, Jesuit 3: Caanan Brown opened the scoring for his team, catching a 65-yard touchdown while playing tight end.  CCC is 2-1.

Peachtree Ridge 55, Duluth 17: Jordan Ellis caught a touchdown (24 yards) and ran for another (41 yards) in Peachtree Ridge's big win.  Peachtree Ridge is 3-0.

Upland 41, Jordan 0 (Jeffrey Farrar) - Upland is 1-2.
Smith 35, Cummings 21 (Will Richardson) - Cummings is 0-4.
Episcopal 34, Caravel Academy 15 (Evan Butts) - Episcopal is 3-0.
Massaponax 35, Chancellor 6 (Steven Moss) - Chancellor is 0-3.
Oscar Smith 61, Indian River 0 (Andrew Brown) - Oscar Smith is 2-0.
Salem 13, Bayside 10 (Quin Blanding) - Bayside is 2-1.

It's also time for an update to the ol' recruiting board.  I don't think we're any closer to a commitment any time soon, though.

-- Removed TE Jamal Custis (Syracuse) from green.

-- Re-added RB Madre London to yellow.

-- Added DT Ricky Walker to red.  This is an interesting one.  Our chances are pretty much terrible, Mike London not having expended much effort on this recruitment because Walker seemed exceedingly cool to his offerings.  Walker hasn't even been technically offered a scholarship yet.  But he does have a big brother - Rijo - playing at UVA, and seems to have sent the message lately that, hey, I'm listening if you're talking.  So London is talking.  We will see how this plays out, and it's likely that by this point other schools have Walker's attention too much to let go.  But as long he's uncommitted, there's at least a little bitty chance.

weekend review

I've said in the past that writing about losses is much harder than writing about wins, and now that we've just seen the single largest football defeat of the FOV era (and that's saying something) I find the trend continuing.  There's a certain je ne sais quois about a seven-score ass-whoopin' that takes all the words out of my mouth.  "Well that sucked" just doesn't have the kick to it I'd like.

In fact, I've decided the most disappointing part about the game was not anything that actually happened (playcalling, interceptions, big plays given up, etc. etc. - the problem is that there are just too many to pick one) but that they all happened with UVA wearing its classiest uniforms.  I'm glad and all that they picked a big game to wear the "traditional"** look but now they probably never will again, at least not this season.

I have to give Oregon this, too: Often, when I'm watching a blowout, it doesn't seem like one.  The losing team will just keep doing things a little bit worse than the winning team and by the end of the game it's like 45-7 and I realize, dang, that wasn't actually competitive.  No such restrictions this time.  I think it's because of the number of times we got gashed for big plays, or maybe it's because of things like big long touchdowns immediately following a pickoff, or maybe just because every time there was an important play, we came out on the wrong side of the outcome.

Complicating matters, of course, is BYU's dominating win over Texas.  I seem to recall playing really good defense against BYU.  Cougars fans must wonder how on earth they went basically nowhere against a defense that just gave up 9 yards a carry to Oregon and then exploded for 550 rushing yards against Texas.  I'm allowed to interpret this however I want, and so for my own sanity I say that we really do have a good run defense, maybe even a really good run defense, but Oregon is special and unique.  Plus also, Marcus Mariota was only 14-for-28 passing, which isn't that good, and UVA is allowing only a 40.6% completion rate to opposing quarterbacks.  David Watford's passing has been kind of crummy, and so has Logan Thomas's, and VT is allowing only a 36.8% completion rate, and so in the department of way too early predictions, that game against the Hokies is really going to put a stellar air assault on display.

Oh well.  At least Greyson Lambert didn't fire up a QB controversy, right?  Ah, that's not a nice thing to say.  I shouldn't say that.

Time for the prediction review:

-- At least two of UVA's running backs, one of which is Kevin Parks, will improve on their BYU rushing total by at least 10 yards.  Well, Khalek Shepherd did, because he carried for 46 yards with 45 of them coming on one play.  Parks did not, however.  Oregon's run defense played much better than I gave them credit for, a major reason for the blowout since UVA could accomplish very little on the ground.

-- UVA's TEs and RBs combine for more catches than their WRs.  By a lot, too.  21 to 10.  By themselves, Jake McGee and Zach Swanson fulfilled this particular prophecy.  Oregon's corners were at least as good as advertised, and I advertised them as comprising "one of the finest secondaries in the country."  Darius Jennings caught three passes for -2 yards, which is a huge statement by the Duck cornerbacks.  I didn't even realize he'd caught as many as three passes.

-- Watford throws more INTs than TDs.  Even when making this prediction I had really hoped for a better than 0-to-3 ratio, but there you are.

-- Oregon breaks at least one TD run of at least 60 yards.  Mariota's 71-yarder to open the scoring certainly qualifies.  At that point I was regretting not making the prediction "at least three runs" and if I had, I would still have given myself this one because the only reason some of those runs weren't longer is because Oregon was given such nice field position in the first place.

-- Oregon has more than twice as many rush yards as passing yards.  I thought for sure I would get this one right, but then the box score shows only 350 rush yards against 207 passing yards.  I feel like I ought to give myself this one for the very reason above, but I'll let it slide.

-- Mariota is the only Oregon QB to throw a pass. I have to give at least that much to our defense; at least we'll keep it close enough to keep the scrubs out of the game.  I blame the offense for my failure at this prediction, actually.

Going 3-for-6 this week (with one that could've easily made it four) makes me 4-for-10 so far on the season, which is a respectable start.  And I'm now 1-1 both straight up and against the spread after winning this week's bet.

Notes from the rest of the ACC:

-- I think you definitely have to give the conference some credit this year for having, now, two statement wins against the SEC, thanks to Miami this week.  The ACC-SEC battle this year has been much closer to even.  If anyone besides Syracuse would play a Big Ten team we could probably match up pretty well there, too.

-- Don't look now, but Boston College is 2-0.  Two weeks from now they'll probably be 2-2, and they still have an uphill battle for bowl eligibility, but I was feeling pretty good about myself after watching the Eagles' defense stuff Wake Forest.

-- Another team I'm feeling pretty good about, or at least, I'm feeling pretty good about my prediction about them: NC State.  Michael Strauss - the former Hoo, yes - shredded them for 300 yards, and the Pack barely escaped Richmond.

Senior Seasons feature:

Williams 39, Cummings 33: Will Richardson missed the game, his team's third straight loss to start the season.  Cummings is 0-3.

Oscar Smith 42, Lake Taylor 2: Andrew Brown had 4 TFL, 2 sacks, and forced and recovered 2 fumbles in Oscar Smith's dominating, nationally televised win over Lake Taylor.  Oscar Smith is 1-0.

Oaks Christian 57, Upland 28 (Jeffrey Farrar) - Upland is 0-2.
Tampa Catholic 13, Central Catholic 10 (Caanan Brown) - CCC is 1-1.
Episcopal Academy 21, Interboro 7 (Evan Butts) - Episcopal is 2-0.
Bayside 14, Princess Anne 0 (Quin Blanding) - Bayside is 2-0.
Eastern View 40, Chancellor 22 (Steven Moss) - Chancellor is 0-2.
Tuscarora 21, Woodgrove 14 (J.J. Jackson) - Woodgrove is 1-1.

Miscellanea:

-- In a development that surprises nobody, the VMI game will only be on ESPN3.  Two weeks from now, of course; the first bye week is next week.  Ordinarily you'd think before the VMI game is a rotten time for a bye week, but it's probably not the worst thing to have it after that Oregon game.

-- I often complain that I don't have enough of a chance to talk about soccer, thanks to a combination of it being undertelevised and overshadowed, so I took the opportunity to watch the men take on Clemson on Friday.  It didn't go well.  Overall impression was of a UVA team that had better ball skills than their opponent but was much worse at space and timing, and either chased balls they shouldn't or didn't chase ones they should.  Result: defensive breakdowns and little offensive pressure and a 2-0 loss.  I wouldn't call it discipline - more like a lack of good recognition, leading to bad spacing and being slow to realize danger on the defensive side.

There won't be a chance to watch the men's team on TV for another month, but the women will be on ESPN3 against Pitt in a couple weeks.

weekend review

Probably the latest weekend review ever.  Blame real-life hobbies.  Anyway, we start with the Senior Seasons feature:

Peachtree Ridge 28, Parkview 14 - Jordan Ellis is establishing himself as a workhorse, with 122 yards on 21 carries.  Two touchdowns are included, one a run of 35 yards.  Peachtree Ridge is 2-0.

Episcopal 30, Father Judge 22 - Playing tight end/H-back, Evan Butts scored on a 75-yard wheel route.  Episcopal is 1-0.

Bayside 29, Landstown 10 - Quin Blanding caught a 73-yard pass and existed in the Landstown backfield on defense.  Bayside is 1-0.

Mater Dei 44, Upland 13 (Jeffery Farrar) - Upland is 0-1.
Central Catholic 48, Naples Lely 10 (Caanan Brown) - CCC is 1-0.
Eastern Alamance 63, Cummings 28 (Will Richardson) - Cummings is 0-2.
Woodgrove 35, Freedom-South Riding 0 (J.J. Jackson) - Woodgrove is 1-0.
Riverbend 14, Chancellor 0 (Steven Moss) - Chancellor is 0-1.

The recruiting board gets a minor update too.  For posterity's sake:

-- Moved DT Derrick Nnadi from green to yellow.  A weird recruitment, this: Nnadi's been from yellow to green to blue and all the way back down again.

-- Moved OT Marcus Applefield from yellow to green.  Applefield has a top five that includes UVA.

Not much motion here.  Give it a few weeks into the season, really.

And in the rest of the world:

-- I'm intrigued by Jeff White's profile of UVA's new swim coach, Augie Busch.  Stepping into Mark Bernardino's shoes is a very tall task, especially given the less-than-perfectly-smooth way the transition went down (no fault of Busch's) but there's a certain profile of coach that you'd want for the type of job that UVA is and Busch seems to fit it.  Rubber meets the road next February and March at the ACC and NCAA meets.

-- The men's soccer team is off to a decent start, with a win over St. John's and a loss to Louisville, but it's really the ladies who are kicking that ass.  Two straight four-goal wins over top-10 teams (Santa Clara and Penn State) have highlighted the opening stretch.  UVA (that is, the ladies) has scored 16 goals in four games, with eight players getting on the scoreboard, and sophomore Brittany Ratcliffe leading the way with four goals.

-- Blast-from-the-past Jerton Evans, who played safety for George Welsh and Al Groh, is getting a start on his coaching career as the defensive coordinator at Bishop Ireton, which plays in the WCAC against DeMatha and Good Counsel.

-- On the depth chart, Maurice Canady moves ahead of DreQuan Hoskey at cornerback, and tight end is now a jumble and a half with the order being Burns, McGee, Swanson - but "or" is listed next to everyone.  So really, there isn't a tight end depth chart right now.  Those are the main changes for the Oregon game, although Mason Thomas now appears as the third free safety as well.

weekend review

We're going to kick this one off with Senior Seasons first; that way I can't write the whole post and then chicken out and punt it to Tuesday again.

Good Counsel 21, St. John's 7: Brendan Marshall was a perfect seven for seven for 102 yards and Good Counsel will advance to the WCAC final against - who else - DeMatha.  Good Counsel is 10-1.

A.L. Brown 69, Hickory Ridge 55: Keeon Johnson and Kannapolis got revenge for their first in-county loss in decades, and Johnson had a whopping 12 catches for 116 yards and (kind of surprisingly given the score) one touchdown.  Johnson missed the first game against this team with turf toe.  Brown is 10-3, and advances to the third round.

Ocean Lakes 34, Granby 3: Ocean Lakes had no trouble advancing.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that they'll have to go the rest of the way without Corwin Cutler, whose torn-up knee put a premature end to a phenomenal season.  Ocean Lakes is 11-0.

Oscar Smith 35, Bayside 12: Smoke Mizzell ran for 175 yards on 20 carries and played a lot of defense too, but Zach Jones and Oscar Smith handled Bayside pretty easily.  Bayside finishes their season at 8-3; Oscar Smith is also 8-3 and advances to face Salem.

Salisbury 35, Avon Old Farms 28 (Sadiq Olanrewaju) - Salisbury is 8-0
Gilman 20, McDonogh 8 (Micah Kiser) - Gilman is 8-2
Urbana 24, Damascus 23 (Zach Bradshaw) - Damascus is 10-1
St. John's Prep 21, BC High 16 (Jack McDonald) - BC High is 3-6
South Iredell 47, Pisgah 8 (LaChaston Smith) - South Iredell is 11-2
Houston Bellaire 30, Houston Westside 23 (Hipolito Corporan) - Westside is 6-4
Fork Union 45, Benedictine 27 (Malcolm Cook) - FUMA is 9-2
Jackson Liberty 21, Monsignor Donovan 0 (Brad Henson) - Donovan is 5-3

Seasonal breakdowns are as follows:

-- 2 regular seasons are still going on, sort of.  BC High has a rivalry game on Thanksgiving weekend, but they're 3-6 and whatever form of playoffs they might have qualified for, they didn't.  Monsignor Donovan (Brad Henson's team) has one game next week, and once again I'm blowed if I can figure out what the hell goes on in New Jersey.

-- 3 seasons are done.  Zach Bradshaw and Damascus were upset as heavy favorites in the first round, and somebody had to lose between Smith and Bayside and Bayside it was.  Bradshaw and Taquan Mizzell join Jack English on the sidelines.

-- 4 championship games are next weekend.  FUMA plays in the VISAA Division I final against Liberty Christian.  Gilman has the MIAA championship against Calvert Hall, whom they beat 24-14 a few weeks ago.  Salisbury plays in the Jack Etter Bowl, which is the NEPSAC Class A championship, against Phillips Exeter.  And of course, there's the WCAC Good Counsel-DeMatha game.

-- 7 teams continue - or start - their playoff roll.  In North Carolina they're in the 3rd round, where South Iredell will play Bandys and A.L. Brown plays Charlotte Catholic.  South Iredell played Bandys about a month and a half ago, and won 24-13.  Brown has not played Charlotte Catholic this season, but they're fairly familiar playoff opponents; Catholic is a semi-powerhouse.  In fact, Catholic trekked up to Baltimore earlier this season, where Gilman and Micah Kiser beat them, 37-14.

The VHSL playoffs truck into the second round, and it's Ocean Lakes vs. Western Branch; Potomac vs. Mountain View; Oscar Smith vs. Salem; and Varina vs. Meadowbrook.

In Texas, the first round begins next weekend, and Houston Westside takes on Houston Memorial in the first round.  Let's hope Hipolito Corporan stays committed long enough for us to care about this playoff run.

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From Old Virginia Ballot - Week 11

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	1
2	Oregon Ducks	3
3	Kansas St. Wildcats	--
4	Alabama Crimson Tide	-3
5	Florida Gators	-1
6	Texas A&M Aggies	1
7	Florida St. Seminoles	-1
8	Stanford Cardinal	1
9	Oregon St. Beavers	-1
10	Nebraska Cornhuskers	1
11	South Carolina Gamecocks	1
12	LSU Tigers	1
13	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-3
14	Georgia Bulldogs	1
15	Oklahoma Sooners	2
16	Clemson Tigers	-2
17	UCLA Bruins	-1
18	Texas Longhorns	--
19	Michigan Wolverines	5
20	Arizona Wildcats	--
21	USC Trojans	--
22	Northwestern Wildcats	-2
23	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	2
24	Wisconsin Badgers	--
25	Rutgers Scarlet Knights	--
Dropouts: Penn St. Nittany Lions, North Carolina Tar Heels, Texas Tech Red Raiders

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Say, it's a Blogpoll ballot.  We had a thin pool of teams to choose from this week.  Four teams (UNC, WVU, PSU, TCU) were banished for picking up a fourth loss.  6-4 isn't good enough to be considered, with one exception to be discussed later.  Ohio and Toledo, who were at the bottom of the pecking order anyway, dropped out because 8-2 is only good enough if you've got a win over a Big Five team that's .500 or better.  OK, Ohio does, but they lost this week and were rock bottom before and not real likely to move up as a result of losing to Bowling Green.  And Mississippi actually should've been out last week.  No qualifying win on their schedule, either.  Of all the teams that dropped off the edge, the highest-ranked was Penn State at 19th, and most were perennially well outside the top 25.

After adding Arizona back (the aforementioned exception) on account of a commonsensical suggestion in last week's comments (it seemed wrong to drop them from 11th to nowhere), the eligibility pool stood at 30.  That makes it a lot easier and faster, for one thing.  It means that Wisconsin and Rutgers are basically the beneficiaries of sticking around (and Wisconsin is bloody lucky Minnesota is bowl-eligible.)

About the ballot itself, I once again had to shove Florida down below the title contenders, although Oregon ended up legitimately in the top three this time.  (They were #5 last week.)  I think this is because of a somewhat improved outlook on vanquished opponents Washington and Arizona.

I was less inclined, this week, to move Nebraska below Ohio State, and ultimately, I obviously didn't.  Ohio State was, up til now, the beneficiary of not having had a bye week; now everyone has had one, and so for all intents and purposes, nobody has, except those like Oklahoma that've had two.  So OSU took a slight fall.  Besides, despite the records and the head-to-head outcome, this is justifiable.  Nebraska's top five wins: Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State, Northwestern, Michigan State.  OSU's: Nebraska, Penn State, Central Florida, Michigan State, Illinois.

Next week the eligible pool will probably grow again; I consider 7-4 with a qualifying win good enough.


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Newsbits:

-- The "new BCS" is starting to take its final form.  Truthfully, it's not that different from the old one.  I'll have a more comprehensive user's guide tomorrow.

-- The men's soccer team has their 32nd straight bid to the NCAA's, and will host an opening-round game against Lafayette.  The ladies trounced La Salle in the first round, and advance to play Rutgers at Klockner this Friday.

-- Hooptyball has started the season 1-1; the lack of a point guard is showing.  A lot.  But they did lock it down on defense tonight against Fairfield, and will play Delaware tomorrow in the Preseason NIT second round.  The good news is that if we do end up having a marginally tourney-worthy season, the committee will likely take into account Jontel Evans's injury in considering that George Mason game.

-- LOLVT.  Enjoy this video of wide receiver Marcus Davis taking a page from the Jeff Allen Instruction Book of Effort, and never blocking anyone.  And then for further giggles, you can read Davis's response.  My personal favorite: "You can't block in the back.  That's obvious."  Of course, they start off in front of you, but never mind that.

weekend review

-- It's always fun to lead off with something like this.  UVA earned its first ACC championship of the '12-'13 season courtesy of the ladies' soccer team, who as the tourney's 5th seed traveled the toughest road possible (4th, 1st, and 2nd seeds) to get there.  And it might've also been the most satisfying way possible to win a title in women's soccer, knocking off the dynastic Tar Heels in the first round and blowing out Maryland in the championship.  Fantastic work.

To add the finishing touch, senior forward Caroline Miller is the ACC's offensive POY.  Why not reigning FOV co-Cav of the Year Morgan Brian, you might ask?  Brian is too good for her own good in this regard; she spent half the season in Japan helping the women's U-20 national team win their World Cup.  In fact, she scored a goal against Nigeria in the semifinals.

The Hoos play the first round of the NCAA tournament on Friday as a 2 seed, hosting La Salle.

-- Speaking of soccer, I decided to stop whining about not getting to see enough of it this past week, and also watched the men take on NC State on Thursday in the final regular season game.  That was fun, since the Hoos won 2-1 on an OT golden goal.  Not NC State's weekend for playing UVA.  It might have been easier, but Will Bates - whose game is all about finishing - was off his mark a few times, and missed a couple chances to slam home some easy ones.  He got a goal anyway when the Pack got called for an iffy handball in the box and UVA was awarded the penalty kick.

The ACC tournament starts tomorrow, and UVA visits their Official Postseason Bitch, Wake Forest, as the tourney's 6 seed.  Now they'd better beat the Deacons after I said that.

-- The football depth chart for the week seems to end Henry Coley's suspension, but not his time in the doghouse.  He's listed third, behind Daquan Romero and Demeitre Brim.  Romero played well enough on Saturday to make it easy for the coaches to dole out Coley's discipline at their own pace.

From Old Virginia Ballot - Week 10

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	1
2	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	-1
3	Kansas St. Wildcats	--
4	Florida Gators	--
5	Oregon Ducks	--
6	Florida St. Seminoles	--
7	Texas A&M Aggies	--
8	Oregon St. Beavers	1
9	Stanford Cardinal	1
10	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-2
11	Nebraska Cornhuskers	3
12	South Carolina Gamecocks	1
13	LSU Tigers	2
14	Clemson Tigers	6
15	Georgia Bulldogs	3
16	UCLA Bruins	3
17	Oklahoma Sooners	6
18	Texas Longhorns	6
19	Penn St. Nittany Lions	6
20	Northwestern Wildcats	2
21	USC Trojans	-5
22	North Carolina Tar Heels	-5
23	Texas Tech Red Raiders	-11
24	Michigan Wolverines	--
25	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	--
Dropouts: Arizona Wildcats, Iowa St. Cyclones

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

That my friends is a Blogpoll ballot, and there isn't a lot to talk about this week.  I was hoping that my system would spit out someone other than Alabama for the #1 slot so I could thumb my nose at the establishment, but alas, there they are.  The weird thing is that Florida came out tied for #1 - in fact, if I'd followed my rules to the letter, minus the part where I get to fudge things at the end if I want to, Florida would've earned the #1 vote.  That ain't right, so back down to #4 they go.  The top four came out far enough ahead of Oregon that I feel comfortable leaving the Ducks at #5.  So in that small way I do get to thumb my nose.

I'll tell you what though, I'm not the only one.  The BCS computers also have Florida fourth and Oregon fifth.  So ha.

I was also forced to flip-flop Ohio State and Nebraska.  Something about a 25-point margin of victory and giving up 63 points doesn't let me in good conscience put the Huskers ahead.

You see that Arizona and Iowa State were the only teams to drop out this week, and that's because they fell out of consideration entirely at 5-4.  They won't be back next week, either, because 6-4 isn't good enough.  Arizona's very weird.  #11 when in, but unable to stay in consistently.  NC State (hehe), Duke, Arizona State, and Cincinnati also dropped out of consideration; the former three because they're all 5-4, and Cincy because their qualifying win over VT got ruined by VT's losing record.  Kent State and Louisiana Tech debuted in the consideration pool (re-debuted in Lousiana Tech's case) and Kent State actually did OK, coming in 29th.  That said, it'll be a sad day indeed for the other teams in the pool if I end up ranking a team that lost by 33 to 1-9 Kentucky.

My excuse this week for shuffling Senior Seasons off til Tuesday - again - is that there's quite a bit of extra work involved this week.  Most of these teams are going to the playoffs, so I gotsta see how those schedules shake out.  Some states are easier than others to find, and the ballot takes up most of my time on Mondays.  Tomorrow, Senior Seasons will accompany the recruiting profile of one of the most interesting commitments on the board.