Some days, I don't want to admit I'm a Jacket

There a lively discussion going on over at The Hive today about a caller on Chan Gailey's coaches show today.

It's one thing to be frustrated with a bad loss, to be unhappy because the program is only ranked in the bottom half of the Top 25, and not the top. To question recruiting this year, etc. It's a whole different ball of wax to call the coach and ask:

"How many more embarassing losses do we have to endure with you?"

This is an element of the GT fanbase that I don't want, and wish we could get rid of. We do not need the loudmouth redneck trash that UGA attracts - heck, that's one of the reason so many of us are proud of the Institute. It's a sad day when I'm more disturbed by my fellow fans than I am by my biggest rivals fan's. I have a better question for that caller:

"How many more embarassing calls do we have to endure with you?"

Blog Poll Roundtable

I'm like the last person to join the discussion over on ParadigmBlog, but EDBS was late too - so I can't be too bad.

1. We are now 1/3 of the way through the season and things are starting to shake out. With that in mind, who are your picks to win each of the BCS conferences, as well as your choice for an at-large berth from a non-BCS league (none is an option)?

ACC - Florida State. I'm just not sold on VT's offense at all, their inability to run the football scares me. F$U can't throw, but at least they can run - and they've already toppled Miami and BC, there isn't much left for them between now and Jacksonville. VT should make the championship game, but I think F$U wins in a brutal 9-7 game with 2 defensive TD's and a safety.

Big XII - Texas. Everyone else in the Big XII is horrible, and nobody from the Big XII North should even be allowed to go to a bowl. When Kansas State has one of the tougher schedules in your division because they played on the road against a truly awful Marshall team, it's a sad, sad world.

Big 11 - Yoikes. Purdue isn't very good, but they got an easy road left. I don't trust Michigan State or Minnesota to not melt down. Ohio State or Wisconsin wins this thing, and I have no idea which one.

Big East - Worse than the Big XII, so I'll go out on a limb - UCONN wins it. It's not like they're worse than anyone else in that conference, and they had a nice little football team last year. If not this year, they are going to win that conference soon.

SEC - Tennessee would be the favorite here if Phat Phil had gone with Clausen one game earlier. I still think they are, just too good on both lines and with Riggs - but it means Florida has to lose twice ... it can happen.

Pac 10 - USC

At Large - Notre Dame. Unless they lose 4 games, they will be in. Even with 3 losses, I can't see them being left out. Let the Irish lovefest begin again. UTEP is a nice team, but they got no prayer against the money machine that is ND.


2. What team currently out of the Top 10 (AP or Coach's, doesn't really matter), has the best chance of ending up in the title game?

'bama is getting way too much love here. It's UCLA - who has a legit shot to go undefeated before the game against USC - if they win that, it's Rose Bowl for them and a crazy season in LA. Wonder how fast those crimson t-shirts are replaced with blue and gold if it happens, it'll be fun to watch. (Not going to happen though).


3. When you're watching a game, what type of fan can you absolutely not tolerate being around?

The fan who knows better than the coach, and disagrees with every play called, every player recruited and every step the administration takes. He always loves the previous coach more, even though he said the same thing about him before he left and became some glorious memory. And yes, I think this describes 75% of the internet GT fanbase. I disagree with directions the program takes at time, but I don't think Gailey is Elmer Fudd, he's not stupid and he's frankly not doing that bad of a job - but every game and every message board is filled with ranting about it. Guess what? Only 1 team can win a national championship each year. That means 116 teams lose. Get used to it.

Bonus: A sizable portion of Michigan fandom is in full meltdown mode (myself especially). Some have chosen to sequester themselves for this weekend's game against MSU to avoid scaring children, causing long-term psychological damage to those in the near vicinity, and most especially to avoid jail (I'm not saying this is me per se). Anyways, we need some help. Give us some ideas for replacements for LLLyd Carr (3 L's for the number of losses per year, and no O this year either). Assistant coaches, head coaches elsewhere, etc. Please, give us something to look forward to.

You've won a handful of Big 11 titles in the past decade and a national championship, and you wan't something to look forward too? Stop your whining and take your 7-4 season like a man, it happens to even the best of them every once in a while.

When you ride down that two-eighty-five

I'm just tryin to save ya shorty. I'ma let you know

it's real down heah.
When you ride down that two-eighty-five,
and you go past Kincaid, get ready to go past that Cambleton Road
fo' you get it cut free shorty just shave; cause dat where dem
real ****** at.
I ain't lyin when you in Decatur and you flossin
down Glenwood, Candler Road or Rainbow to shave!
Cause dat where dem real ****** at.
When you're goin down that
ol' Nat Hill and you pass dat second waffle house 'fore you get
to the rich ****** daaang, cause dat where dem real ****** at!

Matter of fact, just shave when ya get to Georgia *****.

In the interest of helping out our friends from Raleigh who will be traveling down next week for the game, I figured I'd reset an old e-mail that's been around a few times - but keeps Atlanta in perspective.


ATLANTA

• Atlanta is composed mostly of one-way streets. The only way to get out of downtown Atlanta is to turn around and start over when you reach Greenville, South Carolina.
• All directions start with, "Go down Peachtree" and include the phrase, "When you see the Waffle House."
• Except that in Cobb County, all directions begin with, "Go to the Big Chicken."
• Peachtree Street has no beginning and no end and is not to be confused with:
• Peachtree Circle
• Peachtree Place
• Peachtree Lane
• Peachtree Road
• Peachtree Parkway
• Peachtree Run
• Peachtree Terrace
• Peachtree Avenue
• Peachtree Commons
• Peachtree Battle
• Peachtree Corners
• New Peachtree
• Old Peachtree
• West Peachtree
• Peachtree-Dunwoody
• Peachtree-Chamblee
• Peachtree Industrial Boulevard
• Atlantans only know their way to work and their way home. If you ask anyone for directions they will always send you down Peachtree.
• Atlanta is the home of Coca-Cola. That's all they drink there, so don't ask for any other soft drink unless it's made by Coca-Cola.
• Gate One at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport is 32 miles away from the Main Concourse, so wear sneakers and pack a lunch.
• The 8am rush hour is from 6:30 to 10:30 AM.
• The 5pm rush hour is from 3:00 to 7:30 PM.
• Friday's rush hour starts Thursday afternoon and lasts through 2am Saturday.
• A native can only pronounce Ponce De Leon Avenue, so do not attempt the Spanish pronunciation. People will simply tilt their heads to the right and stare at you. The Atlanta pronunciation is "pawns duh LEE-on".
• The falling of one raindrop causes all drivers to immediately forget all traffic rules. If a single snowflake falls, the city is paralyzed for three days and it's on all the channels as a news flash every 15 minutes for a week. All grocery stores will be sold out of milk, bread, bottled water, toilet paper, and beer.
• I-285, the loop that encircles Atlanta that has a posted speed limit of 55 mph (but you have to maintain 80 mph just to keep from getting run over), is known to truckers as "The Watermelon 500."
• Don't believe the directional markers on highways. I-285 is marked "East"
• and "West" but you may be going "North" or "South". The locals identify the direction by referring to the "Inner Loop" and the "Outer Loop".
• If you travel on Hwy 92 North, you will actually be going southeast.
• Never buy a ladder or mattress in Atlanta. Just go to one of the interstates and you will soon find one in the middle of the road.
• The last thing you want to do is give another driver the finger, unless your car is armored, your trigger finger is itchy and your AK-47 has a full clip.
• Possums sleep in the middle of the road with their feet in the air.
• There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in Georgia.
• There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 live in Georgia, plus a couple no one has seen before.
• If it grows, it sticks. If it crawls, it bites.
• It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy.
• "Fixinto" is one word (I'm fixin' to go to the store).
• Sweet Tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're
• 2 years old.
• "Jeet?" is actually a phrase meaning "Did you eat?"
• It's impossible to go around a block and windup on the street you started on. The Chamber of Commerce calls it a "scenic route" and has posted signs to that effect so that out-of-towners don't feel lost ... they're just on a "scenic drive."
• Reversible lanes are not understood by anybody ... especially those of us who live here. Stay out of them unless you are looking for a head-on collision.
• If you're standing on a corner and a MARTA Bus stops, you're expected to get on and go somewhere.
• Atlanta's traffic is the friendliest around. The commuters spend hours mingling with each other twice a day. In fact, Atlanta's traffic is rated number one in the country. You will often see people parked beside the road and engaged in lively tailgate discussions.
• Georgia route 400 is the southern equivalent of the Autobahn. You will rarely see a semi-truck on GA 400, because even the truck drivers are intimidated by the oversized-SUV-wielding housewives racing home after a grueling day at the salon, or a tennis match, to meet their children at the school bus, or coming home from the college prep preschool.

Have fun and be safe when you go down there, and have an FO for me.

The Best Job in Lubbock

Evidently "ringing the bell" is a highly sought after job for students at Texas Tech ...

(ht to chopsone over at phog.net for this one)

Week #5 Ballot

My actual submitted Blog Poll ballot:

1. - University of Southern California
2. - Virginia Polytechnic Institue and State University
3. - University of Texas
4. - Florida State University
5. - University of Florida
6. - Georgia State Penitentiary, Athens.
7. - Michigan State University
8. - University of California
9. - University of Alabama
10. - University of Wisconsin
11. - University of Tennessee
12. - The Ohio State University
13. - University of Miami
14. - Louisiana State University
15. - Notre Dame
16. - Arizona State University
17. - University of Minnesota
18. - Boston College
19. - University of California, Los Angeles
20. - University of Virginia
21. - Georgia Institute of Technology
22. - Iowa State University
23. - Texas Tech University
24. - Vanderbilt University
25. - West Virginia University

If you want to read what I had to say about each team yesterday (before the UT @ LSU game) - you can go: HERE

Simply Brutal

There's a small, but vocal, group of the GT fanbase that doesn't like Chan Gailey. There's a number of reasons (bad playcalling, one flat game a year, can't recruit, etc, etc). Basically, once you cut through the crap, it comes down to one thing - he hasn't beaten Georgia. For the first 3 games of the year, we didn't hear anything from them. Suprisingly, Gailey wasn't a bad coach while winning at Auburn - but suddenly became a bad one when he couldn't win at Blacksburg.

Last night I tuned my T.V on to watch the UT@LSU game - and trust me, I don't want to hear anymore criticism of Gailey this week. Those were two enormously talented teams from programs with huge budgets, great fan support and everything you could want for your football team. However, the gameday coaching was simply brutal last night. I have no idea why Phil Fulmer ever thought Ainge should be his starting QB, and why on earth he managed to last through the first half. The only thing I can think is that he really wants to make sure Jimmy Clausen doesn't come to UT. And lets not even start on Les Miles, who coached like he had both hands around his neck. Clock management at the end of the first half? Who needs clock management? Bad turnovers, sloppy play, clock mismanagement, wierd playcalling - that game had it all.

So what's the lesson out of this? College football is a game played by kids not old enough to even buy a beer yet. They make mistakes, sometimes strings of mistakes. Some days they make their coaches look brilliant, some days they make them look ignorant. Head coaches are never as good as they look at their best, and they are never as bad as they look at their worst. Les Miles and Phil Fulmer are not bad football coaches, neither is Chan Gailey or Dick Vermeil (the Chiefs just got hammered last night as well, looking totally unprepared). Some days it just isn't your day, things refuse to go your way and the snowball effect is in full force.

We have a weeked off for everyone to get themselves together, for our team to get healthy - Eric Henderson we miss you - and to prepare for a national game at night on Thursday. If we win, GT will be 4-1 with 2 conference wins under our belt and well on our way to a solid season. This has a chance to be a very good year, but the bandwagon is sputtering along right now - lets give it a good shove and start enjoying what we have to look forward to, not crying over spilt milk.

www.firechuckamato.com

I put that as just a random sidenote in my blog poll posting, but now it just became darn funny.

From www.firechuckamato.com this was just posted a few minutes ago:

WOW!
What started out as a joke among 20-30 people has gone crazy in the last 48 hours. As stated from the begining, I have a job, life, etc. This is becoming crazy and was never meant to be this large. Radio, newspapers, e-mails, calls, good and bad, I don't need it. This was always for and around a small group of friends. It was never meant to be a rallying point. People are writing me asking me MY opinion on things that I really have little knowledge. I am not a sportswriter and don't want to be. Thanks to everyone.

North Carolina State University is the Prozac of college football - always a good source of self esteem when you are feeling down about yourself.

Blog Poll Ballot

I'm going to try and do double duty today, combining my Blog Poll ballot with some commentary on the games that I watched or caught pieces of. It was somewhat of a predictable weekend with one or two huge upsets, and the truly big boys really came out to play. USC, VT and Florida all just crushed inferior competition (it smarts to say that), and LSU has a chance to make a big statement tonight.

#1 - University of Southern California
Since I had blown the $20 for ESPN gameplan for the GT debacle, I figured I might at least get some enjoyment out of watching this game - and it was fun for about 25 minutes. Leinart never really looked sharp all day, but their running game is just ridiculously good and so is their o-line. LenDale White is going to be a very good NFL back and Reggie Bush does stuff I can't even do on my x-box. Oh, and their defense played very well overall, despite being thinner than I'm sure Pete Carroll would like. Overall, a big win in a rough road environment.

#2 - Virginia Polytechnic Institue and State University
Average offense. Very average offense actually. Despite GT being completely out of the game emotionally and just going through the motions by the second quarter, the VT offense was still basically invisible. VT was a miserable 2-13 on 3rd downs, averaged only 2.2 yards per carry and gave up 3 sacks - against a GT defensive line missing every single projected starter from the beginning of the season by halftime.

Awesome defense and special teams. I don't think I've ever seen a 44 point blowout by special teams, but when GT punted out of their own end-zone 3 possesions in a row, that was it. The VT special teams are just insanely good. Jimmy Williams got abused by Calvin Johnson, but that's not a knock, nobody in college can guard him anyways. Other than that, GT's offense went in reverse most of the game. Totally dominating performance.

However, this team is one Marcus Vick 4 INT game away from losing to somebody they should not - they simply cannot run the ball well enough to make up for him playing poorly, and their offensive line is not good. That defense looks like the 2002 Tampa Bay Bucs out there though, and as long as Vick doesn't melt down they have a very good shot of playing in Pasadena.

#3 - University of Texas
Had the week off to prepare for Missouri - who I fully expect them to smoke. Missouri's defense is B-A-D.

#4 - Florida State University
I have them ranked above Florida and LSU because they have two huge wins under their belts, with Miami and BC. LSU and Florida have one good win each, and I'm biased towards the ACC. Actually, the three teams are basically even but I don't want ties in my ballot. Oh yeah, that defense scares in my dreams too.

#5 - University of Florida
Every Day Should be Saturday has a funny piece up about the College Gameday reaction to the UF win over Kentucky. They did what good teams are supposed to do - they beat Kentucky senseless. Yeah, their backups gave up some points in the second half - wah, wah, wah.

#6 - Louisiana State University
Play tonight - though all the major polls came out yesterday. College football doesn't make sense. The Saints came out flatter than month old Coke the past 2 weeks after that big emotional win in the opening game, lets see if they can avoid the same pitfall. That being said, it's a night game in the bayou, and LSU simply doesn't lose those. I expect Baton Rouge to be absolutely electric.

#7 - Georgia State Penitentiary, Athens.
Won on the road, in the SEC. Doesn't matter how you do it, it's still a good win. Shockley is going to just absolutely sabotage a game this season though, you can feel it.

#8 - Michigan State University
Most people are ranking Miami, OSU and Tennessee in this range - but I just don't feel good ranking teams that have already lost in the top 10. Drew Stanton is the real deal, and Michigan State absolutely destroyed the 'Fighting Zooks this weekend. This is a good football team. I also expect them to lose in the next two weeks and make me look retarded, John L. Smith teams are always bi-polar.

#9 - University of California
Extremely overated here. Or maybe not. Who knows, but they got a load of talent and Ayoob and Lynch look like a monster backfield on paper.

#10 - University of Alabama
I do not expect them to stay here, but they are undefeated, have a nice win on the road over a decent team and took care of business everywhere else. On my premise of "what have you done for me this year" they deserve to be here. Oh, and they have a decent shot of winning the SEC West - which is about two years away from challenging the Big XII North for the worst major college division in the NCAA.

#11 - University of Wisconsin
Ditto Alabama. Good team with good wins so far, but huge question marks. I don't trust Stocco at all (we were yelling at them for even thinking of throwing it on that last drive - he's brutal). But they beat a decent UNC team (not good, but not bad) on the road, and then Michigan at home - sad to say, not sure is more impressive. I don't think they'll finish in my ballot at #11, but right now they deserve to be here.

#12 - The Ohio State University
Cheatypants McSweatervest has finally settled on a QB, though too late for a national championship run most likely. Crushed Iowa yesterday, and look to be in the driver's seat for the Big 11 title - because you know Minnesota is about 2 weeks away from a 4 game losing streak.

#13 - University of Miami
Joel Klatt cannot possibly be in class this morning in Boulder. There is no way the human body can take that much punishment and still function the next couple of days. CU's offensive line will be facing charges next week for attempted murder in allowing the number of free shots that he ended up taking. Then he nearly got himself crushed flat when he tried to foolishly chase down the fumble return at the end of the game. Just ugly.

#14 - University of Tennessee
Phil Fulmer will probably run the ball 40 times tonight against LSU, despite their secondary being the weakness. It'll make up for throwing it 40 times against Florida and their weak d-line. If I was a 'Vol fan, I'd be drinking moonshine too - it'd numb the pain.

#24 - Notre Dame
I'm already tired of hearing about this team.

Memo to the news media - we don't all like Notre Dame, care about Notre Dame, or give a rat's behind about Notre Dame. It's just another decent school with a decent football program these days, there's nothing freaking special about the place. People act like it's Harvard's equilavent in academics, it's the only place that makes their athletes actually measure up in the classroom and that it's Miami on gameday. It's none of those, and anyone with 2 brain cells knows that. So stop blowing your smoke up our behinds and cover them like you do any other middle of the pack top 25 team (i.e about 1/10th of what you do now).

Signed,
Everyone

#16 - Arizona State University
This is a fun team to watch, that's for sure.

#17 - University of Minnesota
Other than Purdue (who's not that good) they have beaten absolutely no one. And yes, I realize I ranked 'Bama #10 on the strength of beating USC-East and Arkansas, but those are SEC teams and help towards the conference title game. This sets up perfectly for another mid-season collapse for the Gophers. Lawrence Maroney is a one man wrecking crew, however - and Glen Mason can sure coach a running game.

#18 - Boston College
I don't like this team. I don't like Boston College. I don't like Boston. I don't even like baked beans (ok, that one's a lie). Clemson is a decent football team and Death Valley is a tough place to play, that was a good win.

#19 - University of California, Los Angeles
They have run up a ton of points on bad football teams (here's looking at you, OU).

#20 - University of Virginia
I really don't want to have to rank this team because they've proven nothing yet, but they are undefeated, they do have a win in the conference and they beat a BCS school on the road (how absurd is it that you can call a win over Syracuse - "beating a BCS school on the road").

#21 - Georgia Institute of Technology
This is a homer pick, but GT has played very well this year so far and already beaten 3 bowl teams from last year - including a win at Jordan Hare. Of all the 1 loss teams, we still have one of the stronger resumes. Considering the events leading up to this weekend, a bad loss was somewhat predictable - and losing to one of the top 3 teams in the country on the road isn't the end of the world. This team is going to win 8 games or so this year, and has several future first day NFL draft picks. The difference in talent depth was on display - their special teams players are barely a step down from their starters, a luxury we simply don't have. Our tiny offensive line finally was exploited, completely destroying any ability to run any form of offense. The Chan Gailey haters are jumping all over the play calling - but there are no plays that work when your o-line is getting continually blown up, which is what happened. VT's front seven is as good as F$U's - and that's saying something. Those guys were awesome all day long.

Finally, what was hyped as the "matchup of the day" got no coverage afterwords: Calvin Johnson is a man child. Jimmy Williams couldn't cover him if they put shackles on his ankles and is the one VT defensive player I don't want to hear anything out of in post game remarks - he should be buying his d-line dinner after he gets named All-American, because C.J could have easily hung 200+ and another TD on him if Ball had any time to throw.

#22 - Iowa State University
Fugly, fugly, fugly. God the Big XII North is horrible. Iowa State is probably the best team in that division - and they aren't good.

#23 - Texas Tech University
If Tech beats up a decent KU team this weekend, I'll move them up. Actually - how about this: when Tech beats a true Division 1A team, I'll move them up. This schedule makes Bill Snyder blush, and it's part of what's wrong with college football.

#15 - Vanderbilt University
They have 2 wins in the SEC and are undefeated. This team deserves to be ranked, and as a matter of fact - since it's a better school than Notre Dame, enforces academics on their athletes better than Notre Dame and unlike Notre Dame is also undefeated this year - I'm very tempted to swap their rankings. Actually, I'm going to that.

#25 - West Virginia University
The Big East is still a BCS conference. Someone from there has to be ranked, I think. WVU almost lost to ECU though, and that's not good. At least they didn't get blown out by USF. Man, did I mention how bad the Big East is?

Oh, and I just wanted to point out - www.firechuckamato.com has got to be absolutely hopping this week. Getting outcoached by John Bunting is reasonable grounds for firing, and Jay Davis is in no way, shape or form and Division 1A quarterback. NCSU is just a disaster.

GT's run defense

If you want to feel good about our run "D" going into the VT game ... consider this:

UNC has put up 186 rushing yards on NCSU's fearsome defensive line - IN THE FIRST QUARTER!

Chickens on the loose ...

Hangin' a 'hundy

GT pounds Cumberland University 222-0 (Photo from Cumberland University)

There's been a lot of talk this week about Texas Tech hangin' a 'hundy on poor Indiana State (which is a horrible team, granted). And of course, any time people bring up the magic number of 100 - there is guaranteed to be talk of GT's 222-0 beatdown of poor little Cumberland University. Mentions of TT and the scoring records are up today with Most Valuable Network, Every Day Should Be Saturday and others mentioning that game.

There are a lot of rumors, stories and other such nonsense surrounding that win - so I thought I'd try and gather a clearer picture of what exactly happened that day in Atlanta, when John Heisman's Golden Tornado beat Cumberland silly. Much of this information (and all the pictures) are from the Cumberland University website dedicated to the game, though there is other information used as well.

Southern football at this point in time was a backwater, nobody gave it any national recognition. The football powers of the time were on the coasts (Penn, Cal, Harvard, Army, etc) and no southern team had ever won a national title. Coach Heisman had been at Clemson and Auburn before GT, and was determined to prove that southern football deserved recognition. GT was by far the dominant program in the south with Heisman at the helm (incidently hired by GT after his Clemson team beat Tech 73-0). When the Cumberland game was played in 1916, GT was in the midst of a 33 game winning streak - outscoring their opponents 1,599 to 99. That's a ridiculous average score of 48 - 3. Cumberland wasn't the only victim with a brutal score as well, since NCSU lost 117-0 in 1918. Heisman almost certainly used the opportunity to run up the score on Cumberland to get national attention - and it worked. Georgia Tech went undefeated the next year in 1917 and won the first national championship ever for a southern school.

In addition to that motive, Heisman was a sore loser from the previous year's baseball game with Cumberland - where it's strongly rumored they used ringers from a local minor league team (note: I cannot find any proof of this anywhere, but that's long been the story). Cumberland was signed on to play a football game with GT the next year, but during the offseason the president of Cumberland resigned and the new president cancelled the football team. The student manager tried to get out of all the contracts, but GT (and others) held firm. Heisman was going to get his pound of flesh. Cumberland ended up playing 4 or 5 games that season, but nobody clearly remembers any but the historic beating.

Some funny facts about the game:

#1 - The second half was cut short by 15 minutes, it could have been much worse than 222-0
#2 - Neither team had a first down, GT scored every time they had the ball
#3 - Despite not getting a first down and having -28 yards of offense, Cumberland actually had a 10 yard completion ... on 4th and 22.
#4 - The famous comment, "Pick it up yourself, you dropped it" after a fumble actually happened.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has a play-by-play of the game, which is also hosted on the Cumberland University site. It has some gems in it, including these:

"Spence kicked off for Tech to Murphy who returned 10 yards to the Cumberland 10. Murphy fumbled, Spence recovered for Tech at the 10.

Spence scored on the next play and converted. Tech 147 to 0."

and

"Preas kicked off for Tech to Gouger who returned 10 to the Cumberland 10. Gouger fumbled at the line of scrimmage and Preas recovered, running the ball in for a Tech score. Preas converted and it was 112-0."

I want to see TT's kicker try to pull something like that off tommorow.

(J.H Preas Jr. pictured to the right - he had a pretty nice game, to say the least).

In short, Mike Leach and his boys might hang a 'hundy on Indiana State tommorow. I don't think they will, but even if they do - they're still 122 short of what Heisman and his Golden Tornado managed to pile up in only 45 minutes of football. It's almost certain that that record is safe forever, mostly because a school as good as GT was at that point in time will never play anyone as bad as Cumberland was ever again. Indiana State is light years closer to TT than Cumberland was to Heisman's Tech teams.

There is a thread over at The Hive discussing the game that has some more information. It seems that the game isn't an official NCAA record because they didn't begin keeping official records until 1937, despite first organizing in 1906.

Even God hates Corso

In 2000, even God got tired of Corso's never ending blather and penchant for talking over anything good Herbstreit was about to say. When he picked VT to win the BCA classic against GT, and to score at least 45 points (well, as bad as some of O'Leary defenses were - maybe that wasn't such a bad prediction), his rental car was struck by lightning and ruined.

Over the years now Corso has tried to play this off as God exacting revenge on him for not picking VT to win the national championship in that same show - he even went so far as to say on the kickoff show for the next season, "Last year when I did not pick Virginia Tech, lightning hit my car. And I said 'I don't know what a Hokie is, but God is one of them.' So I'm going with God. I'm going with Virginia Tech." It's good to see that Corso even screws up what God says to him, because it was pretty clear the lightning was for picking against GT, not VPI.

So this is your chance at redemption here Corso - you better not screw it up again. If you pick VPI during the Gameday preview on Saturday morning - well, lets just hope Herbstreit and Fowler don't get caught in the blast wave.

Actually ... maybe Corso picking against GT wouldn't be such a bad thing after all, it's not like he's ever right to begin with - and if God takes action again, it's a win / win.

Truth

I will freely admit, I have never walked into any sporting event and been the best player on the field, and I certainly haven't walked into every sporting event I've ever been in being the best player on the field. So I don't know what the pressure feels like to contribute and deliver to that level of ability on a continual basis. That being said, when GT plays VPI this weekend in Blacksburg, Calvin Johnson will again be the best player on the field, just like he's been for every single football game he's probably played in his life.

He's the best wide receiver in the country right now, and on Saturday he'll have a chance to add to that legacy against a very good team. Great players play great in big games, and reputations are earned against top competition. VPI has a very good defense, and actually has the size in the defensive backfield to bother C.J on those jumpballs he seems to love. However, if we are going to win, he's going to have to have another monster game like he did that sweaty night in Clemson last year. That game was against another top flight corner, in another intimidating road environment, and he simply would not let Tech's offense run out of gas.

So far this season C.J has played well with 13 catches for 255 yards and 2 TD's, averaging an ungodly 19.6 yards per catch. However, he is yet to take a game by the throat and just dominate it in the Randy Moss / T.O sort of fashion. He looked like he might against Auburn, but then cramps slowed him down - and he was merely 'very good' against UNC and UCONN. I think this Saturday is the game he puts up something around 10 catches for 175 yards and a pair of TD's - his "Clemson game" for this year. Beating VPI is going to require our best players to have their best games, and C.J's best game is frighteningly good. I expect to see it on Saturday, and I'll be thrilled to watch the best Tech player since little Joe have his well deserved day in the sun.

For this to happen though, I really think Gailey needs to use a few more routes than the fade and'9' routes that we seem to get stuck in a rut on with C.J - that little 10 yard hitch against UCONN he took to the house is a great example of what a weapon his speed can be in the open field. Getting him the ball a few times on curls or slant routes with a chance to run after the catch can really help soften up the secondary a bit, and lets him use some of his other athletic attributes outside of his leaping. True post routes are always going to be difficult because he is constantly double covered with a safety providing inside help, but I can't remember watching us run an out-n-up or post-corner route ('8' route) at any point. C.J is by far the best weapon we have, it'd be a shame to not try and use him to the greatest effectiveness.

Avast! It's Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Ahoy! Today is National Talk Like a Pirate Day and to celebrate we're going with an all pirate blog for the day, ye scurvy bilge rats. The comment with the best buxom wench (in good pirate taste of course), the best way to hang a Hokie from a yardarm, or the best method in dragging a gobbler off the back of the poopdeck will win some booty. Argggggh.

Example: "VPI is going to walk the plank this weekend, after Reggie, Calvin and P.J stuff the turkeys back in the bung hole they came from."

Reggie Ball diagnosed with Viral Meningitis

This e-mail went out today on the GT campus:


The Athletic Association reported on Sunday, September 18, 2005, that Georgia
Tech quarterback Reggie Ball was hospitalized with viral meningitis. Reggie's
prognosis is excellent and doctors plan to release him on Monday, September
19. While not wanting to alarm the campus, we wanted to make sure that
everyone in our community was aware of what viral meningitis is. Viral
meningitis is the most common form of meningitis and is rarely fatal and
usually does not require antibiotics. It usually occurs during the summer
months and is less severe than other forms of meningitis. Viral meningitis
usually runs a course in three to five days without any specific treatment.

Bacterial meningitis is the more serious type of meningitis and can, in
some cases, cause severe long-term damage or death. No cases of bacterial
meningitis have been reported on campus at all.

If you would like more information on viral meningitis go to the Georgia
Tech Student Health Services Web site at:
http://www.health.gatech.edu/main/3_news/viral_meningitis.php
Students who may have any concerns about their health, should contact the
Student Health Center at 404-894-1423.

We wish Reggie a speedy recovery and continued good health to all of our
students, faculty, and staff.

Dr. Cindy Smith
Director, Student Health Services

Viral Meningitis is fairly benign, and Reggie should make a full recovery. Now the big worry will be whether or not he feels well enough to play on Saturday in Blacksburg. He's a tough kid (maybe too tough and confident for his own good at times) so I would expect him to get some snaps in practice this week and then a gametime decision on Saturday.

Getting Amped for Blacksburg, UT fans have bad teeth, and welcome to the ACC for BC

Despite the fact that I live in one of the craziest college sports mad towns in America (Lawrence, KS) and that it's a 5 minute walk to Allen Field House from my front door - our local cable doesn't carry ESPN U. Couldn't find a bar in town with it either.

Well, no loss - I have season tickets to KU football, so I went and enjoyed a beautiful evening in Memorial Stadium and watched KU beat a pretty good La. Tech team 34-14. Of course, I was sweating the GT score updates and wondering why Bennett was playing (not a good shock to see him in the boxscore). KU is 3-0 now, and has a pretty good defense. Unfortunately, their offense is just horribly bad and they are going to have a battle to get the 3 more wins they need for a bowl bid. If you want to impress your friends in the next couple of years, start talking about what a steal linebacker Nick Reid is going to be in the NFL draft, the guy is a ridiculous tackling machine.

Funniest moment of the night though, was when Jon and I showed up at our seats ... there was a student sitting there in full Volunteers gear (orange hat, t-shirt and tight jean shorts). He started to smile at us and obviously needed serious dental care (memo to Tennessee, dentists can repair rotten teeth now). If it wasn't so ridiculously stereotypical that the only UT fan in the entire state was suffering from poor dental hygiene and wore jean shorts, we would have laughed. Guy was really nice and cheered for KU while sweating out his score updates from The Swamp, but it was just too perfect.

6 days until the biggest GT game since ... 1998(?) and our starting QB is in the hospital. Chan Gailey has some brutal luck, and right now I just want Reggie to get healthy. Then beat VT.

Oh yeah - nothing says welcome to the ACC like getting your butt handed to you by F$U. Everybody else has been there, it's a write of passage. Welcome aboard, Boston College. It sure was funny watching 15k F$U fans celebrate as they cut up chunks of your FieldTurf to take home.

Thoughts and Prayers ...

Get well Reggie, the football team will still be there when you are healthy. Our thoughts and prayers with you and your family, and wish you a speedy recovery from whatever ails you. It's always scary to see someone young and healthy end up in the hospital, but the entire GT community is pulling for you.

Early Returns

11:40 AM (CST) -

I'm watching the early slate of games here on ESPN / ESPN2 after surviving Gameday and a clearly insane Lee Corso (really coach, Arkansas is going to take it to the 'Cocks today ...)

First impressions of UVa vs. Syracuse ... and man, they miss Walli Lundy. Al Groh looks like he's got the Run N' Shoot out there, down to his 3rd string RB. They are completely negating their own advantage with that massive o-line. If Lundy doesn't get healthy, this could be a long year for the 'Hoos - though Hagans is lethal.

Oregon State and Louisville is making me laugh that cackling Mr. Burns laugh. God Louisville is overated. They will still probably win this game, and might go 11-0, but that's really because they play absolutely no one. Right now the Beavers are just taking it to them.

Eastern Michigan is just getting blown out at the Big House. Not like they ever had a shot, but this was a horrible week to have to go to Ann Arbor.

Noon (CST) -

Amazing how things can change in 20 minutes. Hagans has thrown 2 INT's (including a BAD one in the end zone) and Louisville just piled 2 TD's onto Oregon State.

Ouch, UVa just muffed a punt near midfield - and now it's been overturned. Good Lord this game is hideously ugly. Virginia has got to get healthy in a hurry.

12:12 PM (CST) -

Texas A&M just kicked off against SMU at home - and already blocked a punt for a TD. I need an extra set of hands to juggle the remote here today and keep up on typing as well. Hagans threw another TD pass, but UVa still isn't running the ball at all.

Oh, ACC OFFICIATING IS ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE.

And wow, WVU just scored against Maryland. Poor Fridge, the Mountaineers own them.

12:30 PM (CST) -

I wish I could get a feel for how good UVa's defense is, but Syracuse is just brutal on offense. Hagans is doing his best to keep SU in the game though, 3 INTs in the first half so far.

Louisville is just woodshedding Oregon State now, that Bush kid is a freight train when he gets going. He doesn't have great vision and he's not too shifty - but once he gets moving he just lays the wood to folks.

Michigan is attempting to break GT's record for biggest win. Here's a hint Lloyd Carr - nobody is questioning your ability to blow out patsies, they want to see you beat some top 10 teams. You can stop making the scoreboard spin like some crazed hampster wheel today.

It's 14-6 aTm - though am I the only person who misses the old school white SMU helmets (like Dickerson wore) and not the new blue ones? The old ones were so sweet.

Random factoid of the day - Major Applewhite is the QB's coach at Syracuse. Good for him, and I bet he's a hell of a coach.

2:00 PM (CST) -

So we took advantage of the general suckiness of the early games to run to the grocery store to restock on brats and beer.

UVa is trying very hard to lose to Syracuse. This is horrible, and if I'm a snob I'm trying to find the nearest shower rod. Maryland still is absolutely hexed by WVU. I'll admit I was wrong about Louisville, they are just plastering OSU. I mean, dear God.

The good stuff comes on in about 30 minutes, I'll check back in then.

2:35 PM (CST) -

John just pointed out that Charlie Weis looks like Kurt Warner's wife (and he's a ND homer). Along with wondering what the over/under on the number of concealed weapons at William Brice this afternoon - he's on a roll at the moment.

btw - could Brodie Croyle look anymore like the preppy southern prick than he does? Where's the F250 with the camoflauge Browning sticker on the back and the polished brush guard on the front? You know he owns one. That being said, I hope 'Bama beats them by about 3 TD's.

2:55 PM (CST) -

Michigan State and Alabama are both up 7-0 early - all is right in the world. Oh, and newsflash to ABC, not even in the midwest do people want to watch Nebraska and Pittsburg. Put on Clemson and Miami and be done with it.

3:13 PM (CST) -

Notre Dame and USC-East have tied up their games, the devil is having his due. We've watched some of both Army v. Baylor and Pitt. v. Nebraska to make sure we're getting exposed to everything going on this weekend, but seriously - if you aren't an alumni of one of those 4 schools, there's no way anyone can expect you to actually watch more than 5 minutes.

We're sticking with Notre Dame v. MSU and Alabama v. USC-East today - that seems to be the safe bet.

4:03 PM (CST) -

We're going to be heading to the stadium for KU v. LaTech in about 30 minutes so last update for a while.

Alabama is doing the Lord's work against USC-East, and Clemson is looking good against UM (Whitehurst with a 65 yard run!). Even with their tightend holding onto a TD catch where he was hit so hard he was puking in the end zone, MSU is down to ND.

UCLA up on OU, Iowa is blowing out UNI ... nothing too exciting so far. aTm beat the crap out of SMU in probably the most lopsided game of the day.

UCONN Preview

I've been trying to set up "home and home" blog preview spots with opposing teams for this season, but could not find anyone really running a UCONN football blog to write a preview for me. Over on Uconnfan.com though, dsturdy5 wrote a brief breakdown for the message board crowd.

Follow this link to read his comments.

There's a couple of interesting things going into the game - and one big one that worries me.

#1 - First off, they have a young QB making just his 3rd start (this seems to be a theme for this season so far) and depend mostly on their two outstanding RB's. GT's strength defensively is stopping the run, so this matches up well for us.

#2 - Their defensive backfield is unproven and small, and should have a rough time against C.J and Bilbo who will be able to physically dominate them.

#3 - They have a great return man in Larry Taylor. Honestly, this scares me because our kick coverage has been so poor the first two games. The last thing we need in a game against an inferior opponent is to allow them to break a few big plays in the return game.

(Larry Taylor running free - lets try to avoid this)

In reality, GT is too good of a team to lose to UCONN, but they aren't a cupcake along the lines of Eastern Northern Girl's Preperatory School or some of the other Little Debbie products that teams have been known to play OOC. Tech will have to show up and play well to win this one, but I can't see the senior leaders allowing a letdown to the degree it would take to lose to the Huskies.

Vegas baby, Vegas!

Every other college football blogger seems to feel the need to post their picks for key games for the upcoming week, hoping to become the internet version of Jimmy the Greek or some such nonsense. I’m not a professional picker, and I thought Iowa would roll Iowa State last week, so I’m not sure I’d pay attention to anything I post on this subject – but I’m going to give it a shot anyways. So here’s my picks and comments on this weeks upcoming top 25 games. I’d do the other ACC games, but does anyone really care who wins VMI@Duke (Duke, btw) or East Carolina@Wake Forest (ECU)? I’m going to hope not.

#1 USC vs. Arkansas
Bad news for Arkansas, USC is better than Vanderbilt. This game is USC’s home opener, and unless Leinart tears an Achilles during his ball room dancing class that Gameday was denied access to, this game has the potential to get very ugly. And the pig sooie fans calling for Houston Nutts job need to be tranquilized, right now.

Pick: USC

#2 Texas vs. Rice
Too bad this isn’t a baseball game, it’d be pretty darn good. Instead, Vince Young might break 600 yards of total offense.

Pick: Texas

#4 VPI vs. Ohio
Marcus Vick hasn’t sold me yet, but he won’t need to this week. Ohio might have beaten Pitt, but that pretty much just showed how bad Pitt is, and they will be lucky to score this week on VT’s filthy good defense.

Pick: Hokies

#5 Tennessee at #6 Florida
The week’s biggest matchup, and traditionally the game that defines who wins the SEC East. Also a battle of the two biggest white trash fanbases in college football (honorable mentions to UGA and OU). Florida fans wear jean shorts, Tennessee fans have one tooth they share between themselves like the three witches and their eyeball in Macbeth. In the battle of bad fashion against bad hygiene, bad fashion is slightly preferable.

Pick: Florida

#7 (The school that shall not be named) vs. Louisiana Monroe
There’s no way the leghumpers lose this, unfortunately.

Pick: thUGA

#8 F$U at Boston College
Not many things make me happier than Florida State losing. One of those things is Boston College losing. This game has the makings of an epic 8-3 thriller with brutally unwatchable offensive play. I’ll stick to catching the score updates on the ESPN bottom line and save myself the agony of watching this. I think F$U running backs have a tiny chance to actually score, I’m not sure BC could score on F$U’s defense if they had 8 quarters.

Pick: F$U

#9 Ohio State vs. San Diego State
On the bright side, OSU should win easily so no Buckeye players will get any hate mail this week. On the down side – OSU is going to win.

Pick: OSU

#10 Notre Dame vs. Michigan State
Drew Stanton is really good, and the nation will get to meet him this weekend. Notre Dame is the feel good story (or feel bad, depending on how you stand) of the year so far, but MSU is a very strong team and they seem to own ND in South Bend.

Pick: Michigan State

#11 Louisville vs. Oregon State
Louisville is overrated. Good for them, they get to play a Pac-10 team.

Pick: UofL

#12 Purdue at Arizona
I want to pick an upset here, I really do. Actually, I’m going to do it. Make sure to laugh at me on Sunday when Purdue wins by 50.

Pick: ‘Zona

#13 Miami at #20 Clemson
Miami cannot start out 0-2. There’s just no way that can happen. But Clemson looks good, beat them last year in Coral Gables and Kyle Wright is still a huge question mark. Even with all that, I’d still pick Miami. But now word is out that Tyrone Moss has a severe leg bruise and might not even play. Clemson can score some points, I’m not sure Miami can.

Pick: Clemson

#14 Michigan vs. Eastern Michigan
Coach Carr can pound the directional schools with the best of them, and Big Blue will be out for blood.

Pick: Michigan

#15 California vs. Illinois
Overated trumps absolutely terrible.

Pick: Cal

#16 Georgia Tech vs. UCONN
More on this game later.

Pick: Yellow Jackets, duh

#18 Arizona State vs. Northwestern
Sam Keller might throw for 500 yards.

Pick: Arizona State

#19 Texas Tech vs. Sam Houston St.
Admit it, that gimmicky offense is fun as hell to watch. Hicks is the best WR in the country not name Calvin. TT is extremely reliable about blowing out inferior opponents and this should be no different.

Pick: TT

#21 Oklahoma at UCLA
Everybody seems to be picking the upset here. I just don’t see it, even though OU really sucks. Adrian Peterson seems like he’s just going to will this team to victories this year, and should be able to do it against a UCLA team that’s getting far too much press for it’s own good.

Pick: OU

#22 Iowa vs. Northern Iowa
Even Iowa’s backup QB can complete passes against Northern Iowa. Iowa will probably drop out of the top 25 here soon, but not this week.

Pick: Iowa

#23 Fresno State at Oregon
I don’t like Oregon. At all. And those uniforms are unbelievably bad. That being said, they win this game.

Pick: Oregon

#25 Virginia at Syracuse
Syracuse couldn’t score at a sorority party in Athens. Even though key players for UVa are banged up (Lundy and Brooks especially) they still have plenty to beat a truly bad SU team.

Pick: Snobs

The Worst Sports Injury Ever

PAINFUL TACKLE FOR PLAYER

(Thanks to Kanu over at Every Day Should Be Saturday for pointing this one out)

Big Play Ability

One thing about Chan Gailey's offense that has bothered me to an extent over the past few seasons is the lack of big play ability (or taking chances for those big plays). Something encouraging to me in the beginning of the season has been the teams ability to get down the field and break large gains - and not just to CJ.

In the UNC game, GT had 221 yards on 6 plays - each one of them over 25 yards and only 2 of them to Calvin. The ability to have game breaking players at both WR spots, the RB and the QB is going to make this offense much tougher as the season wears on, and gives us the ability for that one big play that can make the difference in close conference games.

P.J Daniels - 42 yard run
D. Bilbo - 48 yard TD catch
D. Bilbo - 26 yard catch
R. Ball - 33 yard catch (Bilbo on the WR option / throwback play)
C. Johnson - 43 yard catch
C. Johnson - 29 yard catch

That's a pretty impressive list from one game, and looks more like something F$U in the late 90's would have done than anything our grind-it-out style of offense has generated in the past few years. I, like every GT fan, would have loved to see Chan grind out the end of the 4th quarter on the ground, but I'm willing to overlook that if him opening up the playbook a bit is going to give us continual large gains during the course of games. This year's offense is capable of winning quite a few games, and especially with Johnson and Bilbo on the edges playing the way they are right now.

Self righteous people, this is for you

Hope you recover fully, Javon

Next time you read someone ripping a player, especially an NFL player, holding out to get paid what he thinks he's worth, remember this picture. Javon Walker took a ton of flack for holding out and trying to get paid like the big time wideout he was last season. His contract paid him only $515,000 this season, a far cry from the millions of dollars other players his ability level are paid. $515,000 is a lot, but it's not enough to leave you set for life - he will have to work after his football career and probably for far less than he's making.

So he had a chance to get paid, and he used every bit of leverage he could get. Too bad for him that even his own teammates piled on, led by Brett Favre. The Packer's public shareholders wouldn't cave in. Favre said he'd get paid if he just showed up and played. So he came out and played, and tore his ACL in the first game. It's very possible that Walker will never come back from his injury anywhere near the player he was before. His days as a true #1 WR in the NFL are possibly over.

As Michael Irvin said on Monday Night Prime Time tonight, is Brett Favre going to make sure Javon Walker gets his money now? Or has he just been completely screwed by his teammates, fans and organization - and don't say the Packer's are going to stick by him, they'll cut him the moment they find out he can't run like he used to. So the next time you self-righteously tear into a player for wanting a new deal, stop yourself and remember Walker riding off the field on a golf cart, his chances of setting himself and his family up for life probably dashed away in the 5 seconds it took to run a go route down the sideline.

Buzz vs. Cocky

Buzz held on and won his opening match of the Capital One Bowl Mascot challenge against the plastic shoulderpad wearing "Purdue Pete" and now is matched up against "Cocky" from USC-East for week #2.

Now, seriously - Cocky is one of the lamest mascot's in college sports. First off he's a dead rip-off of KU's "Big Jay", except with a skirt. If it wasn't for the slightly different color of red, you couldn't tell them apart. Which brings up an interesting point, is there anything original that USC-East has ever done? Their grand entrance to a football game is to the tunes of "2001 A Space Odyssey", their football tradition is one of uninterrupted sucking, and they rip their mascot off from someone else's.

Separated at birth?

To cap it all off, they have one of the most delusional and retarded (in the medical sense) fanbases in all of southern sports. Newsflash USC-East fans, you have never been good. Ever. You won't be good this year. You won't be good next year. You won't suddenly develop a successful tradition of a winning football program just because Lou Holtz shows up. Oh sorry, because Steve Spurrier shows up. When you hire a washed up and semi-retired Bob Stoops 20 years from now, YOU ARE STILL GOING TO SUCK. I know you so desperately want to be UGA or UT that it hurts, but you gotta face reality. Some people in life just aren't destined to be anything but failures, and in this case that seems to be South Carolina.

So anyways, go here to vote for Buzz and keep reminding USC-East of it's place in the world. Dead Last.

Wearing red to a football game ...

I just got back from tailgating starting at 9am, wearing red the entire time. I sat in a sea of beer and deer fans wearing red. Everyone of them. I did the tomahawk chant at a football game, while wearing red. I sat in a historic old stadium, absolutely ear-splitting loud jammed with 77,000 who were suddenly all my best friends. Many of them were wearing jean shorts, and even some camo. There were mullets out of control. In this middle of this, I drank beer, ate brats and screamed my head off.

I did all this, and didn't feel a single twinge of guilt. Missouri and Kansas residents wearing red are pretty cool people, and I challenge you to find a better game day experience ANYWHERE for any sport that is better than Arrowhead Stadium on a fall Sunday. Oh, and the Chiefs just crushed the J-E-T-S 27-7 by just running the football right down their throats. Key Fox played well on special teams and on defense (he's backing up Kendrell Bell, a leghumper but a good one).

I'm tired and slightly sunburned, I'll watch the GT game from yesterday and put my thoughts up later, though I'm pretty freaking stoked that we managed to avoid that hideous trap game we've seemed to have the habit of stumbling on.

Evidently, Chan Gailey reads this blog

I told you all to get on the "Free Damarius Bilbo" bandwagon before it began to fill up. Well, after today there might not be any room. Chan Gailey and Reggie Ball certainly hopped on the bandwagon today, and having two big time receivers is going to make this offense very dangerous.

Last Game (@UNC): 8 Catches for 130 yards and 1 TD, 1 completion for 33 yards
Season: 10 catches for 151 yards and 1 TD, 1 completion for 33 yards

Hott Off the Presses! The Big East is terrible.

Somehow this horrific collection of teams is guarenteed a BCS berth, which is beyond me. Seriously, isn't the Mountain West Conference a better football conference now?

Ohio 16 - Pitt 10

Wedded Bliss (or not)

My wife's friend is getting married tommorow. Evidently this is more important on the "keeping your marriage together" scoreboard than getting to watch UNC@GT and UT@OSU - I don't know who made these marriage rules, but it's obviously a female plot for world domination. And lastly, it brings up the question of how good a man this guy can be if he allowed his wedding to be scheduled on a Saturday during the college football season. Look, you have from April until August to get married - it's designed that way. There's great weather and no sports and there's a reason everyone else gets hitched during that time frame. Actually, maybe I should object during the service and point this out ...

So, I'm going to be reduced to watching the score updates on my Blackberry - and I've been contemplating what's the worst scenario.

1). Georgia Tech blows UNC out early

If it's 21-0 early in the first half, then I can keep the Blackberry holstered and just enjoy the wedding reception, at least in theory. Instead, I'll probably be rushing to try and find a TV to see if I can catch P.J Daniels running loose in the UNC secondary. There's nothing more enjoyable than watching your team lay down a good old fashioned beating, and I'd be missing it.

2). Close game all the way through

Obviously this would be miserable, constantly refreshing for a score update. By the end of the reception I'll be a nervous wreck (no pun intended) and randomly making strange noises in the back corner of a room as all kinds of horrific scenarios involving Reggie Ball throwing a late INT for a touchdown run themselves through my conciousness. Actually, come to think of it, this might be worse for my marriage than just skipping the wedding entirely.

3). UNC blows out GT

If it's 21-0 Tarheels in the second quarter, there's a good chance I'm going to just stop checking the score updates and drown my sorrow in the reception bar. This ALWAYS has a bad ending, especially at a wedding where you don't know a single person. I can just see my wife pointing me out to her friends, "oh yeah, that's my husband - the drunk one in the corner crying".

So really, is there a situation where this doesn't turn out to be a total mess? Oh, and is it considered rude to be checking your mobile device during the wedding, or do I have to wait until the reception starts before busting it out? Why isn't this stuff published in book form, some "Guy's guide to surviving social events while married" or something like that?

Free Damarius Bilbo!

Besides having the best name in the receiving corps, the guy is a terrific athlete. I've always felt that the fact we haven't been able to utilize his prodigeous physical skills at all in the time he's been at Tech has been one of the bigger failings of the current staff. I know he didn't work out as a QB, and then last year was learing to play WR behind a pretty solid collection of talent on the depth chart. So this year, I was thrilled to see him catch a few balls at Auburn and looks to be much more involved in the offense.

I'm starting the official "Free Damarius Bilbo!" fanclub, and will be keeping a running tally of his stats for the season here on the site. Hopefully we can see him getting his hands on the ball in the passing game, and would it hurt so much to let him return kicks? It's not like we've got anyone else setting the world on fire and he's probably the best option we've got. I know WR isn't very deep and they don't want to risk injury, but can't you see him running through an arm tackle and taking a punt to the house this season?

Last game (@AU): 2 catches for 21 yards
Season: 2 catches for 21 yards

A Tarheels' view on their team

Thanks again to Heelsblog for providing an excellent overview of their team for Jacket fans. If you wish to check out what I had to say about our Yellow Jacket team, it should be up shortly on their blog. Hopefully this is something I can do each week to have an idea of what to expect from out opponents.

---

Despite pessimism from the media, Tar Heel fans have reason to
believe this year's team will prove to be a solid one. Yes, there are
questions, but, for the first time in the John Bunting era, there are
more answers.


The Tar Heel offensive line returns three starters from a team that
finished second in the ACC in total offense. Skip Seagraves returns
from a foot injury and rising star sophomore Ben Lemming stepping in
at center for All-ACC Jason Brown, now with the Baltimore Ravens.

Senior Matt Baker has been waiting for this season for four years.
Studying behind Darian Durant, Baker has proven to be a capable
backup in spot duty. Now it's his turn to be the man, though. While
not quite the athlete Darian was, Baker has a cannon and is a good
decision-maker. But again, this time it's for real. Is he ready for
his close-up?

The big questions for the Tar Heels come in the backfield. Projected
starter Ronnie McGill, a junior, tore a pectoral muscle this summer,
and won't even begin drills until October. He may redshirt. LSU
transfer sophomore Barrington Edwards was expected to be the natural
candidate to step in, but it looks as though freshman James 'Cooter'
Arnold will take the first hand-off on Saturday. Arnold was all-state
at both tailback and defensive back his senior year, so we know he's
an athlete. That's about all we know at this point. Sophomore Vince
Wilson chose to transfer. Other possibilities include freshmen Richie
Rich and Nick Starcevic.

Senior Rikki Cook will start at fullback, taking over duties from
Madison Hedgecock. Cook is a big bruiser, and could get more carries
than a typical fullback given the questions behind him.

I don't think it's the fan in me saying that the Tar Heel receiving
corps, on paper, could be the best in the ACC. 5-8 ball of fire
Jawarski Pollock returns for his final campaign, and will likely
break the school record for career catches. He's not afraid to go
across the middle and take a hit. Senior Derrelle Mitchell and junior
Jesse Holley provide big targets for Baker, and junior Mike Mason is
the speed option. Senior walk-on Wallace Wright will surprise, and
6-5 freshman Kenton Thornton could see the field as well.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Tar Heels return 9 regular
starters, with Chase Page, a senior who missed last year with a hand
injury sliding in at defensive tackle, and senior Mahlon Carey taking
over at Strong Safety for the departed Gerald Sensabaugh.

By all accounts, the defense should be much improved. They have to
be. With a year under their belts and Page (who would have started
last year) returning), the defense has nowhere to go but up. Carey
has contributed at linebacker, safety and even running back in
previous seasons, so he knows the field very well. He beat out
sophomore Trimane Goddard for the starting job Saturday, but the
Heels have a lot of friendly competition and depth in the secondary.

Junior Larry Edwards and Senior Jeff Longhany have battled all spring
and preseason for the Strongside linebacker spot, with Edwards slated
to get the nod Saturday.

It's not a stretch to say the defense looks the best it's been since
2001. How that translates to the field remains to be seen. To say
that a defense that ranked 109th in the nation in 2004 has improved
is not saying a whole lot, but the experience and a few coaching
changes give fans hope for improvement.

I think the Jackets are riding a wave after a big win over Auburn,
and should have the Wreck fans out in full force. The Heels will be
seeing live action for the first time, and it won't be against
William & Mary.

Upcoming New Feature

Starting this week with Heelsblog, I am going to be trying to bring in a blogger from our upcoming opponent to give an analysis of what their team looks like. I will be writing the same sort of preview for them. Hopefully this will add a little insight into each upcoming opponent from a fan's perspective and give a few talking points leading up to the game.

Look for this sometime today or tommorow, and make sure to check out Heelsblog for other UNC related information.

Tarheels up next

Georgia Tech lost to UNC last year. Badly. So why on earth are they 13 point favorites right now for this years game - against a team that finished 3rd in the ACC last year? (Doubt they actually finished 3rd? Click here.) Why is John Bunting on the hot seat? Is the world going crazy?

Well, first off, last year's Tarheel squad is possibly the worst team to ever finish 3rd in the history of the ACC. They were outscored by 10pts a game - giving up an amazing 36.1 ppg. It's not like their offense was putting up Fun N' Gun numbers either, scoring just 26.6 ppg. Well, maybe they turned people over a lot? Not really, UNC lost 19 turnovers and only forced 15. They gave up an astounding 446 ypg and even worse, 218 ypg on the ground and 31 rushing TD's . They did absolutely nothing better than their opponents, and had only a single First Team All-ACC performer (Center Jason Brown)

The Tarheels absolutely stunk up the joint in their 3 out of conference games. They started off the year giving up 38 points to William and Mary(!) in a come from behind win. They were shut out 34-0 by Louisville in a game that they were lucky wasn't 222-0. They lost to Utah 46-16. Utah and Louisville were good teams, but a 3rd place team in a BCS conference shouldn't lose by a combined score of 80-16 to anyone, especially when one of those games was at home.

They saved the best for last in conference play though - getting bombed 56-24 by UVa and 38-16 by F$U. In none of those 5 games (3 ooc and 2 in conference) did they even look like a team that deserved to be on the same field with a BCS conference opponent, this was Baylor or Vanderbilt level futility.

So how on earth did they finish 3rd in the conference despite looking so horrible? By picking off Miami, Georgia Tech, NCSU at home - and beating perennial doormats WFU and Duke on the road. In a wild year of parity in the ACC, 5 wins was enough for 3rd despite the fact that UNC was absolutely lost on the road and had only 3 games all year they played well in (maybe 4, but everyone looks good against Duke).

That's not to say they didn't play great in those 3 big games. In fact they played very well, which is what is so surprising. For 3 games, all at home, they looked like world beaters - getting every bounce, every call and capitalizing on that by playing inspired defense and offense combined with great special teams. UNC deserved to win all 3 of those games, they were the better team on the field each time. Not even Sybil and her 16 personalities looked as different from weekend to weekend as the 'Heels did.

Missing their entire backfield from last year, including record setting QB Darian Durant - which UNC team shows up in Atlanta next weekend? Considering it's on the road, against a very aggressive defense and a solid running game, I'm going to say Saturday's version of UNC more resembles the team which lost 46-16, 34-0 and 56-24 than the one that beat GT last year in the friendly sunshine of Keenan Stadium.

I think Tech wins 20-10, because with Gailey's offense it is basically impossible to run up the score. If Tenuta's defense forces 5 turnovers from a new QB again though, it could be really ugly. P.J and Choice might combine for 250 yards rushing against what is a very porous defensive line and GT should have the ball about 40 minutes of the game. I'll do a position breakdown later this week, but there isn't a lot of talent in Chapel Hill right now on the defensive side of the ball, and just a couple of mistakes out of a first time starter at QB will probably be much more than they can overcome.

gtsports.blogspot.com

Somehow I got a link on the Georgia Tech Sports Blog ... thanks for the mention. I'm trying for something a little different here, GT Sports Blog is the best site on the net for Georgia Tech related news and information, I go there before ajc.com each morning because I swear he beats the staff writers to most of the stories. Wreck Ramblin (Goldtimer's blog) is the best source of information on the general gameday experience, personal photographs, etc. There's no way I could do any of that better.

What I'm shooting for is a more informal site with my impressions of college sports in general, though from a decided GT slant. My friends come from all the southeast (and here in Lawrence, KS where I am now) so we are all over the place on our viewpoints. One of them is even a real life University of Kansas football fan, which I didn't think actually existed. Yes, they do play football.

So anyways, hopefully my site can fit in with the Georgia Tech Sports Blog and Wreck Ramblin and help provide a funny and sometimes accidentally insightful addition to the GT sports blog collection.

Oh, and on real sports commentary. #11 is too high for GT right now, but thanks for the dap there Mr. Mandel. Now please admit that Chan Gailey isn't the worst coach in America and that you were a dolt for writing that in the first place. Other than that, I'm thrilled to see us in the top 25 for the first time since I was a student and Joe Hamilton was carving up defenses. That's great to see, and a good sign that Chan has the program on the right road.

Best player nobody saw this weekend.

So, I was getting some work done early Sunday morning and flipped on CSTV to catch the replay of ECU v. Duke. I'm assuming that unless you actually went to the game, I'm one of about 5 other people that watched any of it.

Now, neither team is what you call "good" but it was an entertaining game. ECU has a JUCO transfer WR that nobody in big time college football is going to notice until he's in the NFL. Like Terrence Copper a couple of years ago (now with the Dallas Cowboys) he's got nice hands, body control and runs solid routes.

Aundrae Allison spent the past two years at Georgia Military Academy, and had a heck of a first game for the Pirates - 10 catches for 163 yards and 1 TD despite having a notoriously innacurate QB throwing to him.


Allison hauling in a catch on 4 and 5 against double coverage. Photo courtesy of http://accfootballphotos.com

8 months of hype re-arranged in one weekend

Well, the first weekend of college football is finally winding down. Thank god it got here, I'm not sure I could take much more hype over the "Gang of Five, er Six, er Four" or how bad space aged Boise State was going to beat the stone aged 'Dawgs, or how Oklahoma and Auburn were merely reloading, not rebuilding, or how bad Georgia Tech's O-Line was. I also don't think I could have taken one more week of blogs and articles about how soft USC's schedule is - wait, I got another 4 months to go of reading that, so never mind. So, what did the first weekend actually show us?

Georgia Tech is pretty good.

I've been telling people for months that this year's GT team had the talent to make some waves in the ACC. With 3 of the conference's best skill position players in Ball, Johnson and P.J Daniels to go along with a physical and fast defense all that was needed was for some sort of development along the offensive line. On Saturday night, the Tech o-line manhandled a very good Auburn defense. If they can continue to play anywhere near that level for the rest of the season, Tech can win 9 games and challenge for the Coastal Division championship (though winning at either Blacksburg or Miami is going to be ridiculously tough).

Oh, and Mike Cox - you're an f'ing stud.

Auburn and Oklahoma are rebuilding, not simply reloading

I guess you can't just gather a bunch of 5 star recruits and expect them to win by themselves. Experience and coaching might have a tiny bit to do with it. Auburn's young d-line got pushed around, their young backs aren't ready for big time football and even though my wife thinks Brandon Cox is hot, he's still a young QB not capable of carrying a team yet.

Oklahoma is far worse off. Dear Lord they looked bad, the defensive losses have hurt, and their quarterbacking situation is an unmitigated disaster. I have no idea if they are going to break 150 yards passing in any game this year, unless A. Peterson takes a screen to the house for them. TCU basically stacked the box against them and completely shut them down. Texas might beat them by 50.

For all the hype about these complex offenses, it's still about defense

Hey Boise, it's called a defense. I know you've never seen one before. Heck, even Louisville had problems against Kentucky - and no, Rajon Rondo wasn't playing defensive back. The big games of the weekend all focused on defense, with Georgia, Georgia Tech, NCSU, Virginia Tech, TCU and both teams in this hideous F$U v. UM matchup I'm currently watching playing a very nasty physical brand of defense. I would add the WVU v. Syracuse game to that list, but really ... those offenses just flat out suck. Heck, how many future NFL defensive ends play in the ACC alone? 6? 7? Whoever wins it all this year is someone capable of putting a hurt on someone.

Ugh, Miami and Florida State are a combined 2 for 22 on 3rd downs right now. Charlie Ward and Bernie Kosar just fainted.

The Pac-10 (outside of USC) is bad. Really bad.

Washington lost to Air Force. Oregon really tried to lose to Houston. Jeff Tedford just called me on my cell to see if I wanted to play QB for him. Quite honestly Arizona State is the only team other than USC that wouldn't go 0-8 in the SEC or ACC right now. I know, I know ... people don't watch Pac-10 football, but it's not because of the time zones or whatever nonsense - it's because THEY AREN'T ANY GOOD. For that matter, their basketball sucks too, but that's another part of the year. Stick to volleyball, swimming and chick softball - leave the football to people actually capable of playing it.

The Big XII schedule is as bad as the Pac-10's teams

Props to Texas and Texas A&M for going on the road to play tough games this year. Shame on the rest of the Big XII for scheduling every boy's teaching school they could find. Missouri played a road game in Kansas City against Arkansas State? That's a road trip I'd love to take. I heard UGA is scheduling a "road" game in Atlanta against Tennessee Chattanooga next year. What a joke that would be. Actually, UT-C would be a better team than Arkansas State. Oh, and if you schedule Division 1-AA teams for your home openers, at least beat them by 57 like Texas. Don't try to lose to them. Somehow Nebraska, Kansas State and Kansas forgot that lesson.

Stewart Mandell picked the wrong ACC coach as the worst in the country

NCSU just got another personal foul while I was typing this. Seriously, Chuck Amato - take off the sunglasses, take off the red shoes, and put some DISCIPLINE into your team. Watching NCSU is just painful, they have so much obvious talent and yet they just inevitably self destruct in front of your eyes. Last night was like watching an Instant Classic replay of last year with that team. There's a ton of talent in Raleigh now, but that program isn't headed anyhwere until Amato either shapes it up or gets shipped out of town.

Last quick comments

• Tennessee has a QB controversy.
• Ohio State might have one as well.
• Florida State and Oklahoma really don't have QB controversies because they don't have QB's.
• Omar Jacobs is for real.
• So is Lawrence Maroney.
• Louisville is overated, but the Big East sucks, so it might not matter.
• Both Clemson and Texas A&M are good, so is Notre Dame - heck the Golden Domers might be the only chance to beat USC this year.
• Chris Leak might throw for 4,000 yards.
• Duke and Wake Forest might combine for 3 wins.
• Some numbskull said a parapalegic could rush for 1,000 yards behind Miami's line. At this rate, Kyle Wright might BE a parapalegic if he gets sacked one more time.

HTML Sucks

Or maybe I just suck at it. Just checking to make sure the formatting for the blog is actually readable and makes some kind of sense.

Oh yeah, testing 1, 2, 3.