Gravley's Pig Pickin' Week 4

It's a pretty thin deal around here for college football this weekend. Only Duke and Wake Forest are playing on the D-1 level. How about those unbeaten Deacs from Wake Forest. They are one of 16 teams in division one that are still undefeated. Here are some reasons why they are 4-0 and are sure to improve to 5-0 after they host Liberty this Saturday.

The Deacons have outscored their opponents 51-3 in the second half and 24-0 in the fourth quarter
- Wake Forest is allowing just 9.8 points per game (11th nationally)
- Wake Forest's red zone defense has been excellent. The Deacs have allowed their opponents to score just 3 touchdowns and 2 field goals out of 13 opportunities
- The Deacons lead the ACC with 14 sacks.

Virginia and Duke are 2 of the WORST offensive teams in college football...at least from a scoring point of view and that's what offenses are designed to do, right??? The Blue Devils haven't scored in 2 of their losses and average 4 points per game. That ranks 117th out of 199 D-1 schools. Virginia is ranked 113th in scoring at 11 points per game. Both are playing freshmen QB's...Duke has true frosh Thaddeus Lewis. Virginia's Jameel Sewell is a redshirt freshman. Both defenses have surrendered a shade over 300 yards per contest. What a great opportunity for Duke to win an ACC game. They have won only 3 ACC games in the 21st century!!!

NC Central travels to Bowie State for a rematch of the CIAA title game won last year by the Eagles. Coach Rod Broadway spoke early in the year about needing Adrian Warren to return at QB for Central to get where they need to go. Freshman QB Stadford Brown has done nothing to lose his spot under center. He leads the CIAA in passing with 214 yards per game. The match-up between the Eagles and Bulldogs features the top 2 scoring defenses in the CIAA.

BONUS COVERAGE
Since NC State and Florida State will play before my next blog, I want to point out the obvious. Chuck Amato is 3-3 against the Noles and with the win over Boston College, the Wolfpack has some renewed excitement. Nothing like the Noles to help bring it to an even higher peak. Wolfpack QB Daniel Evans played well in his 1st start against the Eagles but he'll need to make quicker decisions against a fast, aggressive FSU pass rush. Against BC, Evans' passing percentage was hurt by a few receivers who ran wrong routes. Can't have that against FSU. It will also help if they have Darrell Blackman back...both as a receiver and kick returner. It'll be a faster paced game than the one against Boston College.

Till next week, enjoy the pig...
Jeff Gravley

Tuesday Clean Up

Another week of the National Football League is done and it's time to sift through the rubble to find the nuggets of goodness as well as this week's Top 5/Bottom 5...

-The Panthers might not admit it, but the season was basically saved on Sunday. There have only been three teams since 1990 that have started the season 0-3 and managed to make the playoffs. Steve Smith was back on the field for Carolina and that seemed to make a world of difference in the Panthers' offense. 19 points in two games? That's not going to get it done. 26 points in Tampa? Welcome back, Steve Smith. His presence pulled away a lot of attention and freeing up Keyshawn Johnson for a 7 reception performance with 97 yards and 2 TDs(one on the slowest reverse ever, but who's complaining?). Speaking of not admiting things...I don't care what Johnson says about his return to Tampa; He loved every minute of beating the Bucs.

-John Kasey hit field goals from 51, 50, 49 and 46 yards against the Buccaneers. There is no doubt that the guy is money in the bank, but can a legit case be made that John Kasey is the best Carolina Panther in the team's short history? Just wondering...

-Jake Delhomme deservers a shout out for the 12-yard scramble on 4th and 7 to set up Kasey's game-winning field goal. It was a key play, but more than that, Delhomme proved that he is in fact faster than continental drift. How about that? I owe my dad a beer on that one.

-Here's a quote that you might enjoy from a pre-season story in the Seattle Times about Shaun Alexander gracing the cover of this year's Madden NFL '07:

"I don't believe in curses," Alexander says. "I'm always the person that goes against the grain, the baseball player who grabs the random bat. Once you start believing in curses, you have to think about what sock you put on, how many times you stepped on a crack, did you pass a black cat, did you walk under a ladder, did you open an umbrella in the house. After that you get worn out."

Yeah...no such thing as the "Madden Curse". I'm sure that Alexander suffering a broken bone in his foot is completely "unrelated". EA Sports must be stopped. How many football seasons must those computer dorks wreck before they've had their pound of flesh for being picked on by jocks in high school?!?!?

-After being pasted in Seattle by the Seahawks(and their geek-cursed running back), the New York Giants TE Jeremy Shockey laid the blame for the 42-30 defeat on the coaching staff. According Shockey, the G-Men were "out played and out-coached." Head coach Tom Coughlin had a brief chat with Shockey on Monday and the tight end then further explained his comments on the blowout to the assembled media. Shockey seems to say a lot of things...strangely, he never seems to say the word "sorry". Shockey was just running down his coaching staff because he wants to win and he's a competitor. This, by the way, is what personal accountability sounds like. But never mind any of that. Nothing at all to see here folks. Keep moving and remain calm. Nothing going on at all.

-Maybe it was just one game and perhaps it was only because they were playing the Houston Texans, but Washington finally found their offense. It's amazing that one week you can be a washed-up and old QB and the next week you're setting a record for consecutive complettions to start a game(22-for-22). But is it really that impressive if Mark Brunell probably didn't throw the ball more than 10 yards at a time all day? Eh, that's for another week. This week the Redskins(like the Panthers) avoid the soulless abyss of 0-3.

-Is anyone else noticing that Ben Rothlisberger just doesn't look like he's okay? I don't know if it's a slump, but Rothlisberger is 0-2 as a starter in '06. It's early, I know, but his falling down heave that was picked off in the fourth quarter was as awful. In his two starts this season, Rothlisberger has a completion percentage under 50% and has 5 picks with zero TDs.

-Nice win by the Bengals in Pittsburgh...and an even better post-game celebration with more Bengals getting arrested. The Bengals are well on their way to picking up the Dallas Cowboys baton. "America's Team" North is going places. Maybe in the back of a squad car, but they are going places, I tell you.

-Okay, I've wasted enough time. Here's the latest Top 5/Bottom 5:

Top Five
1.Indianapolis(3-0)-Solid win over an up and coming Jacksonville team
2.Cincinnati(3-0)-Only pepper spray can slow the Bengals
3.Chicago(3-0)-Rex Grossman didn't have a great game, but the Bears keep winning
4.San Diego(3-0)-Bye weeks are good before having to fly cross country
5.Baltimore(3-0)-Either the Ravens will overtake the Chargers this weekend or fall out of the poll, since Baltimore and San Diego play on Sunday.

Bottom Five
5.Cleveland(0-3)-Only the Browns could toss an INT into the endzone with 3 min remaing to allow the Ravens to go on the winning drive.
4.Detroit(0-3)-Mariucci...Marinelli...what's the difference as long as Millen is still in the front office?
3.Tennessee(0-3)-Kerry Collins wasn't terrible this past week, not that it mattered.
2.Oakland(0-3)-The Raiders' offensive line put in a solid effort by limiting the bye week to two sacks.
1.Houston(0-3)-Head Coach Gary Kubiak scolded Mario Williams and the Texans defense after the beatdown from Washington. Not a good start to Williams' NFL career.

Adam Gold: What's Not To Blame.

The football-watching world is not stupid. We know what's good and we know what's not. Right now, the ACC isn't good and we want to know why. You can blame it on recruiting, you can blame it on coaching, you can blame it on the football not being round, you can blame it on the revolution of the earth speeding up, you can blame it on Clay Aiken.

All of those factors, to varying degrees, could be factors in the demise of your favorite school. Personally, I like blaming Clay Aiken and the legion of loser fans he's spawned.

What you can't blame, is ACC Expansion. You just can't because there is zero connection between the addition of Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College and their football programs and the downturn in the quality of football.

If that were the case, you might as well blame Expansion of the league for the break up of Brad and Jennifer; the crisis in the Middle East; high prices at the pump; ESPN Mobile; Bert Reynolds’ face lift; global warming; and John Mark Carr.

Enough!

Life isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. I know there’s another saying that goes, “Life is short”, but that’s only in relation to fact that the earth has been orbiting the Sun for billions of years. But, it probably speaks to the relative impatience that our society breeds. We want what we want yesterday, and if we have to wait until tomorrow or – gasp – next week, then “screw it I’m moving on!”

Louisville thumped Miami, Rutgers beat up on North Carolina, West Virginia ran over Maryland and Pittsburgh handled Virginia comfortably, thus the Big East is better than the ACC. That’s the conclusion. If we were just taking a snapshot of one year, I’d agree with you. But, somehow this debate has raged and bled over into an indictment of ACC Expansion, and those that are pointing their arrows at John Swofford and saying, “see, I told you it was a bad idea” should be smart enough to know better.

Just because Miami isn’t the Miami of 5 years ago, and Florida State is struggling on offense and the Terrapins have fallen off the cliff after 31 wins in Ralph Friedgen’s first three seasons doesn’t mean that expanding this league was the wrong idea.

It doesn’t mean we’ve invited the wrong schools, it doesn’t mean that expansion was evil, it doesn’t mean that the critics were right all along. It only means that the football teams in this league this year just aren’t as good as they could – and maybe should – be. And, it doesn’t mean that this is forever, either.

From the very beginning this was a long range plan. To position the ACC alongside the Big Ten and SEC as premiere football AND basketball conferences, and be able to better compete for television viewers as well as championships and – in turn – raise the financial bar for the league. By any measure you choose, this has been an overwhelming success, so far.

No one is denying that ACC football is off to a dreadful start. There isn’t one team that has looked really good in all phases of the game through 3 weeks and we have exactly zero teams that have a shot at winning a title. But, I just don’t get the idea that expansion is the culprit as much as a simple downturn in the football cycle.

Do you think for a minute that West Virginia or Syracuse or Connecticut wouldn’t give their left diploma to switch places with Boston College? You’ve got to be on more medication than Courtney Love if you believe they’d stay in the Big East if offered my (admittedly) very far-fetched scenario.

The point is that the expansion story was never going to be written in a “blue” book. This is an epic story, told over decades of success, future expansion (no, not to this league), and whatever dramatic alterations there would be to follow in the two major revenue-generating sports, football and men’s basketball.

The plan was not to destroy the Big East, any more than Mike Tranghese’s was when he snatched up Louisville, Cincinnati, South Florida, Marquette and DePaul from Conference USA. The rules are very clear; schools are allowed to align themselves with any conference they choose. There is no governing jurisdiction over such matters. Did the Big 8 destroy the Southwest Conference when they brought the Texas schools up and became the Big 12? Did the SEC start that avalanche by stealing away Arkansas?

What we’ve seen is the evolution of sports and the impact of professional sports on the college game. There used to be a time when the national championship was mythical. Teams were only concerned with winning their conferences, going to their bowl game, and if they so happened to be ranked number 1 on the morning of January 2nd then let’s have a party!

Now, with the only focus from fans being the evil BCS and the National Championship, the goals have – at least on the surface – changed. That mind-set is wrong. Nothing should have changed, as the only thing the BCS is supposed to do is give us the best #1 vs. #2 that it can. There will no doubt be seasons in which that is not possible and we’ve already dealt with that, and the sport is not going to abandon their bowl partners in the interest of a big money tournament.

The BCS games have now expanded to five, the four we’ve always known plus the National Championship Game played at the site of the Fiesta Bowl this year. We now have 32 bowl games to watch – or not watch, the prerogative is yours – as the bar has been lowered even more to qualify for a "successful" season. But, none of this is the fault of expansion. It’s natural in our sports culture to grow bigger, better, faster and stronger.

And, it’s also natural to not want to wait for the tree of expansion to bear fruit today. We’re all hungry for a big win. It’s not going to happen this year but, that doesn’t mean that it won’t happen.

Remember, it's a marathon.

0-2 Panthers Find Smith Defensive

The Carolina Panthers find themselves staring squarely at the abyss this weekend. Well, maybe that's a little extreme, but when your team has started out 0-2 in a season that pundits are talking "Super Bowl"...0-3 would be a cataclysmic disaster. So, with that in mind it's starting to feel like people are beginning to lose it a little. Take the case of the Panthers' star wide out, Steve Smith. Smith has been on the sidelines for the first two games of the season with a hamstring problem and the Panthers offense is missing him in a big way. So the rumors have begun about Smith missing games with more than a bad hammy; like a sore contract. Smith felt strongly enough about the rumor this week that he talked to the media about it in order to refute the allegation.

"For the people who are insulting me and this organization, who think I'm going to stoop down to that level, that's not me," Smith said. "There are a lot of other things I can be doing if I'm holding out. I can go home. I can go to the lake house with my family. I can do a lot of things more important than to make a (fool) out of myself and the organization. You're foolish to think that."

Steve Smith is a lot of things; flamboyant, confident, entertaining, but is he dishonest enough to miss games over wanting a bigger contract? Deion Branch has already made news this season by refusing to play for the Patriots under what he felt was a less than fair deal. Branch wound up getting some of what he wanted, but only after a trade to Seattle. Last season, Javon Walker of the Packers refused to play and is now in the employ of the Broncos. I'm not even going to mention T.O. because you get the point. Sometimes receivers feel underpaid and they sit out. However, when a receiver or any player does something like that...they make noise about it. Smith has said absolutely nothing about his contract while he's been on the sidelines. He hasn't created a spectacle at practice nursing his hamstring while shouting out his career numbers like a carnival barker. That would be foolish and as Smith points out...he's no fool. He's also listed as questionable for this weekend's game in Tampa. The Panthers have enough defense to give them a chance to win against the Bucs without Smith, but it feels like the team needs Smith back on the field for their own mental benefit. Anything that the Panthers can do to jumpstart the season, needs to be done this week. Earlier this week, the Carolina players were telling the media that the 0-2 start wasn't the end of the world. No. But since 1990, there have only been three teams that have started the NFL season 0-3 and still made the playoffs. So, it's pretty close. The Panthers are 0-2 and the Bucs are 0-2. Someone is going to feel like it's the end of the world by late Sunday afternoon.

Gravley's Pig Pickin' Week 3

Hello fans and welcome to week 3 of the college football season. I sure wish the ACC would have landed West Virginia instead of Boston College in the expansion process. The Mountaineers are great in football and have been a recent, yearly entry in the NCAA basketball tournament. Don't you think West Virginia fits in the ACC footprint a bit better than BC. Plus the "Neers" have a past with Maryland and Virginia Tech. Oh well, so much for wishing. Here are a few nuggets for the weekend.

NC State @ Southern Miss

I am picking NC State but don't have a good feeling about this one. Cornerback A.J. Davis is out again and it's the Pack's first road game. Southern isn't as good offensively as they were last year but defensively they are better. They've been challenged by the staff to wrap up Andre Brown who rushed for 248 yards against the Eagles last year. If the 2nd half Marcus Stone, or should I say the 2nd half play calling, could be implemented in the 1st half we could see some fireworks from the Pack. Actually we won't see it...there is no TV coverage of the game.

Furman @ North Carolina

Remember October 30, 1999??? Furman 28 North Carolina 3...John Bunting says it has no bearing on this game and it doesn't except for the fact that the Purple Paladins have shown an ability to knock heads with the D-1 schools. If Carolina loses this one, Bunting will have a plank waiting for him at the next old well walk. Cam Sexton gets his first college start. I'm guessing the coaching staff likes his decision making a bit more than Joe Daily who has 4 picks in 2 games. No Purple Rain this time and no parties like it's 1999.

Duke @ Virginia Tech

The Devils couldn't hold a 13-0 lead at Wake Forest but they did find their quarterback. True freshman Thaddeus Lewis threw for over 3 bills against the Deacs. Va. Tech's defense is much better and will force Lewis into some quick decisions....hopefully for Duke, not bad decisions. I like Duke's defense in parts and if they could just force a few Hokie turnovers it may be a close game.

Memphis @ East Carolina

Skip Holtz is glad running back DeAngelo Williams is with the Carolina Panthers and not the Memphis Tigers. The Pirates are a little dinged up with QB James Pinkney nursing a sore ankle. He has rested most of the week so he should be fine for the Pirates home opener. EC is 0-2 having lost both road games by 5. Navy and UAB. I like the Pirates in this one. If not, they'll likely be 0-4 after West Virginia rolls through Greenville.

Panthers @ Vikings

Just wanted to throw a word in on the Panthers. The offense didn't score last week against the Falcons. Steve Smith still hasn't practiced and I don't think he'll play Sunday. The offensive line has been shuffled around (and that's an area that breeds off of cohesiveness). So how are the Panthers going to win in Minnesota??? Better limit the Vikings offense and score defensively or on special teams. You can catch the Panthers and Vikings on Fox 50, Sunday at 1pm.
Till next week...

Jeff Gravley

Wasn't expansion supposed to mean better football?

I think we’d all like to believe that the ACC is one of the elite leagues in the college football universe. But, if the first 15 days of the season tells us anything, it’s that our beloved league is going the way of Pluto in the college football galaxy.

Last night, Maryland – which won 31 games in Ralph Friedgen’s first three seasons but just 10 in the last 2 – turned it over five times and allowed over 300 yards rushing to a West Virginia team which only threw the ball to prove that they had a passing section of the Mountaineer play book. The Terps were down 28-0 before the 1st quarter came to an end and never threatened in a 45-24 loss to WVU, their 3rd straight in a series that dates back to 1980.

In week one, the Big East took a bite out of the ACC in 2 of the three meetings. Pittsburgh overwhelmed Virginia – remember when they were on the verge of becoming part of the national elite under Al Groh – at Heinz Field, 38-13, while North Carolina allowed over 200 yards rushing to Rutgers’ tailback Ray Rice in a 5-point loss in the Tar Heels’ home opener. Only Wake Forest managed a win over a Big East school, and they needed a couple of late scores to break a 10-10 tie to beat a Syracuse team that went 1-10 a year ago.

Last week, however, was the real kick in the ass. The Tar Heels imploded into a pile of horrible interceptions and blown opportunities in a 35-10 loss to Virginia Tech; NC State couldn’t muster a 1-play goal line stand against Akron – yes, I know what the photograph showed – and lost on the last play of the game; and Duke shoulda-woulda-coulda-how did they not beat Wake Forest in Winston-Salem.

On top of that, Florida State, the league’s national championship contender, needed a pair of 4th quarter touchdowns to rally to beat Troy – AT HOME! I’ll let you figure out where Troy comes from, but don’t take too long because they play at Georgia Tech on Saturday.

Virginia beat Wyoming in Charlottesville, 13-12, in overtime, when the Cowboys missed an extra point that would have forced another OT. Hard to be really proud of that. Nor can you be really excited when you waste 490 yards of total offense and lose because you don’t respect the impact of special teams on the game. Maybe that’s a little harsh to throw that at the Clemson Tigers, but at what point do you stop kicking the ball to Boston College freshman Jeff Smith? He’s already hit you for over 100 yards in kick off returns in the game including three big one’s that brought the ball back out near midfield and beyond, and you kick it to him again.
96 yards later, Smith was handing the ball to an official and BC had a score without their offense taking the field. In addition to that, Clemson’s Jad Dean had a field goal and an extra point blocked – the PAT coming in the 2nd OT – and when BC scored, their extra point gave them a win despite allowing nearly 500 yards in total offense.

Gang, this has been a bad start for ACC football. It’s a good thing all those bowl contracts are long-term. Let’s see if we can’t find some positives this week.

Duke is at Virginia Tech at Noon (FOX50) hoping that they’ll be able to ride the right arm of freshman QB Thaddeus Lewis to a strong performance. But, I’m afraid for his safety because when Tech knows what’s coming, they usually make you pay for it. And, without even the threat of a running game, I think this ends up as a comfortable win for VT. Duke’s defense is good, but I’m going to budget the Hokies in for at least 3 scores off defense and special teams....VT 44, Duke 10.

BYU is at Boston College at noon (ESPN) and the Eagles defense is banged up and not all that great to begin with. They’ve allowed over 400 yards per game and almost 250 per through the air. The Cougars are averaging a little more than that in their 2-0 start so expect a lot of points and maybe even an upset....BC 34, BYU 31.

Wake Forest looks to start the season 3-0 when they visit Connecticut at Noon (ESPN 360). The last time these two teams met it was a Huskies rout at Groves Stadium and U-Conn is going to try and pound the ball right at Wake’s defensive line and they’ll move their quarterback around and let him run. A mobile QB gave the Deacons problems last week, but let’s hope that Wake’s offense won’t wait until the 4th quarter to figure things out....CT 27, WF 23.

Georgia Tech hosts Troy at 1:30 and I’ll just say that the Jackets need to impress this week. GT 41, Troy 17.

Miami visits Louisville at 3:30 (ABC) as the ACC takes another crack at a Big East team. Louisville has a lot of guys from Florida that the Hurricanes didn’t offer scholarships to coming out of high school and they’re on the verge of becoming one of the unexpected national powers in college football. Their offense (best in the nation at more than 650 yards per game) will give Miami’s 7th ranked defense all it can handle. I’m from Missouri, the Hurricanes are going to have to show me something first....Louisville 20, Miami 16.

Western Michigan visits Virginia in an ESPN 360 contest at 3:30. I haven’t mentioned this before, but I have no idea what that is. I’m told you can watch the game on your computer, but I have no idea if it’s worth the effort. I do know that this game won’t be. Watch out for the Mid-American Conference. Akron probably isn’t their only good team....UVA 23, WMU 17

Now we hit prime time, at night when the stars come out. And, for the first time since 1999, Furman enters Kenan Stadium. The last time the Paladins made the trip from Greenville, SC they thumped the Heels 28-3. They’ll try and run the ball and pass only when they have to. Here’s hoping they have to and here’s hoping that the Tar Heels can control the line of scrimmage and establish an offensive rythym. Carolina is staring down the barrel of a 1-4 start as it is (with games at Clemson and Miami in the next two weeks), they need to find their offense this week before they attack the rest of their schedule. Cameron Sexton makes his first start and needs confidence or else this season could turn into a disaster. UNC 33, Furman 13.

NC State is in Hattiesburg to meet Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles are the prototypical "team you don’t want to face". When the NCAA tournament comes around there are always a handful of those smaller conference schools that cause trouble for the big boys. Schools like Butler, SW Louisiana, Western Kentucky, and George Mason have traditionally made life difficult for the favorites. The football equivalent would be schools like Southern Miss. They live in an SEC world and play non-conference games – usually on the road – at many SEC and Big 12 schools. In the past few years, they’ve beaten Nebraska and Oklahoma State and every year they give Alabama a hard time. Last year, State needed 248 rushing yards from Andre Brown to win by 4. This year, they’re going to need another powerful day on the ground to keep the Eagles in check. But, they also need to start developing some semblance of a balanced offense because if they can’t throw the ball against Southern Miss it’s hard to imagine them getting away with a one-dimensional offense against the ACC schedule. Then again, I’ve spent the last 1000 words describing how pathetic the league is, so maybe it won’t matter at all....NCSU 24 USM 20

And, we cap off the Saturday extravaganza with the Bowden Family Football Picnic in Tallahassee. Last year, daddy (Bobby Bowden) paid a visit to his son (Tommy Bowden), and Clemson beat the stuffing out of daddy’s Seminoles. This year, FSU is a team still trying to find a running game and the Tigers just might be the panacea. Clemson is missing two of their best linebackers and a safety, and the middle of the defensive line wasn’t a strength to begin with. On top of that, their best defensive end, Gaines Adams, is nursing a bad shoulder and won’t be at 100% even if he does play. FSU MUST run the ball between the tackles to make things easier for Drew Weatherford. Of course, the Noles almost never make things easy for them. Clemson has a great running game, talented wide receivers, a veteran offensive line and a senior quarterback. But, FSU’s defense is scary – even though they’ve got their own injury issues in the middle of the defensive line. If Clemson doesn’t forget that special teams matter they can keep it close....FSU 34 Clemson 30.

But it’s hard to be a college football fan and not wish that none of those games were on the schedule so we could concentrate on games like LSU at Auburn; Florida at Tennessee; Michigan at Notre Dame; Oklahoma at Oregon; and Nebraska at Southern Cal. I’ll be counting the sports agents on the Trojans’ sideline.

Have a great weekend!

Tuesday Morning Clean Up

With Week One of the NFL season out of the way, it's time for me to uncluttered my little monkey brain with a few observations...

-Do the Panthers know that there aren't two bye weeks in the season? Once again the Panthers have a team that begins the season with a lot of talk about their potential, but fail to actually begin the season with a win. Last year it was a home loss to the New Orleans Saints, this season, the Panthers drop their home opener to the Atlanta Falcons. There are 15 more games on the season, but watching the Falcons(now with intestinal fortitude) whip the Panthers in the trenches was not the way that Carolina fans intended on spending their first Sunday of the season. Some fans might say that it was the loss of Steve Smith before the opener that led to the loss. What was it that WR Keyshawn Johnson said? "Steve Smith out; Panthers doomed"? Unless Steve Smith was going to block Falcons' new DE John Abraham, then I don't think that was the biggest factor in the loss. After Wharton left the game in his knee injury, the Panthers moved left guard Mike Whale to tackle to block for QB Jake Delhomme. Result? Abraham picked up a 12-yard sack. Next contestant...Jordan Gross. Survey says? Abraham with another sack. I don't think Steve Smith would have seen many passes unless Delhomme was going to chuck the ball through John Abraham's #55. And by the way, Smith wouldn't have helped the Panthers' run defense, which gave up 252 yards to the Falcons(Warrick Dunn registered 132 yards). Considering the Bucs were shut out by Baltimore and the way that Atlanta manhandled Carolina on both sides of the ball...are the Falcons the best team in the NFC South? It's early, but the Falcons looked like a completely different football team from last season.

-Speaking of an inability to block the pass rush, the Panthers lost left tackle Travelle Wharton for the season on Sunday with a torn ACL and MCL. Wharton isn't an incredible talent on the line, but he is a generally solid player and there isn't a lot of depth for the Panthers on their offensive line. Jordan Gross, who played the position in 2004, will move over from right tackle and the Panthers will have to find some help off the scrap heap to fill the roster spot.

-Next patient, please...Also getting hurt and missing most of the game on Sunday was the oft-injured LB Dan Morgan. Morgan suffered the fourth concussion of his career when he went out during the second quarter. He will be out of the Panthers line up until further notice. Morgan was also hit hard in the head against Jacksonville, during the Panthers second preseason game. He was held out of contract drills for the rest of the preseason practices, but that was never officially called a concussion. It's scary stuff and even if the Panthers defense isn't as good with Morgan on the sidelines, head trauma isn't something to be fooled around with.

-The Philip Rivers Era begins...thanks to a massive amount of coffee and some well placed toothpicks under the ole eyelids, I was able to stay up for the Chargers/Raiders game on Monday night to see former NC State QB Philip Rivers make his first NFL start. I was rewarded with some scintillating handoffs to RB LaDanian Tomlinson. I'm not saying that was a bad idea since Tomlinson did rack up 131 yards with one TD and he topped 100 yards in the second quarter. The Chargers ran the ball 48 of 59 plays, and Rivers finished 8-for-11 with 108 yards and a touchdown. Maybe next week the Rivers Era will be allowed to begin...

-At least I got to see one former ACC player display his football awesome-ness on Monday Night. Former Maryland DE Shawne Merriman wrecked Oakland's offensive line and sacked QB Aaron Brooks three times. There's no point in asking Brooks about the way Merriman played, it's tough to distinguish those three sacks when your offensive line allows you to be sacked a total of nine times. "Nine times? Niiiiine times." Ed Rooney might have actually been an upgrade over anyone the Raiders had out there against San Diego. Head Coach Art Shell confessed to pulling Brooks out with nine minutes to play for his own safety.

-It's official. I'm Manning-ed out after week one. The Manning Bowl was a fun start to the new Sunday Night Football schedule, but between the talk about Peyton vs Eli, the crowd shots of Mom, Dad and the non-pro football playing Manning brother, Cooper, and the run of the Manning Family in their own commercial....Manning Manning Manning Manning Manning. I'm sure they're nice people, but the NFL cannot schedule this game again for at least a couple of seasons.

-Remember the talk about how the NFC East was "back"? The Beast of the East went 1-3 in the opening week of the NFL season. Dallas gave up a 10-0 lead to lose in Jacksonville. New York lost at home to Indy. Washington dropped their home opener to Minnesota. The only winner in the division in Week One was Philadelphia at Houston. Donovan McNabb looked like, well...the real Donovan McNabb again. 24-for-35 on 314 yards passing and three touchdowns. I wonder if TO will send him a note of congratulations?

-Arizona beat San Francisco 34-27. It's nice to see that the sellout crowd at the brand new Cardinals Stadium got their monies worth.

-Denver QB Jake Plummer threw three interceptions in the Broncos loss at St Louis. Does anyone think that rookie QB Jay Cutler won't make his first career start this season?

-I'm not going to talk about the idea that someone in Green Bay should talk to Brett Farve and convince him to retire ASAP. Farve was pretty bad in the first shutout of his 233-game career, but it's one game into the season and the other option is Aaron Rodgers. Get serious. The Packers and Farve will likely be done after this season, but Green Bay already made it's decision when they waited all offseason to see if Farve would retire or play another season. They're going to finish the season with Farve, for better or for worse. Probably more of the latter than the former...

-We're going to close out the blog with what is going to be a recurring feature in The Huddle, the unwarranted, unrealistic and completely unbiased Top Five and Bottom Five of the NFL(patent pending)

Top Five
1-Pittsburgh
2-Cincinnati
3-Indy
4-Atlanta
5-Philly

Bottom Five
5-Buffalo
4-Tennessee
3-Cleveland
2-Green Bay
1-Oakland

Chris Clark

Adam Gold's unofficial top 25

Now that we’ve seen a weeks worth of games, what have we learned?
Not a whole heckuvalot, if you ask me. But, let’s delve into it anyway.

There are a whole lot of people under the impression that NC State has no passing game (25), but I say that we don’t know the answer to that question because they really didn’t try to use it. Marcus Stone only threw for 36 yards which certainly gives off the impression that the Wolfpack remain one-dimensional. But, when you’re just trying to get out of game one against an inferior opponent I don’t think you can draw any conclusions about the passing game. It would have been a lot worse had they been unable to run the ball effectively, because the line of scrimmage battle is the most important in any football game.

In any case, Akron will pose far more of a threat to State on both sides of the ball. Quarterback, Luke Getsy is the top returning passer in the Mid-American conference (24) – a league that has produced the likes of Ben Roethlisberger, Browns’ QB Charlie Frye, and Tampa’s back-up QB, Bruce Gradkowski. Defensively, the zips are salty, as Wake Head coach Jim Grobe likes to say. They return 9 starters on that side of the ball including nose tackle Kiki Gonzalez (23), who’s listed at 6'2", 300 lbs., but looks bigger – and wider.

State is most likely going to be without Senior cornerback, A.J. Davis (22), who injured a hamstring early in State’s win over Appalachian, and that will challenge the Pack against a team that can throw it.

In Chapel Hill, you hate to talk about a gut-check Saturday when we’re still in the first week of September, but there really isn’t any other way to view the Tar Heels home game with Virginia Tech. There are few questions offensively for the Heels, although I’d like to know if Ronnie McGill (21) is going to be able to stay on the field when it matters. For me, and just about all of you, the biggest issue is what happened to the improved defense? Larry Edwards (20) is a great player, but one man can’t play defense for everybody. The Heels didn’t attack the line of scrimmage, didn’t fill gaps, didn’t get penetration into Rutgers’ backfield, and didn’t make the plays needed to win the game.

Biggest non-play might have been a "should have been" interception that slipped through the hands of Jacoby Watkins in the 1st half. If he holds on to the errant pass he scores. At this level, if you score on defense or on special teams, you have a great chance of winning. Speaking of, that’s exactly the way Virginia Tech likes to play. The Hokies blocked two kicks (19) in their opening-weekend win over Northeastern – the first of which set up a 12-yard scoring drive.
However, it wasn’t all chocolate cake for VT, offensively they weren’t sharp in the running game, and defensively they allowed a few big plays in the passing game, so while I’m not going to go out on a limb and say that the Heels are going to win, I have a sneaky suspicion that they’ll play better than most think.

Over in Winston-Salem, the early stage of the dream season for the Demon Deacons continues when they host Duke, a game you can actually watch on FOX50 (18). Wake’s dream was seemingly interrupted last week when Junior quarterback Ben Mauk suffered a broken right arm and a dislocated shoulder while trying to recover a fumble, but redshirt freshman Riley Skinner took over and the play book will not change despite the inexperience under center. The best part about the Demon Deacons is that they have a whole bunch of athletes on defense. They’re not necessarily deep, nor huge. But, they have two really good linebackers (17) in Jon Abbate and Aaron Curry and a very experienced secondary.

Duke is also going to feature a freshman quarterback. Even though Ted Roof hasn’t officially declared it to be the case, expect Thaddeus Lewis to play considerably more than Marcus Jones against Wake. Jones started last week’s loss to Richmond, but Lewis entered the game in the 1st quarter and he was the man the rest of the way. The much larger issue for Duke are the injuries to running backs Justin Boyle and Ronnie Drummer (16). These two guys are vital to any success Duke hopes to have on offense and it’s extremely doubtful that either will play after getting hurt early on last week.

Ranking the games...

(15) Samford and Georgia Tech, Middle Tennessee at Maryland, Troy at Florida State, and Florida A & M at Miami are all going to be blowouts. The first two don’t offer any coverage at all, the FSU game is a pay-per-view option for those in Florida, and the Canes’ rout will be available on-line.

(14) Wyoming at Virginia is hardly a compelling match up, especially with the Cowboys coming off a 4-win season. But, any time you have the chance to see Al Groh’s sour face you need to take advantage. No TV coverage though, so you’ll have to make the drive to Charlottesville.

(13) Akron at NC State (ESPN U at Noon), the game’s a sell out and The Carter should be vibrating, of course most of those people will be waiting for the first Marcus Stone attempted forward pass. Don’t worry about it gang, he’s going to have to throw this week because I’ll be a little shocked if the Pack will have their way on the ground against the Zips like they did against the Mountaineers. Akron slowed down Penn State’s running game last week.

(12) Duke at Wake (FOX 50 at Noon), wait, how can this game be better than the State game? If for no other reason than the fact that there shouldn’t be a separation at all between these two teams but the gulf is wider than Kirstie Alley’s rump. Duke’s defense isn’t too bad, however, and Wake will have problems maintaining a balanced offense.

(11) Virginia Tech at Carolina (ESPN at Noon), a must-play-well game for Carolina. They lost one they needed to win last week, and they looked bad on defense in the process. It’s critical that they play better, smarter and more aggressively on defense against Tech otherwise it will get ugly.

(10) Clemson at Boston College (ABC at 3:30), both teams suffered personnel losses last week. Clemson lost star linebacker Anthony Waters for the season with a knee injury, while BC might be without quarterback Matt Ryan thanks to a sprained ankle. The Eagles will definitely be without defensive tackle BJ Raji for the first half as the junior was ejected from last weeks’ win over Central Michigan and will have to sit the first half for disciplinary reasons. I think we’d all love to see the Tigers 2-0 heading over to Tallahassee next week for the father-son picnic.

(9) Air force at Tennessee intrigues me because the Vols just knocked the snot out of California, they host Florida next week and Air Force runs that wishbone offense that is always difficult to prepare for. Could Tennessee be looking ahead?

(8) Washington at Oklahoma could also be interesting. Hey, UAB scared Bob Stoops more than a letter from Big Red Imports. And, if the Blazers nearly beat the Sooners in Norman there’s no reason why Washington can’t hang around a little as well. And, just for the sake of mentioning, Oklahoma visits Oregon next week and that will be a good game.

(7) Texas Tech at Texas-El Paso is going to be a fun football game. If you can find it somewhere on the tube, don’t leave the room because you’re liable to miss a score. The Red Raiders are an offensive machine under Mike Leach, scoring more than 50 points in 5 different games last year. But, Mike Price has The Bachelor’s younger brother – Jordan Palmer – and he’s one of the top returning quarterbacks in the country and a 3-year starter.

(6) Oregon at Fresno State matches two very offensive-minded teams. But, the real reason to stay up late (10 pm start) is to see what uniforms the Ducks will wear. Last week, they beat Stanford in the all-green get up, this time around I’m predicting all white.

(5) Arizona at LSU should be a blowout on paper, especially considering that the Wildcats have only 6 Pac 10 wins in the last four years combined. But, nine returning defensive starters and someone with the last name Stoops (Mike) on the sidelines says that this might be a ballgame, even in Death Valley.

(4) Notre Dame at Penn State, Charlie Weis vs. the Old Professor, Joe Paterno. I’d love to think that the Nittany Lions can slow down the Irish, but we just don’t know. They have four new starters in the secondary and 3 new guys up front and that doesn’t bode well for covering receivers and pressuring the quarterback. Maybe Penn State can keep the ball away from Brady Quinn.

(3) Georgia at South Carolina, this game wouldn’t be nearly as interesting if this game were played between the hedges. I think the Bulldogs are just a better football team than the Gamecocks. But, in Columbia, in front of a national television audience, The Visor will have something cool ready to go.

(2) Ohio State at (1) Texas. Last year, this was the 1st game of the season (USC at Notre Dame was the 2nd), and it didn’t disappoint. Vince Young led his team to a 4th quarter comeback victory – where have we heard that before? – in Columbus in a game that stamped the Longhorns National Title worthy. Ohio State’s Troy Smith could be this year’s Vince Young and he has the same opportunity to show the nation that V.Y. did a year ago. The difference is that Texas is probably a better team than Ohio State was a year ago and the Buckeyes didn’t look all that spectacular on defense last week against Northern Illinois.

We’ll talk next week.

AG

Pig Pickin' week 2

It was a pretty depressing week 1 on the local college football scene in Division 1. Duke shutout by Richmond!!! Rutgers running over Carolina!!! NC State's 36 yards passing!! Wake's Benjamin Mauk breaking his arm!!! ECU unable to slow the Middies attack. Thank goodness there's week 2 but I'm not to confident in the match-ups.

Virginia Tech @ North Carolina
After watching the Heels in person last Saturday this would appear to be an easy pick for the Hokies. But there's something that's telling me that it wasn't a very comfortable week of practice on the defensive side. Coach John Bunting and defensive coordinator Marvin Williams probably worked the guys pretty hard. Offensively, Joe Dailey needs to stay away from drive killing mistakes but I really like Carolina's wide receivers. Ronnie McGill simply ran out of gas or couldn't fight through an injury against Rutgers. It's a big drop off in the running game when McGill is on the bench. I fully expect Carolina to be much sharper than the opener and they'll be playing in a full Kenan stadium....those Hokie fans will gobble up the extra tickets.

Akron @ NC State
The Zips kept it reasonable against Penn State with a 34-16 score. Akron can pass the football and the Pack's front 7 will be called on to disrupt the Zips. Marcus Stone will need more than 36 yards passing too. I know it's pointed out that he got the win but from a confidence stand point, Stone and his teammates need to know that he is capable of passing for 150 yards. He may not need to this game but at some point the passing game needs to produce. I look for State to improve to 2-0 but it will be closer than many would expect.

ECU @ UAB
The Blazers are coached by Watson Brown, the brother of Texas coach Mack Brown. In the late 80's Watson and Mack were jokingly referred to as the "Lose Brothers." Mack now has a national championship and his brother is trying to replace an incredible quarterback in Darrell Hackney. This year the Pirates boast a special signal caller in James Pinkney. The weakness of EC is their youth up front on both sides of the ball. I still like the Pirates to win at UAB for the 2nd year in a row.

Duke @ Wake Forest
If Duke wins one of it's remaining 11 games it'll be considered an upset. The Devils can't decide on Marcus Jones (2-6 passing vs. Richmond) or go to the bullpen again and tab Thaddeus Lewis (15-24 for 148 vs. Richmond). My guess is they'll go with Lewis. Wake Forest has to play redshirt freshman Riley Skinner after QB Benjamin Mauk broke his arm against Syracuse and is done for the season. Skinner describes his game as "smooth". Duke's defense will try to shake up the smooth.

Ohio State @ Texas
At least both teams have a game under their pads before this meeting....unlike FSU and Miami. It is a CLASSIC matchup of the great offense of the Buckeyes against a top defense in the Longhorns. Special teams could decide this one. There's none better than the Bucks Ted Ginn, Jr. I don't know what the young Buckeye defense can do to stop Limas Sweed and QB Colt McCoy. Defense usually trumps offense at this point in the season so the edge would go to Mack Brown and the burnt orange.

Till next week....
Jeff Gravley

Not that far away...

Ah, the first week of football... I know that the NFL season isn't quite ready to kick off, but darn it, I'm excited anyway. Just who am I to be on this blog and already so excited about the season? I'm Chris Clark from Sports Radio 850 the Buzz and I'll be blogging this season mostly about the NFL. If you get the opportunity, feel free to check out my show M-F from 10-Noon. The college season has been served as an appetizer, my fantasy football team has already been drafted(no, I don't like my team), and when I was walking the dogs this morning the air was a crisp 65 degrees. It's not "frozen tundra" weather, but today just felt like a day for football. With that in mind, let's look at a few of the things that I'm most interested in seeing during week one of the season...
1)Can the Carolina Panthers start well out of the gate this season? Last year, the Panthers dropped their opening game against division rival, New Orleans. I know that this was this first game after Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, but Carolina had asperations of being a Super Bowl team and New Orleans wasn't going anywhere with the team that they had last year. Carolina lost to the Saints, beat the Pats in week two, but then lost again in week three to Miami. Carolina finished 11-5, but lost the division to Tampa on a tie-breaker. That put Carolina on the road for the entire playoffs. Don't think that the season opener is just a regular game that the Panthers can get it back somewhere else. Perhaps Carolina will come into Week One with more focus this season, since the Panthers will be taking on their mortal enemy...Michael Vick.
2)New Qbs in new places. I don't know where the offseason ranked in terms of previous ones, but it felt like there were an awful lot of name quarterbacks that changed addresses in the offseason. Daunte Culpepper has a new knee and a new home in Miami. Drew Brees left the always perfect weather of San Diego for New Orleans. Steve McNair went from Tennessee to Baltimore. How these Qbs do and how their replacements do will be interesting to see, especially how Philip Rivers steps into Drew Brees' old job with the Chargers.
3)T.O. I hate hearing the daily updates from Cowboys camp about TO being on the bike, not being on the bike, if Bill Parcells referred to Owens by his name, etc, etc, etc. It all seems so middle school. Then again, look who we're dealing with. I don't want to watch, but like any car accident or reality series with former Public Enemy rapper Flava Flav...I cannot look away.
4)Is this Peyton Manning's year? It doesn't seem as if it's been that long, but this is Peyton Manning's ninth season in the NFL. Okay, so...this is the year that he finally wins the Super Bowl that people have been predicting. Manning has been a pheonminal quarterback with over 4,000 yards passing in seven of his nine years in the league. He set a new singal season record for TDs in 2004 and led the Colts to thirteen straight wins last year. But, it was another year in which Indy fell short. Instead of New England, it was Pittsburgh that kept Manning in his usual role of runner-up.
5)Rookie Impact. For most of the season, you'll hear guys talk about Reggie Bush vs Mario Williams. Bush will probably have the bigger impact this season, but Mario Williams is a special player and keep in mind that it takes longer for a defensive end to figure thing out on this level than it does for a running back. By the way, keep Jay Cutler with the Broncos in mind. Jake Plummer had a good regular season last year, but isn't firmly entrenched in Denver as the signal caller. Cutler, the 11th pick in this past year's draft, looked pretty solid throwing for four Tds and about 500 yards. Granted, it was just the preseason, but if Plummer struggles at some point, I don't think Mike Shanahan would hesitate to insert the rookie. It seems to work pretty well for him with running backs.
Those are just a couple of thoughts rolling around in my head as we all keep watching the clock and waiting for the big kickoff weekend. If there are things that you've been mulling over then leave a comment and we'll all get through this together.

Chris

The Unofficial Top 25

Everyone’s got a pre-season ranking to tout, from the gamblers to the Sporting News to Playboy, there are at least two dozen rankings out there that will tell you which teams are the best and which don’t belong. And amazingly, they can do this before anyone has played a game. This is going to be a little different. I’m not here to tell you who’s good and who stinks. I’m here to tell you what’s good about the game and why nothing beats a college football afternoon (preferably in October). And, I’m here to point out a few things that you need to know about the upcoming season. So, without further delay, here’s my very unofficial Top 25....

(For drama’s sake, we’ll work from the bottom up.)

I realize that I’ve already mentioned this, but the pre-season polls (25) have always baffled me. I was a voter in the Associated Press poll for three seasons and I tried very hard to give an honest assessment of the college football nation. The only problem is that without having seen anyone play, and knowing that 25% of the sport graduates/exhausts their eligibility it’s almost impossible to know for sure which teams are going to be able to maintain/improve. At best, it’s an educated guess, at worst it’s like my golf game – you never know what it’s going to look like.

It’s very similar to the Hesiman Trophy (24) race which – again – despite having no games to watch, has somehow created a list of front-runners. Some will say Pat White of West Virginia, others like Troy Smith of Ohio State, and still more will support Adrian Peterson of Oklahoma. Just like the polls, this skews the end result in the favor of those that got all the publicity before a ball was snapped, and it’s not fair to those players that just might be the best in the college game. Ideally, we wouldn’t have any mention of a poll or a Heisman race until the end of September, but this is obviously not an ideal world.

If it was, the sports overtime system (23) would be different. I know there are those out there that like the way the college game does it, but it’s just too easy to score when you give a team the ball from the 25-yard line. Put the ball at the 40, and at least make them pick up a first down before they can get into field goal range.

Is there a tougher job in college football than the one currently being held down by Ted Roof (22)? Duke football has had exactly one pocket of football success since Viet Nam and once Steve Spurrier and his players left Durham the program has been among the worst in college sports. It’s actually amazing that Ted’s been able to convince some very good players to come to Duke and try to create something out of nothing, but it’s really like trying to climb Mount Everest in flip flops. They do have some good players, however, so try and catch a game at Wallace Wade sometime this year – and don’t laugh. Hey, Florida State and Miami both come to Durham.

Oh, and one more thing, I say it’s time that Darth Visor (Spurrier) stops giving Duke a vote (21) in the pre-season poll. It’s actually more insulting to Duke than anything else at this time because it gets people talking about how foolish it is for the Blue Devils to be in anyone’s top 25, even if it’s just meant as a sort of twisted thank you for giving him a chance to become one of the great college coaches of our era.

At least Ted Roof isn’t on the "hot seat" (20) according to the national media. I write this facetiously because I’m always amazed at the knee-jerk, fire-the-coach element of college sports, but I guess that’s the world in which we live and I’m going to have to come to grips with that element. For the record, unless you’ve proven to be completely incompetent, or you have an athletic department in flux/turmoil, then you’re not on the hot seat. Chuck Amato is NOT on the hot seat. John Bunting is NOT on the hot seat. Larry Coker at Miami is NOT on the hot seat. At least not today.

ESPN is presenting what they call "Full Circle" coverage of Monday night’s Florida State-Miami game. They did this in February for the Duke-North Carolina basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium and it was about a B-minus on my grading scale. The idea is that there’s the normal coverage on ESPN, they had above-the-rim cam on ESPN2 (I guess in this case they’ll have an end zone view), and on ESPN U – which I know most of you don’t have – they’ll have crowd cam. The only problem with the last element is that it was just a camera focused on the crowd with no view of the game. Why would anyone want to watch that? Unless, this game was at Florida State (it’s not, the game is in Miami) and we could have the camera trained on Jenn Sterger (19) all night long.

Speaking or the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in sports, I’d have a lot more respect for the job they do if they’d just stop trying to create the news and just report it. They did something within SportsCenter recently that made me angry. They actually had two of their college analysts predict the outcome of the entire season, and then broke down their own, 10-team National Championship Tournament. They called this the ESPN Championship Series (18). Of course the sport doesn’t have a playoff, yet ESPN, knowing that so many fans want one, made one up and treated it as a news item. The place for that is within a college football preview show, not a time when we could be seeing in-depth highlights of the latest Red Sox loss to the Yankees.

And, for the record, I love the BCS (17). It does exactly what it was designed to do, it gives us two teams to play for the national championship. It might not give us the two best teams, but no matter what sport you follow, the chances are that the two best teams don’t make it all the way to the title game/series. The two teams that are playing best at the time will be, but that sort of diminishes the importance of the regular season, doesn’t it? Either way, the sport benefits from the conversation and the fact that each week is vital to the process. Plus, the games are on Fox this year, so it’s all good.

One of my favorite things to talk about is the number of post season college football bowls that dot the landscape from the middle of December through New Year’s Day. This year, we have four new bowls (16) to watch – or ignore – including a fifth BCS game which will conveniently air on Fox 50. On top of that, one of last year’s bowl games, the bowl in Houston, went out of business and will be replaced by a new game in Houston. If I didn’t tell you that, you might think you were watching the same old bowl in Houston, but now you know that it’s brand spanking new.

For the record, the games will be in Albequerque, New Mexico, Birmingham, Alabama and Toronto, Ontario.

Conference USA will be a part of the game in Birmingham, so East Carolina might end up spending part of the Holiday season in the deep south as long as Skip Holtz’ team can negotiate a non-conference schedule (15) that features four teams that went to bowl games last year. The Pirates will start the season on the road at Navy and end it in Raleigh against NC State. And, in between they’ll host Virginia and take on national title contender West Virginia in Charlotte. In future years, Virginia Tech and North Carolina will appear on ECU’s non-league slate and it makes you wonder if Athletics Director Terry Holland likes his head football coach.

There is no better nuts and bolts web site for college football (and basketball, for that matter) than collegeBCS.com (14). Note; I'm not getting paid for this mention, it's just a great site devoted to college football. You'll enjoy it.

As many of you know, this year is the first season of the permanent 12-game schedules in college football. The hierarchy in the sport got together and decided that there was room for a 12th game each season even though it would eliminate the bye week for many schools throughout the country, and the idea was that it would create really good non-conference opportunities for attractive TV match ups.

It didn’t work out that way. Almost every school chose to schedule an automatic win with those extra games because home dates equal big bucks. The one conference that chose to do something right was the Pac 10 Conference (13-4) who took that extra game and chose to play a 9-game conference season. Now every team in the Pac-10 will play every team in a true round robin format, just like they used to in the ACC – remember the good old days? On top of that, some of the conference schools will still play a strong out of conference schedule. Southern Cal has a road game at Arkansas along with home dates against Nebraska and Notre Dame. And Oregon also scheduled up, hosting highly ranked Oklahoma on September 16.

Of course, you’ll have to deal with the Ducks’ 2006 uniforms (3) should you choose to watch.

No matter how hard the ACC tries to catch up to the SEC in football it’s never going to happen. There are a lot of reasons why this is the case, but like ACC basketball, it’s all about the rivalries (2) in the league. The ACC has only 1 or 2 real rivalry games but the SEC has about a dozen. Whether it’s the Iron Bowl, the Egg Bowl, the Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party, or Georgia and Auburn between the hedges, the SEC has a game that fans have been beating each other up over for decades.

However, I will give ACC Commissioner John Swofford (1) credit for a major improvement in ACC football. Since the conference expanded, the commissioner has increased the bowl tie-ins from 6 to 8 and with the recent re-allignment of those bowls, he’s also jumped the guaranteed payout from $22.75 to $26.85 million dollars. The league is now competing with the SEC and the Big Ten for supremacy in the bowl payout department, though it still falls short of the top two football leagues in America.

Now, if he can just figure out a way to get out of the commitment in Boise, and find a more desirable, exotic locale for the last bowl game. Doesn’t St. Lucia need a Bowl?

We’ll talk next week, when games have actually been played.

Adam