The Huddle

Well, That's Pretty Much That...

2006-12-18T03:59:00.000-08:00

This is what it's come to for the Panthers? A one time Super Bowl contender was reduced to looking more like the 1-15 team of George Seifert than anything that resembles a John Fox team. In their final home game of the season and with any legitimate hope of the playoffs hanging in balance, the Panthers were whipped by the Pittsburgh Steelers 37-3. The Steelers went right at Carolina's weaknesses, handing the ball of to running back Willie Parker 23 times for 132 yards and a touchdown while blitzing the Panthers' Chris Wenkie and earning five sacks on the day. The Steelers built an insurmountable 17-0 lead in the second quarter and there was nothing that Carolina's offense could do to respond. The offensive line was technically on the field, but just as easily could have been sitting in the stands for all the protection that Chris Wenkie got or holes that were opened for Carolina's running game(Note: 11 rushing attempts for 43 yards does not qualify as a "running game", but for simplicity the blog will call it a running game anyway) So where did it all go wrong this season? Was it really as early as week one when the Panthers lost starting left tackle Travelle Wharton and middle linebacker Dan Morgan? Was it in week two when the normally conservative Panthers tried(and failed) a lateral from Chris Gamble to Richard Marshall on a punt return in Minnesota? How about Jake Delhomme's INT in the endzone with 3:57 left in the Panther's game against the Bengals? What would have happened to the season if Mike Minter hadn't missed the Redskin's Chris Cooley instead of giving up a 66-yard touchdown reception to a fullback? Trust me there are more ghosts of games past that will haunt the Panthers this Christmas, but I think that this team's problem goes back to the offseason. Carolina was a team that didn't have proper depth on the offensive line and guessed wrong with their assessment of their linebackers. Those mistakes have killed the Panthers in two of the fundamental tasks towards winning a football game; establishing the run and stopping the other team from doing the same. The last few drafts for Carolina haven't produced an impact player...Chris Gamble, Kerry Colbert, Thomas Davis, Eric Shelton... Yes, DeAngleo Williams(#1 pick from 2006) looks like he might be a decent running back, but he needs a line to run behind. The Panthers brain trust of Marty Hurney and John Fox did a great job of rebuilding the Panthers from the disaster of the 1-15 season of 2001, but they're also responsible for the decline of last season's NFC championship game participant into the 37-3 losers of this past Sunday.

A Star is Born

2006-11-24T05:54:00.000-08:00

If you play sports on the major collegiate or professional level in America, odds are that you're under a pretty strong spotlight. But there are degrees in everything and not all spotlights carry the same glare. There are certain positions that are more glamourous than others; Centerfield for the New York Yankees, Masters champion, head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, etc. In football, the position that carries the biggest spotlight is behind center for the Dallas Cowboys. Not everyone that has taken snaps in Texas Stadium turns out to be Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman, but when you have a big game, people take notice. On Thanksgiving Day in Dallas this season, the Tony Romo Bandwagon made a stop and loaded up a lot of new passengers. Romo threw five touchdown passes against the Tampa Bay Bucs as Dallas moved to 7-4 on the season. Granted, it's waaaaay early to start talking about Tony Romo as if he is the next Troy Aikman(the next Danny White? Maybe) but since replacing Drew Beldsoe as the Cowboys' QB, Romo has brought Dallas' season back from the brink by going 4-1 as a starter. Had it not been for a few drops and one ball that was underthrown, Romo would have emerged from Thursday with a perfect passer rating. It was easy to mistake Romo's #9 for the more famous #8 of the Cowboys as he put on the 22-for-29 for 306 yards performance. The second half alone was enough to wow observers, 9-for-10...which makes him an unreal 29-for-31 in his last three games after halftime. Granted, it won't be that easy for Romo through the rest of the season. Teams will get more tape on him and will start to figure out how to defend the Cowboys, but Romo seems like he has all the tools to adjust and to keep Dallas in the playoff hunt. He steps up in the pocket, doesn't lock onto his receivers, and he has the confidence of his team. This time last year, the Cowboys were also 7-4 after their annual holiday game. But they stubled down the stretch, winning only two more games and missing the playoffs. That team was led by the immobile Drew Bledsoe, this seems like a much different season with Tony Romo making plays in the spotlight.

Gravley's Thanksgiving Pig Pickin'

2006-11-22T17:14:00.000-08:00

The ACC regular season winds down this weekend and for some teams it'll be a relief when it's over. NC State faces another rival for the 2nd week in a row in East Carolina. If the Pack players thought Carolina came after them, wait till they face the Purple and Gold. State has to find a way to match ECU's emotional edge...something that didn't happen against UNC. Privately the Pirates feel they need a win to make a bowl game. The fire is hot under Chuck Amato which adds another element to this match-up. One final note. ECU AD Terry Holland and NC State AD Lee Fowler should have NEVER agreed to move this game to 7pm for ESPNU!!! The last time these 2 school played a night game was 1987 which ended with a brawl between some of the fans and security officers.

North Carolina is looking for a 2-game win streak...HUH??? Yep, it's back to back rivalry weeks for the Tar Heels as they travel to Duke in John Bunting's final game as Carolina's head coach. The Heels have played more relaxed and aggressive since Bunting was told of his exit but did they spend it all last week against NC State? Duke gets one more crack at a win. One, single, solitary win. But it would be Carolina and that victory bell would ring in their ears until next years game.

Wake Forest gets it's stable of running backs back as they battle Maryland for a spot in the ACC championship game. Regardless of the outcome, the Deacons have been the positive surprise in the ACC and will earn a bowl bid.

NC Central earned a bye in the 1st round of the division 2 playoffs and Saturday, they'll host Delta State. The Statesmen scored 17 third quarter points to put away Elizabeth City State....the team Central needed a late field goal to beat in the CIAA title game. Rod Broadway has done a spectacular job with the Central program and there's nothing more I'd like to see than if he and the Eagles make it to the National Championship game.

Enjoy the weekend of college football!
Jeff

Panthers Can Still Contend

2006-11-19T08:04:00.000-08:00

The Carolina Panthers are above .500 after beating Tampa Bay last Monday night, but is this preseason Super Bowl favorite a contender for the postseason or just a slightly above average team that will struggle over the remainder of the season? How's that for a $64,000 question? John Fox has led the Panthers from a 1-15 team and a franchise that looked lost to one Super Bowl already and a point at which the Panthers are in the mix of favorites every season. But, the NFL is a league in which the window is only open for so long. This season has seen some really bad decisions(the week two disaster in Minnesota) and some awful production from the offense(Carolina has the worst 3rd down conversion rate in the league). The Panthers desperately want to silence the critics, but that will take better play from a patchwork offensive line and some gains from DeShaun Foster and DeAngelo Williams. The Panthers don't have a running back in the Stephen Davis mold that can pound away at an opposing team's defensive line, so it's up to John Fox and his coaching staff to find a way to use the running game that they do have to move the football. If you have a couple of square pegs but only round holes to put them in, then you have to trim the square pegs until their round or cut some square holes. If Carolina can find success against the Rams, then the moribund Redskins are next and that could be the makings of a real roll for the Panthers.

Gravley's Pig Pickin' T-minus 2

2006-11-15T12:46:00.000-08:00

T-minus 2 weeks remain in the college football regular season and for Duke, State and Carolina that means the end of the season. Congrats to Wake Forest, ECU, NC Central and Appalachain State for having good enough seasons to have them extended to the post season. (ECU better get a bowl bid). This is called rivalry week but in our area that only applies to one game.

NC State @ North Carolina

There will be a powder keg of emotions in this game. It's a rivalry game, senior day in Chapel Hill and the final home game for Tar Heel coach John Bunting. There is no doubt that the Wolfpack has more talent but haven't they the last 2 years as well? Two straight losses to the Tar Heels has given the Pack something to think about. In fact, State running back Toney Baker said he knows this game is personal to Coach Chuck Amato. "The first thing he said to us this summer was, we have to take care of Carolina." Nuff said about motivation for the red and white. On Carolina's side, if they only get 1 win over a Division 1 team this year, beating State would be the one. There were a few pre-game shout-outs before last year's game. It could be an all out dog fight this year. I won't be surprised by either team winning.

Virginia Tech @ Wake Forest

How can you doubt the Deacs?? They dismantled FSU by playing smart, fundamental football. Watch their receivers block down field. Watch their pulling linemen lead receivers on reverses and NOT pick up silly blocking penalties. I like Wake in this one because of their disclipline...something Virgina Tech has not shown in every game.

ECU @ Rice

The Pirates can clinch a spot in the CUSA championship game with a win at Rice. A loss still leaves open a possibility IF Southern Miss loses twice. (they host UAB and Marshall). What a story it would be for Pirates to make the title game. The biggest reason, Skip Holtz. He brought hope, motivation and wouldn't let the Pirates waller in self-pity. Beware of the Owls...they lost their first 4 games to Houston, UCLA, Texas and Florida State but have since gone 5-1. I still like the Pirates.

Duke @ Georgia Tech

Nice homecoming for Duke coach Ted Roof who played for the Jackets but that's about the extent of the trip. Next game please. Oh, there are none so see you next week!

Jeff Gravley

Fines a Weak Response

2006-11-09T05:05:00.001-08:00

The NFL announced yesterday that both Tyler Brayton and Jerramy Stevens would be fined and not suspended for their behavior in Monday Night's Raiders-Seahawks game. The Raiders' Brayton got into a post play scuffle with the Seahawks' Stevens and the end result was a national television audience watching Brayton knee Stevens in the groin. Niiiiiiice... If you've seen the video(and I don't know how it's possible that you haven't at this point), then you can see that Jerramy Stevens is hardly an innocent in the matter. Stevens has a bad reputation around the league for being an instigator and that probably helped get him a fine along with Brayton. Here's the thing, though... Why aren't both of these guys suspended? Brayton took most of the initial heat from observers since he was the guy caught clearly on tape trying to make Stevens run his next route a little funny. But the league obviously doesn't think that the Seahawks tight end was just minding his own business. I'm not naive enought to think that dirty things don't go on at the bottom of piles in the NFL, far from the prying eyes of the network TV cameras. But when something obvious like this happens, doesn't the league have to do a little more than just a fine? There are cups in football, but some things are just wrong. It's embrassing for the players and the league. Of course there were those that thought the fine was a bit much, namely Brayton's grandfather, 81-year old Bobo Brayton.

"I told him, 'It will be, what, five hundred, a thousand bucks?'," Bobo Brayton said Wednesday by telephone from Pullman.
Told the league had just taken $25,000 from his grandson, the elder Brayton said, "Holy balls!
"That's a lot of money. Must be inflation," he said. "We could go on a fishing trip — and a hunting trip."

Holy balls indeed, my man.

Gold: Taking a shot at Week 10

2006-11-04T12:58:00.000-08:00

The late great Tug McGraw could have taught us all a few things. One day, as the Mets were having a team meeting in the early part of September in 1973, McGraw jumped up in the locker room and shouted “Ya’ gotta believe!”

The Mets were 9 games under .500 after a 7-4 loss at St. Louis and getting ready to open up a 4-game home series with the Philadelphia Phillies when McGraw offered that rallying cry. They were in 5th place in their division, but just 5 ½ games behind the first place Cardinals at the time. New York took 3 of 4 from Philadelphia and closed the season by winning 19 of their final 26 games and capturing the NL East with a record of 82-79.

The point of this is that the Mets had faith in themselves and many of their fans also kept that faith and rallied behind Tug McGraw. He’s still one of the most beloved players in both Mets and Phillies history.

I’d really love to see some of that in State fans today, because the Pack still has a chance to make something out of this season. There’s no doubt that they’ve fooled a lot of us this season. They lost games that they should not have lost (Akron, just 2-5 against teams not named NC State), and won a couple you might not have expected them to win. But, this game tomorrow night against Georgia Tech is typical of games that the Wolfpack normally play well. It’s at night, on national television (okay, so it’s ESPN-U) and it’s against a nationally ranked opponent.

Regardless of what happens in this game, Georgia Tech is almost certainly going to finish their season in Jacksonville, representing the Coastal Division in the ACC Title game. Maybe the lack of real incentive will work in State’s favor. Either way, even at 3-5 and coming off of a trio of losses – the last two of which were extremely disappointing – this team still has a chance to reach a bowl game. And, should they do so, they will have likely beaten their two most intense rivals.

So, to that end….

YA GOTTA BELIEVE!!!!

ACC Football….and every single game on the schedule this weekend has something very important riding on the outcome…locals first

1 pm at Wallace Wade, Navy visits Duke just one win away from being bowl-eligible. The Middies have lost their last two games (to Rutgers and Notre Dame) by a combined score of 72-14, but could very easily win out the season and end up 9-3. A finish like that could have Navy taking on an ACC team in the Meineke Bowl in Charlotte, and it’s hard to imagine Duke beating a team that could end the season with 9 wins. Duke, in spite of last week’s horrible defensive performance against Vanderbilt, is still a team on the verge of a breakthrough. I don’t see it happening this week unless they can force Navy to turn the ball over.

The Pick: Navy 38, Duke 22

2:30 pm at Notre Dame Stadium, North Carolina heads to South Bend to play on arguably the most hallowed turf in the sport. It’s a great way to put aside the incredible disappointment and despair that this 1-7 season has brought. The Irish aren’t the elite team that they would have you believe, and I’ll be surprised if the Heels don’t have success running the football. Sadly, Carolina will not be able to stop Notre Dame from scoring, and when you factor in that the Heels are 119th in the country in turnover margin (yes, there are only 119 teams), there’s just no way that Carolina comes close.

The Pick: Notre Dame 48 North Carolina 17

7 pm at Carter-Finley, the Wolfpack look to win their 5th straight game against a ranked opponent when they host #20 Georgia Tech. Hard to believe, but State has been the classic “play to the level of their competition” team over the last two years, and both of their wins of this nature have come under exactly the same conditions. Night time, ESPN in the house and at home. Can they stop Calvin Johnson and Tashard Choice. I’ll be surprised if they stop both. The only way the Pack keeps their bowl hopes alive is if Daniel Evans is allowed to throw the ball down the field. Tech is going to force Evans to beat them, much like Florida State did. You must make them pay for that game plan.

The Pick: Georgia Tech 23 NC State 20

7 pm at Groves, the only meeting of two ranked teams takes place when #16 Boston College takes on #22 Wake Forest. These teams have played some incredibly close and dramatic games against each other the last three years with the Demon Deacons winning twice as each game was decided on the final play. In order to win this game Wake is going to have to throw it with success. The Eagles have been very hard to run against and even though Jim Grobe wants to run the ball, his team hasn’t done so with a ton of success. Mostly, they’ve had an effective rush attack, but that’s not enough against BC. Kenneth Moore moves from wide receiver to tailback for this game and I’d expect him to get the bulk of the work load. Could this be a meeting between the two leading candidates to coach in Chapel Hill next year?

The Pick: Boston College 27 Wake Forest 24

Virginia is at Florida State at noon, and the Seminoles will be a completely different team than they’ve been all year. Xavier Lee will play and if he carries over from his strong second half in College Park last week, this could be a blow out. If Virginia loses, their bowl hopes are all but shot.

The Pick: FSU 31 Virginia 10

Clemson hosts Maryland at noon as well and the Tigers have had 10 days to purge their beating up in Blacksburg. The Tigers WILL pay this one forward as Maryland is 100th in the country against the run (VT was 21st) and 83rd in total defense (VT was #3). James Davis and CJ Spiller get theirs this week.

The Pick: Clemson 38 Maryland 20

And, remember when Virginia Tech at Miami was the game for the ACC Title? Heck, that was only two years ago, when the Hokies went to Miami and went across the ocean to beat the Hurricanes for their first conference championship. Last year, Miami ruined Tech’s perfect season in Blacksburg. Sounds like a road team trend. But, can Tech stay on the high after their domination of Clemson last week? Miami’s beaten no one of note, other than Houston, the second best team in Conference USA.

The Pick: Virginia Tech 20 Miami 16

East Carolina is headed for Orlando to take on a Central Florida team that is in complete disarray. They’re 2-6 and George O’Leary has pledged wholesale personnel changes to put more speed on the field. ECU’s on a roll, they’ve won 4 of their last 6 and have a chance to reach the conference championship game if they win out. How they bounce back from a huge win will say a lot about the continuing development of Skip Holtz’ team. If Pinkney to Allison is as good as it’s been over the last two weeks, this one goes in the “W” column.

The Pick: ECU 26 Central Florida 20

I don’t know what the mathematical reaction is going to be to Thursday night’s Louisville win over West Virginia, but if the Cardinals can finish the season 12-0 I think we’ll see Bobby Petrino’s team in the BCS Title game.

I’d love a committee, and even more than a committee I’d love a “plus one” game which would put the top four teams in the BCS standings into a Final Four.

Gravley's Pig Pickin' Nov 3

2006-11-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

Is it already week 10 of the college football season?? How rough has it been for the triangle's representatives in the ACC? How about a combined record of 4 and 20...let me type it another way...four and twenty. It still stinks. Thank goodness for East Carolina, Wake Forest and North Carolina Central. Three great local stories in college football. The Eagles of NCCU will try to become the schools first football team to post a perfect season. What an accomplishment that would be.

NC State needs to win 3 of it's next 4 to be bowl eligible. Saturday night the Pack hosts Georgia Tech and need I remind you that the Jackets have won 4 of their last 5 trips to Carter-Finley Stadium. At least this isn't a 4th straight noon game for the Wolfpack. They have dropped their last 3 early starts. But that still doesn't explain a baffling stat. NC State has been outscored 33-12 in the opening quarter. 9 of those 1st quarter points came against App. State in the first game!! Traditionally this has been a tough match-up for State having lost 9 of the last 11 games. They did intercept one last year at Tech.

North Carolina at Notre Dame is a great field trip for the Tar Heels. If they can't get pumped to play the Irish in South Bend then turn in the uniform. Better find a way to knock Brady Quinn out of the game. Maybe John Bunting is a candidate to lay the wood to Quinn! Bunting did have one of his best games as a Tar Heel linebacker back in 1971 at Notre Dame.

Duke hosts Navy and there may be some Tar Heel fans in Durham scoping out Navy coach Paul Johnson. He's been mentioned as someone Carolina fans would like to have as their coach. Saturday is a good chance to get a scouting report on his coaching. Duke has played better but their defense has struggled with "different" offenses. Duke has some complicated names to pronounce but nothing compared to the Midshipmen's QB. Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada will start for the 2nd straight week. The Devils don't have to pronounce his name..just stop him.

ECU sits in 1st place in the CUSA's East division. No toe stubbing this weekend at Central Florida (2-6). Play hard and keep fighting Pirates. You have been a joy to watch this season.

Gotta give a hollar to NC Central and coach Rod Broadway. The Eagles have a shot at perfection and not many college teams at any level can lay claim to that. Central plays host to JC Smith and already have a spot locked up in the CIAA championship game on November 11th. That game is also in the Eagles nest.

Enjoy the weekend!
Jeff

Gold: The Hokie Pokey and week 9.

2006-10-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

Okay, so Clemson isn’t going up to Blacksburg to prove to the world that they’re an elite level team.

They’re still – in my mind – the best team in this league. But, Virginia Tech paid Clemson forward for all the crap the world’s been dumping on the Hokies for back-to-back embarrassing ACC losses, and the subsequent poor behavior.

That was a very thorough and respectful beating Tech administered to the Tigers last night, and Frank Beamer’s team is now back in the hunt for the Coastal Division.

There’s still a long way to go, but here’s the best way to see a rematch of this game in Jacksonville....

Virginia Tech becomes very big Miami fans on Saturday. With Georgia Tech sitting at 3-1 in the league and having already beaten the Hokies this year, Tech either needs the Jackets to lose twice (possible, but unlikely), or Miami to win and create the possibilty of a 3-way tie atop the Coastal division at 6-2. If that’s the case, we’ll likely end up with tie-breaker #7 which brings it down to BCS rank and there’s a good chance that the Hokies rank would be ahead of Georgia Tech and Miami.

Clemson, on the other hand will be waving Old Gold and Black pom-poms next week when Boston College comes to Winston-Salem. The Tigers need the Eagles to lose twice or hope that the Deacons catch fire and win four of their remaining five (including that game against BC) to create the possibility of a 3-way tie with Wake in the Atlantic Division. Of course, BC could also lose at Miami at the end of the year...

Should the Tigers, Eagles and Deacons end the year at 6-2, there’s a chance that Chris Clark will be crowned Miss America!

There’s a long way to go and a lot of teams are still in the hunt for Jacksonville.

For instance....

If State can hold on to the football, they should be able to win up in Charlottesville, then all they have to do is beat Georgia Tech and Clemson before....never mind....it’s a little too much of a long shot to even type.

Tomorrow, as Chuck Amato told me yesterday, the mission for the Wolfpack is to simply NOT TURN THE BALL OVER. Is that too simplistic? Maybe, but unless you’re overwhelmingly superior or the luckiest sons of....you just can’t win by turning it over on the road.

NC State is -9 in the turnover department, 114th in the nation in that statistic.

Please, please, PLEASE can we see a little more play action on 1st down? I’m begging you guys, open it up, pretend that you’ve got a quarterback that knows what he’s doing?

The pick: NC State 26 Virginia 24

Boston College takes on Buffalo, one of the worst teams in Division 1. In fact, it would be a stretch to think that they’d be competitive at all in Division 1-AA.

The Pick: BC 40, Buffalo 3

Vanderbilt comes to Duke in what will likely be one of the most intimate gatherings of college football fans in the sport’s history. Vandy’s not bad, and they did manage a win at Georgia (you think Mark Richt wants that Saturday back or what), but they’ve got the 90th rated offense in the country and I say that Duke is on the verge. Whether or not the verge is ready to take that next step....

The Pick: Verge 24 Vandy 16

Wake Forest knew last week that coming to Chapel Hill wasn’t going to be easy because no matter what the circumstances are these in-state games always have more at stake. The players know each other intimately. They’ve grown up together. They were teammates. Lived on the same street. Hung out at Goodberry’s together.

Now, Dick Baddour has gone and fired John Bunting and all the players who love their coach are just a little bit faster, just a little bit stronger, and have their senses heightened just a little bit more. If Carolina doesn’t play their best game of the year I’ll be very surprised. Of course, UNC’s best still shouldn’t beat a very good Wake Forest team that should be able to run the ball to keep the chains moving and allow for Riley Skinner to make plays in the passing game. I think we’re going to have ourselves a little bit of a shootout at Kenan.

The Pick: Wake Forest 48 North Carolina 38

A week ago Georgia Tech allowed Clemson to run for more than 300 yards in a 31-7 whipping on the road. This week, the Yellow Jackets shouldn’t have to worry about a team running the ball like that because Miami isn’t capable of that type of a showing. Not that the Hurricanes can’t hurt Tech, because Kyle Wright is still dangerous and the U does have some outstanding athletes on offense. We’re going to see an SEC style defensive struggle in Atlanta.

The Pick: Georgia Tech 16 Miami 13

The Seminoles have never lost two conference games at home – until this year. Florida State has never lost three ACC games in the same season – until last year, and this year. But it’s been 30 years since the Noles have been .500 or worse heading into November (Bobby Bowden’s 1st season in Tallahassee) and 20 since they’ve been .500 or worse after any game in October. A loss in College Park would leave Florida State at 4-4 for the season and 2-4 in the ACC. I know this seems like it’s all about FSU and that Maryland is just an innocent bystander. I think that’s the way this goes.

The Terrapins are decent. But, they don’t have any real weapons on either side of the ball and therefore rely on the generosity of their opponents (or their weak schedule) to win games. As long as FSU doesn’t gift wrap a 6th win for the Terps (much like the Pack did last week) we’ll hear a lot of tomahawk chopping from whatever band FSU rents.

The Pick: FSU 27 Maryland 20

East Carolina heads to Hattiesburg to attempt what NC State failed miserably a month and a half ago. The Pirates are going to try and beat Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles are good, but they’re not as good as you would think of a team that beat NC State by 20 on September 16.

They’ve only won once since and ECU is an improving team that I feel is going to give this one a run.

Can USM handle Pinkney to Allison? If they can’t I’m smelling a road upset.

The Pick: ECU 34 USM 30.

Some other’s worth noting...

It’s the largest outdoor cocktail party, in Jacksonville. And, judging from their home loss to Vanderbilt earlier this year you’d think that Georgia thought it was two weeks ago. The Bulldogs are a bit of a mess on offense and Florida is just a little to solid for the Dawgs.

The Pick: Gators 24 Bulldogs 13

"You can’t spell Citrus without UT!"

I think I’ll laugh about that line forever. Steve Spurrier came back to the college game and beat the Volunteers in Knoxville a year ago. But, Tennessee was bad. I think we’re going to have another good game, maybe a little higher scoring than a year ago.

The Pick: Tennessee 27 South Carolina 23

And a few weeks ago Tommy Tuberville complained about how his Auburn Tigers could go unbeaten and get shut out of a BCS title game and how the SEC was at a disadvantage and how there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll and how Elvis and John Lennon were still alive. Then his team went out and got stomped at home by unranked Arkansas. Suddenly, there’s no more whining.

Charlie Weis spent a fair amount of time during his press conference this week discussing the polls and how his team was jumped by a couple of schools in spite of the fact that the Irish didn’t lose their game. He made some very valid points, but the answer is always going to be the same, "shut up and go play". In many cases, when you complain, you ultimately pay the price with a loss. I don’t know if Navy can do that since they haven’t beaten the Irish since before Viet Nam. But, I won’t be surprised if it’s close.

The Pick: Notre Dame 31 Navy 24

Gravley's Pig Pickin' Oct 25

2006-10-25T13:37:00.000-07:00

What an interesting week for football in the triangle. We begin with North Carolina hosting Wake Forest. How will the Tar Heel players respond to the firing of their coach?? Will they still listen to the lame duck coach or will they rally to win for Coach Bunting? Before the firing of Bunting I thought Wake would just run all over the Heels. It's a pretty uneven match-up of the ACC's 4th ranked rushing offense (Wake gains 144 yards per game) against the league's worst rushing defense (Carolina surrenders 205 yards per game).

NC State has to, needs to, and had better get a win at Virginia. The Pack is 0 for their last 4 in Charlottesville and haven't won there since 1994. Since losing at Southern Miss, NC State has shown extreme toughness and a never quit attitude. Just put a handle on the football and quit those game changing turnovers! Virginia is playing better but State is the better team.

Duke steps out of conference play for 2 straight weeks of home games. Vanderbilt visits Wallace Wade this Saturday followed by Navy on November 4th. After scoring only 13 points in their first 4 games, the Devils have been getting on the board much better the past 3 games....13 points at Bama, 24 against FSU and 15 posted against Miami. Vandy's marquee win in a 3-5 season is a 24-22 win at Georgia.

East Carolina travels to Southern Miss in a battle for 1st place in Conference USA's East division. The Eagles are 2-1 in league play, ECU and UAB are 2-2. Against NC State we saw how physical the Golden Eagles can be. Their only losses of the year are at Florida, at CUSA's best team Tulsa and at Virginia Tech. Hattiesburg can be a haunting place for opponents. A win by the Pirates would be their best to date. These 2 teams have developed quite a rivalry although it's been lopsided. In the last 10 games of the series, Southern Miss is 9-1 against the Pirates.

Enjoy the pig this weekend!
Jeff

The Midweek Look at the League

2006-10-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it goes to figure that as soon as you say something in sports...it goes the othere way. The last time that I managed to hammer out a post on the blog it was about Julius Peppers and the way that he was eating up opposing teams and their offensive lines. The result? Peppers went without a sack for the first time since week one against Atlanta. The Panthers did very little on the defensive line to disrupt the Bengals and in the second half, Cinny made them pay.

More from last week:

-Everyone is really excited about Michael Vick's performance(4 TDs) against the Steelers. That's great, but what are the chances that Vick plays anywhere near that level again this season? The Falcons still don't have a identity, and one great game in the passing department from Vick doesn't mean Atlanta is on the fast track to Miami in February.

-Remember back in the offseason when everyone predicted that T.O. would ruin the Cowboys as surely as the leaves would change color in the fall? I'm not saying that T.O. is exactly spreading peace and love in Dallas, but the Cowboys looked capable of ruining themselves without T.O. on Monday Night against the Giants. If your QB can't retreat from a blitz any faster than the polar ice caps...then it's time to make a switch for good. Ro-mo, Ro-mo, Ro-mo...

-Everyone talks about the problems of performace enhancing drugs and baseball, but for some reason it is as if people are struck deaf, blind and dumb when the issue of drugs and football comes up. Shawne Merriman was hit by the league with a four game suspension for testing positive for the banned substance nandrolone. Of course, Merriman is appealing the suspension under the now timeless defense of "don't blame me, blame my supplements". Why is it that the press simply reports NFL steriod suspensions as a disappointing story, but nothing beyond the moral limits of the sport, while treating anything envolving baseball and steriods as if it's an affront to decent people everywhere?

-The NFL has approved two regular-season games a year to be played outside the United States. I'm all for that, but then again...I don't have season tickets to any team and thusly won't miss a home game when the league jerks my team out of the good ole US of A in an effort to parade "American Football" in front of a crowd of people that think soccer is a better sport.

-On a somewhat related note, FIFA said this week that 58% of the injuries that were suffered in this summer's World Cup were faked. Oh, the artisty...oh, the passion...oh, get up and stop pretending.

-I know that the Steelers say Ben Rothlisbuger is ready to play this weekend, but is that really a good idea? Motorcycle accident, emergency appendectomy, mild concussion last week versus the Falcons...dude, it is karmic-ly not your year.

-I don't know if their defense is really good enough, but has anyone else noticed that the Patriots are putting together another very good season and are on top of the AFC East at 5-1. Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, etc, etc, etc... The only damper that I would put on the Pats is that four of their wins have come against their division. Two wins over Buffalo(2-5), one over the Dolphins(1-6) and one over the Jets(4-3). Make of that what you will.

-You could argue that Eagles should be 7-0 right now...they are in fact 4-3. How exactly did that happen? That's something that Andy Reid might want to figure it out soon.

Peppers Crushing the Competition

2006-10-18T03:59:00.000-07:00

The Panthers are back to being a playoff contender(Super Bowl? Easy...one step at a time) after running off four wins in a row. Yes, there is plenty to talk about in the wake of last weekend's win over AFC North-leading Baltimore and most of that would involve praise for Steve Smith. However, have people noticed what Julius Peppers has been doing so far this season? Peppers picked up two sacks against the Ravens to became the franchise's career leader in sacks. The former UNC defensive end has 8.0 sacks already this year and is likely to exceed his career high total of 12 pretty soon. With three forced fumbles already this season, Peppers is likely to break another franchise record soon. He is one behind Mike Rucker in that category. Rucker marveled at Peppers' ability while talking to the Fayetteville Observer last week,

“Pep is at that point in his career where he can’t do anything wrong,” Rucker said. “His first step puts him in position that he can go inside or outside and it’s hard for a tackle to read that. And if the tackle is a second late, then Pep can do what he wants.”

The frequent knock on Peppers over his first four years in the NFL was that it didn't always look like he was playing with full effort. Anyone want to say that in 2006?

Gold: The Hot List (ACC Style)

2006-10-13T21:11:00.000-07:00

Throw out the stats, forget your pre-conceived notions, these are the best teams and elements in the ACC.

Best teams...

1-Clemson...it's a shame they blew the game at Boston College. There aren't going to be a lot of unbeaten teams and the Tigers are an offensive machine.
2-Georgia Tech...if they hadn't stopped throwing the ball to Calvin Johnson in the opener against Notre Dame....
3-NC State...so you're telling me that the same team that lost to Akron and was hammered by Southern Miss then beat BC and FSU?
4-Boston College...So many of their games could have gone either way. Mostly they go theirs and that means something.
5-Wake Forest...do they have the talent of FSU, Miami, or Virginia Tech? No. But, they might be a better team than all three.

Best guess at Jacksonville...

Clemson vs. Georgia Tech

Now, on to the week ahead...

You can't blame State fans for being so jacked up lately. Maybe it's the start of the State Fair this weekend. Personally, I can't wait for my first fried Oreo. But, after starting out 1-2 the Pack has circled the wagons and rallied behind Daniel Evans to beat Boston College and Florida State and now they welcome in Wake Forest for a game that will go a long way towards giving the Pack a shot at an Atlantic Division title.

Here’s the way it goes….and keep in mind that no one is immune to the stinker game because we’ve seen way too much football in this league this year to think that anyone is above getting upset.

If the Pack can manage to control Wake’s running game and not turn the ball over, they’ll beat the Demon Deacons – maybe even convincingly – and set a collision course for a November match up at Clemson with the winner likely being the division representative in Jacksonville. Not to get too far ahead, but if State beats Wake tomorrow they’ll likely head to Death Valley November 11th with no more than 2 losses (they visit Maryland and Virginia before hosting Georgia Tech November 4th) and with the Tigers already having one loss, that game would give the winner the tie-breaker advantage.

Am I moving too fast? Maybe, and believe me when I say that State could very easily lose this game to Wake Forest if they make too many mistakes. But, I have a feeling about this team. I think November 11 – the day after Sidney Lowe’s debut against Wofford – will be a day in which State takes a swing at winning the Atlantic Division.

Would you have guessed that after losses to Akron and Southern Miss?

The Pick: NC State 27, Wake 23

For the record, I went a perfect 6-0 last week in my ACC picks, including nailing the score on the nose between Clemson and Wake.

Thursday night, Boston College turned out the lights on Virginia Tech’s conference title hopes with a very thorough 22-3 beating at Chestnut Hill. BC wasn’t awesome statistically as the Hokies held the Eagles to under 300 yards in total offense. But, Tech did nothing but turn the ball over as they finished the game minus-4 in that category.

On top of that, the Hokie sideline was a mess. Kirk Herbstreit was extremely critical of the program on the broadcast – justifiably so. Vince Hall and Aaron Rouse had to be separated, Brendan Hill was caught dancing on the field late in the game. This is a team right now that looks extremely undisciplined.

Thursday night in Charlotte, Clemson was the big powerful sports sedan going 90 miles an hour on the highway and Temple was the bug. 63-9.

Tomorrow in Chapel Hill, you can call it what you want, but I’ll call it Carolina’s mid-term exam. And, if I recall correctly from my college days, mid terms were usually in the neighborhood of 40% of your grade. I think the Tar Heels had better step it up – to use a horrible sports cliche` – and play well. The Bulls are not a great team, but they are a good team. Their quarterback, Matt Grothe, is 9th in the country in total offense with more than 1650 yards in 6 games. He’s a good thrower, but a dangerous runner, and athletes like that will be an extreme test for a defense that isn’t blessed with tons of speed and has had problems with recognition and assignments.

This is the biggest game of the season for North Carolina.

The Pick: South Florida 30 UNC 27

Florida State and Duke are at Wallace Wade Stadium and if I knew that the Seminoles weren’t going to score on defense and special teams I’d be tempted to think that the Blue Devils would give the Noles a game. But, with Duke’s problems on the O-line and the fact that FSU has already seen the tape of Duke’s game at Alabama, FSU will get at least 1 non-offensive touchdown and probably force at least 4 turnovers.

The Pick: FSU 34 Duke 6 (missed PAT, of course).

Don Strock made a career as a back up QB in Miami, now he’s the head coach at Florida International and he’s bringing his team into Miami where the Hurricanes are still struggling despite a 20-point win over Carolina. FIU gave Maryland a hard time in College Park three weeks ago and I think they’ll give the Canes a few problems early.

The Pick: Miami 26, FIU 13

The Terps and Cavaliers used to be a big game. Neither team is very good and this one isn’t even on TV. It’s on something called ESPN360, which I believe is just a web stream. My wife is going to do some on-line shopping this weekend, so I don’t know if I’ll be able to catch this one.

The Pick: Virginia 20 Maryland 16

Around the nation….

I think ECU’s offense has a shot to take down defending C-USA champ Tulsa at Dowdy Ficklen. I really like what I see from the Pirates offensively, and they competed defensively with West Virginia.

I think Navy has a shot to beat #22 Rutgers this weekend and look out for Washington State at home against Cal. The Bears won’t be able to surprise the Cougars with hideous uniforms like they did against Oregon.

Another week another heavyweight game in the SEC….for the 5th time this year, two of the best teams in the nation share the field when Florida goes to Auburn. The Tigers are coming off their shocking loss to Arkansas a week ago while the Gators just got through hammering LSU.
Auburn will win this game because, well, just because – 23-17.

See ya next week

Gravley's Pig Pickin' Oct 12

2006-10-12T09:02:00.000-07:00

Wake Forest @ NC State

According to Wolfpack defensive tackle Tank Tyler, after every practice the Pack breaks their team huddle with the chant of ACC champs and state champs. Chuck Amato still believes winning beating all of the in state schools on your schedule is a big deal...and it is. It's a good recruiting tool. Wake and State has always been an interesting game and so should the 100th meeting between the 2 schools on Saturday. NC State's defensive front has been stellar in their last 2 wins over BC and FSU. Wake is always a challenge for a run defense and I can't wait to see the match-up of Wake's run offense vs. State's run defense. Pack QB Daniel Evans has been a difference maker since he entered the 4th quarter against Southern Miss. He just flat knows football and where everyone is supposed to be in the offense. So often we incorrectly measure a QB for his arm strength but knowledge of the game and footwork are 2 key elements of a QB. Watch the footwork of Evans how he rarely throws a ball without his feet in the proper position to make the throw.

South Florida @ North Carolina

It's another post expansion ACC vs. Big East match-up and the Heels need this one BIG TIME. At some point they'll need a win over a Division 1 team for goodness sakes. The players are talking about needing to go 5-2 in their final 7 games to become bowl eligible. Beating South Florida is a must for that to happen. The Bulls average 153 yards rushing per game and I'm sure they'll be pawing at the dirt to go up against Carolina's rushing defense that's giving up 202 yards per game. Also, don't forget that South Florida lost to undefeated Rutgers 22-20 and we saw what the Scarlett Knights did at Kenan to open the season. Rutgers 21 Carolina 16.

Tulsa @ East Carolina

The Pirates face a major test with defending conference champ, Tulsa coming to town. The Golden Hurricane lost fewer lettermen than any team in Conference USA's western division and they have started the season 4-1. Included in that record are back to back wins over Southern Miss and Navy. East Carolina has played well in it's last 3 games posting a 2-1 record. To Pirate fans, Tulsa may not be as sexy as West Virginia and Virginia but a win here would REALLY go a long way toward the Pirates extending their season with a bowl bid.

Florida State @ Duke

Gosh...the Devils score more touchdowns at Alabama than they did the entire year!! That's progress. It'll be interesting to see how interested Florida State is in this game. They'll be playing in front of half the folks they are accustomed to having in the stands. The Noles will either play poorly and win by 10 or take out their frustrations on Duke and it could be ugly. As Bobby Bowden once told Lou Holtz after beating Holtz by about 40...It's not my job to stop my offense. You either need to work harder or recruit better. UGH...

Till next week,
Jeff Gravley

Adam Gold: Put that in your hot seat.

2006-10-06T12:25:00.001-07:00

Last night at Carter-Finley Stadium two things happened; NC State seriously found out that they have a quarterback that can not only win, but win under pressure. And, Florida State University was slapped completely out of their perch as the leader of the ACC.

Not that the Seminoles can’t win the league this year – though it looks very unlikely – but, the days are over when people can just assume that Florida State is going to be the best team in the league. Tommy Bowden has a better team than his father, and Bobby’s other “son”, Chuck Amato, has his number.

NC State has now won 4 of the last 6 from Florida State after last night’s come-from-behind 24-20 win in front of a national television audience. Daniel Evans was a star, throwing three touchdown passes and showing poise after a rough start. You knew that the Noles were coming after him and they roughed him up a bit but he didn’t back down and made huge plays in the second half.

This was NOT a fluke for the Wolfpack. They have resurrected their season with back-to-back wins over ranked opponents by mixing their running game with a quarterback that knows what he’s doing. Some will say that Evans just threw the ball up for grabs on two of his scoring plays. I disagree. I say he took calculated risks, throwing the ball to taller receivers who were covered by inexperienced players. That’s called understanding the game and taking advantage of your opportunities.

Those are things that good football players do.

Speaking of good football players….how about Geron James, Donald Bowen, Anthony Hill, Andre Brown, Toney Baker, Darrell Blackman, Tank Tyler, Demario Pressley, DeJuan Morgan, A.J. Davis, Garland Heath, etc….those guys and a bunch of their friends played a hack of a ballgame last night. The defense stuffed FSU’s pseudo-running game, and the offensive line did a very solid job.

State is not a perfect team. I still believe that you can run wide against them. I still think that you can hurt State with short passes. But, State has answered the challenge of those losses to Akron and Southern Miss and they’ve decided that this season had a lot left on the bone.

That was a very mature win for the Pack.

It was also a very telling loss for Florida State.

As for the rest of the league we’re going to find out some things this weekend…

We’ll find out if Wake Forest is 5-0 merely because the level of competition has been low, or if they are up to the challenge of a team as explosive as Clemson – for my money the best team in the ACC through five weeks of the season. Can the Demon Deacons slow down the Tigers – even without Chansi Stuckey? Can Wake stop Clemson’s incredible running game, and inflict their own rushing attack on the Tigers’ defense that ranks 11th nationally against the run. Clemson, for those of you scoring at home, is 9th in total defense, 14th in turnover margin, and 2nd in scoring. They don’t rank below 54th in any statistical category, and they’re good at protecting Will Proctor. This is a very good football team, though they do have some special teams issues.
Pick: Clemson 27 Wake Forest 17

We’ll also see how Georgia Tech bounces back from a huge win at Virginia Tech when they deal with a very disappointing Maryland team about to play their first conference game of the year. Even though the Terps are 3-1, they struggled to beat Florida International last week, holding their breath as FIU had the ball in Maryland territory with a chance to steal the game in College Park. Meanwhile Tech is playing very good defense and forcing turnovers. They’ve caused 10 in the last four games and the Terps are -6 on the season.
Pick: Georgia Tech 31 Maryland 10

North Carolina travels to Miami and we’re hoping that John Bunting and company will have fixed the things that ARE broken. Following the Clemson debacle, Coach Bunting mentioned that not everything was broken. Well that may be true, but the things that are broken seem to be the things that cause you to get beat 52-7 and give up over 300 yards rushing and render you completely non-competitive. The best cure for what ails the Tar Heels is a win, and it doesn’t hurt that Miami is almost as offensively challenged as any team in the country. They just don’t seem to have an idea of what they want to do when they’ve got the ball. Look for Miami to try and control this game on the ground – hell, if Larry Coker’s watched ANY FILM AT ALL he might run it on every play – with freshman legacy Javarris James, the nephew of former Hurricane stud Edgerrin James. If they have success on the ground against the Heels, and who doesn’t, they’ll win this game going away.
Pick: Miami 34 North Carolina 13

Duke travels to Tuscaloosa to play Alabama for the first time since 1972. If you ask me, Duke should have waited another 34 years to make this trip. If Duke reaches double digits in 1st downs the Tide ought to be embarrassed. Although, the last time Ted Roof took his Blue Devils on the road in the SEC, they nearly beat Tennessee – losing 23-6 at Neyland Stadium before coming home to beat Georgia Tech for Roof’s first win as a head coach.
Pick: Alabama 23 Duke 0 (what, do you think the Blue Devils are going to score?)

And, Virginia steps outside of the ACC to take on ECU at Dowdy-Ficklen. This will be the second BCS school to make the drive to Greenville, as West Virginia was there a couple of weeks ago and had their hands full. The Pirates should be able to move the ball on the Cavaliers though we’ll see how much carry over there is from UVA’s 37-0 pasting of Duke last week.
Pick: ECU 27 Virginia 20

Around the country….

For the second time the SEC is the spotlight conference with a pair of highly-ranked match ups…

#9 LSU plays at #5 Florida and #13 Tennessee visits #10 Georgia…and #2 Auburn hosts Arkansas…

This is the weekend that Mack Brown used to dread. This is the Texas State fair and the home for the Red River Shootout with Oklahoma. Once upon a time, Bob Stoops used to roll up Brown’s Longhorns. Now, we’ll see how it stands – A.V., or after Vince. I also have a feeling that the Missouri-Texas Tech and Nebraska-Iowa State games are going to be worth the time.

In the Big Ten, the slow train wreck that is Michigan State football heads to Ann Arbor to get pummeled by Michigan. Many Wolverine fans tell me that Big Blue is every bit as good as Ohio State (home to Bowling Green on Saturday). If that’s the case then this game will not be close at all.

And finally, a big match up in the Pac 10 with #11 Oregon on the road at #16 California. Is this the weekend when we finally get a look at the Ducks’ yellow uniforms?

Running with Fast Willie Parker

2006-10-05T08:09:00.000-07:00

I had the chance to talk to Pittsburgh Steeler running back, Willie Parker on my radio show this week. The Steelers are coming into Week Five of the season after a bye week and a loss to division rival Cincinnati before that. Parker is ready to carry the load for the Steelers as they head to San Diego for a Sunday night showdown. You can listen to the interview by clicking the link above.

Gravley's Pig Pickin' Week 4

2006-09-29T12:12:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-09-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-21T03:39:00.001-07:00

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

2006-09-15T12:16:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-09-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-09-02T10:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

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

Gravley's Pig Pickin' Week 1

2006-08-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

It seems to take forever for the 1st complete week of the college football season to get here. You gotta love game week!!! Especially the 1st week. Instead of making a bunch of picks (which are usually wrong) here are a few things to keep an eye on for the weekend.

APPALACHIAN STATE @ NC STATE
This isn't just a money making Division 1 vs. Division 1-AA match up. App State has the full attention of NC State. Wolfpack players talked about the Mountaineers 24-0 loss at LSU last year. Plus App. State knows how to win...they've been in big games before. I'm eager to see the Wolfpack's stable of backs on the field at the same time. Currently Andre Brown, Toney Baker and Darrell Blackmon are 1st team on the depth chart. Brown and Baker in the backfield and Blackmon at receiver. That's a lot of talent. State's offense needs to carry the defense until the young unit of defenders can get some cohesiveness.

RUTGERS @ UNC
The Heels are going with Joe Dailey over Cam Sexton at quarterback. Not much of a surprise here in that Sexton would have had to be head and shoulders above Dailey to overcome the game experience of the Nebraska transfer. Whoever the Carolina QB is, if he can stay out of trouble the Heels could be pretty good. Carolina has a running game that can control a game and defensively, this could be Carolina's best since the Julius Peppers, Ryan Sims crew.

RICHMOND @ DUKE
Sophomore Marcus Jones inherits the Duke QB job after the suspension of last year's end of the year starter Zack Asack. Jones has completed 2 of 7 collegiate passes with 1 interception. Defensively Duke will be better with 7 starters back as well as talented Vince Oghobaase who ripped up his knee last year. Will Duke feel the excitement of having a great chance to win or will they actually feel pressure that this is one of the few games they are favored to win?

ECU @ NAVY
Last year, EC repaired some of the damage done by getting only 3 wins in 2 seasons. The Pirates went 5-6 under 1st year coach Skip Holtz and they bring back an offense that can put up numbers with the best of them. It's never an easy task to face Navy's triple-option offensive attack, especially the 1st game out of the gate. A win for ECU on Saturday would be huge for the program but a loss at Navy isn't as devastating as it would be in the past. The Middies have been to 3 consecutive bowls.

Enjoy the 1st week!!
Jeff Gravley

Welcome

2006-08-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to The Huddle.