At this point there are basically fives teams playing for a legitimate shot at the ACC Championship Game. Yes, others are still in the mix but in that happy place where dreams meets reality and reality runs over dreams like an 18 wheeler over a grape, there are only five teams left.
The game of the week, as denoted by a 7:45 PM start on ESPN Saturday night is FSU vs Clemson. This was once called Bowden Bowl but the youngest of that pair is now doing cheeky color analysis somewhere and well that is pretty much all Bobby is doing to for all intents and purposes. Clemson controls its own destiny in the Atlantic. A win here and they are 4-2 with NCSU and UVa left. Plus, Clemson has a game in hand in a tiebreaker with Boston College who only has two losses. FSU can claw back to 3-3 and ahead of Clemson with a win but would need help since BC owns the tiebreaker on them. Got all of that?
Duke and Georgia Tech also control their respective destinies in the Coastal which could end with a bloody run vs pass offensive extravaganza next week in Durham. Duke only needs to slip by UNC to stay at one loss in the conference. And yes, the more I write about Duke actually winning in football the greater the chance than I am going to impale myself with this keyboard. UNC will be looking to play spoiler and grab one of the two winnable games it needs for bowl eligibility goodness.
Georgia Tech has Wake Forest and must tread carefully versus the Deacs who can be both dangerous and harmless in the same game. The looming issue for Wake is whether Riley Skinner, knocked out of the Miami game with a concussion, will be able to play. If he does not, that will not bode well for the Deacs though Georgia Tech will probably have the football for 2/3 of the game so it may not matter who is calling the signals for Wake. The Yellow Jackets need two wins and they go to Tampa.
Miami will keep their outside shot at the Coastal alive. Canes need to win out and get help from Wake or Duke to overtake Georgia Tech. Maryland and NCSU were demoted to ESPN360 from ESPNU perfectly illustrating how little anyone cares about this game, Wolfpack fans included.
Virginia Tech will try to terminate a two game losing streak(wait…what?) against ECU in Greenville. The Hokies should take care of business but you never can tell what might happen in Greenville at night.
VT 30 ECU 14
Miami 34 UVa 10
NCSU 38 MD 28
GT 31 Wake 17
UNC 28 Duke 20
Clemson 45 FSU 24
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Sigh… Who would have thought that it would come to this? UNC hoping to play spoiler to Duke in football. A certain coach did not get the job done this year.
I REALLY hope that Shoop and Withers have been extensively watching the tapes of VaTech and Richmond’s games against dook.
Butch hinted at what he thought was the key to beating Duke on Saturday and obviously, that’s keeping Thad Lewis on the sideline. Reduce the number of Duke possessions. I agree and mentioned last week, that if the Heels can run on Duke, and not turn it over, the Heels win easily.
Look for the Heels to run, run, run and then run some more. If the score is tied or the Heels have a lead, I’ll bet every play clock gets taken down to 2 seconds or so.
I am curious to see how the Heels defend. Mix it up would be my mantra, but I’d bring the kitchen most of the time. Give Lewis time and he’ll be successful is my sublime message to Butch and Everett.
^You hit on the key. If UNC only rushes four guys things will not turn out well for the Heels. They need to put pressure on Lewis right from the start. Do not let him get in a rhythm or that game will be out of reach by halftime (remember, with UNC’s offense, trailing by more then 10 points = out of reach)
I think the coaches may have made some bad calls this year, see FSU but I don’t hang the season on them, we still have a 5-3 season so far so it’s not like the sky is falling. You lose enough players in one area and you are in trouble. I don’t think that in year three you can expect the 2 & 3 deep players to be able to step up with the rest of the 2 & 3 players and look like Juniors and Seniors. It’s just not reality. That said, it does seem that we looked past Virginia and made some bad calls against FSU. The only thing that scares me about this game is the six sacks that Virginia had on Lewis and he still chewed them up. I don’t know how much pressure they were putting on him through the game or if they started prevent at the end of the game but looking at the raw stats I’m somewhat concerned about his ability to keep his composure when being sacked six times.
Regardless Duke doesn’t have a fearful defense and if we can keep the ball on offense, mix-up the run and the pass – lock down on these cats with our tremendous D then I think we will have them cornered. That doesn’t rule out the big play which Duke has the ability to deliver via Lewis.
Smile they have a great QB waiting in the wings for the next three years as well. They don’t have the program in place though nor the quality across the board that the Heels under Davis have built.
Spoken like a G-Vegas native, THF. Oh wait, you’re talking about at the football game aren’t you.
Seriously though, Go Pirates!
And I really, really, really am getting tired of all the talk about Duke and football. I sincerely hope the ‘Heels can thump ‘em Saturday so we can all go back to the reality of Duke being a basketball school. Go ‘Heels!
I would like to say that there is no possible way Dook can win 4 in a row, but I’ll keep my mouth shut for fear of the jinx.
We said stuff like that three years ago about Wake Forest…just saying.
The UNC-Dook game used to be a big deal around Chapel hill….. up until the late 1970′s the “Beat Dook” weekend would have started yesterday. My old frat, Pi Kappa Alpha, hosted/sponsored the “Beat Dook” parade on Fri down Franklin St and dorms, frat and sororities entered floats for it. Ours was always a flatbed truck w/ a keg on front and back (how times have changed) to be enjoyed by the brothers, their dates and anyone who walked along the truck to get a brew or seven- I remember Chanc. Taylor coming out to get a tray of beers for the office staff (HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED!). Thurs night before the parade there was always a cocktail party at our house where certain professors (usually ones who had a bunch of brothers in those classes) were invited as judges for the co-eds entered and attending to win the “Beat Dook Queen” title. By dinner Fri all pint bottles were sold out at the EastGate ABC store… they fit so well into a sport coat pocket and Sat the tailgating across campus was the start of a great college football game day. It didn’t hurt that we usually whooped the Dookies, tho’ games were usually close: running backs like Don McCauley, Sammy Johnson, James “Boom Boom” Betterson and Mike Voight saved the day for the ‘Heels. While some things have changed, I sure look forward to a similar outcome of running the ball down the Dookies throats- Go Heels!
That’s some good stuff, Gorsk. I was around for some of those 70′s games (visiting from Jr College) and regretted not transferring to UNC when I had the chance…….