Granted, there is not much difference between not being televised and being on ESPNU but the fact the game has been moved from 3:00 to 3:30 and put on a television channel somewhere is an indication that this game has implications beyond the possession of an old bell. Both teams are working towards bowl eligibility at 5-3 each and Duke is presently tied in the loss column with division leader Georgia Tech.
You want to know who the real victims is in all of this? Wolfpack fans, many of whom are just fed up. Seriously, how bad could this week be for them? Last Sunday NCSU was picked dead last in the ACC for basketball, by a wide margin. On Thursday UNC pulls themselves up by the boot straps, goes to Blacksburg and shocks Virginia Tech reviving a season left for dead. Duke wins at Charlottesville setting up the two local rivals in a meeting of 5-3 teams all while NCSU fell to 0-4 in the ACC despite scoring 42 points. At this point NCSU needs to win out to qualify for a bowl game, something that is unlikely to happen. Across the board, NC State might be the most irrelevant athletic program in the ACC at this point.
And yeah, Pitt has to be kicking themselves for that loss in Raleigh.
Elsewhere in the ACC this past weekend:
Miami and Wake Forest played an epic game in which the Hurricanes waited for about half the contest before deciding to show up and play football. Miami rallied to take a one point lead and knock Riley Skinner out of the game which ultimately did the Deacs in.
Georgia Tech took some time to get going before overwhelming Vanderbilt. Clemson and Boston College performed as expected in beating out of conference opponents of a lesser stripe.
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Hey, NC State just won the ACC title in men’s cross country. So they got that and bass fishing. And on their deathbeads, they will achieve total consciousness. So, they got that going for them.
Also, doesn’t State lead the league in cow-tipping? That’s gotta count for something.
Are you seriously considering NXSU fan’s feelings in all of this? Please don’t force me to abandon this blog.
Certainly the UNC/Duke game Saturday has more implications than any of their games in many years. I was afraid that if the Heels had been throttled in Blacksburg, Kenan would have been a vast wasteland of aluminum and Royal Blue. However, I think the joint will be packed with Heels fans and should be a great atmosphere.
As for Carter Finley. If Maryland beats the Pack, my guess is that “FOR SALE” signs will be found in TOB’s yard Sunday morning.
C’mon, Pat. A good writer knows his audience. THF has a few friends who pull for State, and no doubt State Fan is at least reading the headlines of this site now that the 850 blog is no more.
That said, where would you go anyway?
^Santiago, so true, where else would you go. Well if you want to join in the ranting head over to IC or SFN. I went to ESPN Triangle this AM and the entire site is garbage as is ESPN Mobile. Does anyone remember Broadband.com prior to the Yahoo buyout? No blogging but they had every score for every game updated instantly and it was all text based – back in the day of dial-up it was super fast. That would work well today for someone. I think one reason these WordPress sites are useful is the lack of garbage applications and code dragging down the performance.
I’m hopeful regarding the Duke game, it should be interesting. I don’t see Duke standing up to our defense and if the offense performs at or close to VT game expectations then we should have them. WF is done, not more Skinner is doom for them, period. I wonder if Grobe is still thinking about Nebraska?
State is in a free fall presently, I had to interact with a state fan over Halloween and he was pretty bitter. He got just a touch irritated when I mentioned that the first thing I did this season was buy tickets to the UNC v. NC State game for some payback love. He just wanted to point out that the ACC was bad through and through and there was no dominant team – I questioned him about VT’s record over the last five seasons…uh, uh Eugene.
Go Heels!
http://blog.techsideline.com/?p=1495#more-1495
A nice breakdown on the UNC/VT game from the VT perspective. The blogger does a fair amount of linking photos with text when commenting on certain plays. Interesting if not time consuming to be sure.
Enjoy
I will boldly predict a UNC beat down of Dook this weekend. UNC is going to remind them why they had given up on Football. Their dream of bowl eligibility (man, that word has a lot of “i”s in it…) is about to end. You heard it here first.
Careful with those Wuffies, THF. They still have some talent on offense and, despite what the lynch mob over at SFN says, TOB is a top line coach with a history of success. He was left with a mess by Amato, but is recruiting well. He will be trouble for us down the line in a way that Amato, O’Cain and others were not.