Thursday, September 21st
Georgia Tech 24 Virginia 7
The only question I had after this game is why does Calvin Johnson see the ball so little when he is so obviously a great receiver. Granted he got six catches for 165 yards but in the two previous games against weaker opponents(and I use that term loosely where UVa is concerned) he has a total of six catches for 35 yards. According to one on screen graphic Johnson had one 100 yard game in the last 10 and three games where he was held to two catches. I think GT is a good team and could make some noise in their division but not if Reggie Ball does not figure out how to throw the ball to Johnson. UVa is the definition of an inept offense but the defense seems to be fairly decent.
Saturday, September 23rd
Virginia Tech 29 Cincinnati 13
Wow, this was scary. The Bearcats led 10-5 at half and 13-12 after three quarters. VT finally got it together in the fourth quarter including a interception returned for a touchdown. And guess what? The Hokies scored a safety by blocking a punt. More special teams. That's the Beamer way. Also, it should be noted that Aaron Rouse, who last week took out Duke's QB on a late hit for his second personal foul of the game received another personal foul in this game. So to all those apologist could you please stop saying the incident in the Duke game was an isolated incident, he is a good kid, and he was punished because apparently he did not learn his lesson.
Florida State 55 Rice 7
You have to love the headline for this game:
No. 18 'Noles rebound from loss, run up score on Rice
In fact even Bobby Bowden was calling out his own team saying the effort was unimpressive because the opponent was so bad. Good times in Tallahassee to be sure. Exhibit A that Rice is a horrible team: They have been outscored 107-14 in the last two weeks. Exhibit B that Rice is a horrible team: FSU rushed for 287 yards. And I did not think anyone had a worse run defense than UNC then along comes Rice.
Maryland 14 Florida International 10
Now that is ugly. Only scoring 14 points on FIU is a little like running through one of those big paper banners and being repelled. At the very least the Terps could have won 14-0. Also, this concluded the cupcake portion of the Maryland schedule. Have fun with Georgia Tech in two weeks.
Wake Forest 27 Mississippi 3
Wake Forest is 4-0. Did you read that? WAKE FOREST IS 4-0! What kind of backwards, bizzaro ACC football reality have I wandered into here. Also add to this to the fact that ECU played West Virginia very close today and only lost 27-10 to a team which seemed like an unstoppable football juggernaut. So if I had to rank NC college football at this point it would look like this
1. Wake Forest
2. ECU
3. NC State
4. Appalachian State
5. North Carolina
6. Duke
As for Wake, the injuries do not seem to matter. Riley Skinner and De'Angelo Bryant are gettinng the job done. Wake gets I-AA Liberty next and will move to 5-0 and one win from a bowl game. I actually think the bowl berth is inevitable for Wake simply because they will pick off either NC State, UNC, or Maryland. They may also have a fighting chance versus Clemson, BC, FSU, or VT.
NC State 17 Boston College 15
ITl ooks like NC State found themselves a legitimate QB. Well, that might be rushing it but I saw most of this game and Daniel Evans did some good stuff tonight. He can throw the football and one play where he was flushed from the pocket and had the presence of mind to flip the ball to a nearby receiver tells me the kid may be the real deal. Evans' poise with 56 seconds left and 72 yards to go for the winning touchdown should make the masses in Wolfpack nation very happy. Also, State should be commended for showing up against BC and actually beating someone of significance. NC State also showed some serious chops of defense against a BC team that had put together some outstanding offensive efforts over the past two weeks. One side note: Chuck Amato does not have a clue how to manage the clock or his replay challenges. Near the end of the first half Amato had two timeouts he could have utlized to save some clock and make a few attempts to score before the half expired. He chose to let the clock run out. The even dumber call on his part was using a timeout to challenge a punt spot which was so clearly called correctly that he jeopardized his team's chances late by wasting a timeout on a call which never had a chance of being overturned. While the team gave a great effort the coach showed some deficiency in managing the game which may be his undoing.
Clemson 52 UNC 7
Let's face it. UNC is awful and the questions about Bunting's future should be raised in earnest over the next two weeks.
This Week: 6-1
This Season: 26-10