different names for the same thing
BlogPoll Ballot #2 (previous rank in parentheses)...I realize it's tough to truly suss out where a team is at this point, seeing as UVA taught me that you learn the same from blasting a cupcake 60-0 as you can putting up one of those 30's-some number in the teens scores I saw a lot this weekend. So nothing too seismic yet...
1. USC (1)
2. Michigan (2)
3. Texas (3)
4. Georgia (13)
5. Florida (7)
6. Tennessee (5)
7. LSU (6)
8. Ohio State (11)
9. Louisville (8)
10. Purdue (10)
11. Virginia Tech (14)
12. Florida State (12)
13. Iowa (13)
14. Miami (4)
15. Notre Dame (unr)
16. Georgia Tech (unr)
17. Texas Tech (18)
18. Cal (16)
19. NC State (23)
20. Arizona State (unr)
21. Alabama (19)
22. Minnesota (20)
23. Fresno State (23)
24. Boston College (unr)
25. Oregon (25)
1000. Virginia (21)- subject to further review
1001. Oklahoma (9)- subject to further review
outta here: Auburn, Pitt, Oklahoma, Virginia
- Taking two days before I reevaluate the UVA team is probably a good thing, because, in reality, this was a no-win situation to begin with. Would I like to have seen a reprise of 59-16? Of course, but then we're right back where we started last year, and no one's going to care until we start digging into the ACC schedule. On the one hand, a lot of what happened against WMU will fly under the radar because we scored 31 points and won. On the other, UVA picked a terrible week to raise questions about their ability to rebound from having seven players in the NFL Draft, as nearly every ACC team that's been used interchangeably with them in preseason bowl projections got a meaningful win.
What did I like? The fact that we got Ottowa "The Senator" Anderson involved early and Deyon Williams looked like he can step up this year. Granted, results against a directional school probably aren't a good gauge, but it's encouraging to see us committing to some semblance of a deep passing game, considering any production whatsoever from our WR's will represent a vast improvement over last year, and I don't think we'll miss Heath Miller as much as people think due to the progress of Santi and Stupar.
What didn't I like? Hoo boy. Okay, I realize that when you go up 24-3 in NCAA 2006, the eyes start to glaze over a bit, you find out that after 15 years, the WR reverse still never gains positive yardage, and overall, you hope that EA Sports will learn from its mistakes and institute a "simulate the rest of the game" function. However, I'm not getting paid $1.7 million to commandeer the UVA dynasty. Al Groh is. And most of the descriptions of the way UVA played, "uninspired," "sloppy," "outcoached" are directly attributable to the man in charge.
Greg Jennings put up 16 catches and 156 yards, a lot of which were the result of poor positioning and tackling. The O-line gave up four sacks. Our vaunted running game also might turn out to be an area of concern if Wali Lundy's foot sprain is as serious as the one that ended his season in 2003. Michael Johnson did his Michael Johnson thing, which is to say, get a case of ol' CriscoHands in a (mostly) meaningless game and bury himself on the bench despite being the true home run threat on a team that sorely lacks big play ability. Jason Snelling's a bruiser, but he also put it on the ground twice. Cedric Peerman acquitted himself nicely, and unlike Hawai'i transfer Andrew Pearman, he's not related to a 4th-round draft pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars that coldcocked one of my fraternity brothers while he was taking a piss at the Biltmore. Still, I'm not certain he's at the point where he could carry a game like Lundy can. So in sum, any team with a modicum of physical talent on par with UVA would've buried us, but fortunately, most of these problems can be fixed (our QB didn't pitch a 7-24) and unlike two teams that got reamed by the NFL Draft (Auburn, OU), we're 1-0.
Although there's nothing I want more than to be reassured about UVA's potential as quickly as possible, I'll take the bye week to get Ahmad Brooks, Lundy and Snelling healthy. And even after September 17th (and the 24th against Duke), I'll still have no idea where UVA truly is, because they'll be playing Syracuse, who turned in the most wretched offensive performance I've seen since Penn State assaulted our eyeballs with a 6-4 loss to Iowa. I understand that Gregg Robinson is trying to institute a West Coast offense with Option personnel, but WVU looked like they had the 2001 Ravens defense on loan. Going to the Carrier Dome still is a scary proposition (or at least it should be), but I'm not gonna pull out the Joy Division CDs yet, mostly because last year's team was the exception to the fact that Al Groh's teams at Virginia have been slow starters and strong finishers.
Other notes...
- Every time I play against Miami in NCAA 2006, TE # 82 wails on my linebacking core, but I always win because QB #7 throws five picks. It's all starting to make sense now after last night...The general consensus is that although FSU won (you'll never see either team attempt a 4th quarter field goal for the rest of the rivalry's history), Miami's got the brighter future this year because their QB play was only intermitantly awful instead of full-scale bed-shitting awful. I'm not so sure it's that clearcut. FSU still has a ferocious D and two solid RB's, while Tyrone Moss seems like a real pedestrian back for the U. Meaning he'll only gain 150 yards against UVA instead the 200 or so that Frank Gore, Greg Jones and whatever other Florida-based RB that wants to make its Draft highlight film in one day got.
- Brian Brohm looks like he was born to do this QB shit, but you have to be somewhat concerned with the defensive side of the ball for Louisville considering UK sent a "not so fast, Vandy" message with an inspired second half. That being said, Louisville doesn't lose a game this year, seeing as how the performances turned in by WVU, Cuse, Rutgers and Pitt assured us all that the Big East will be responsible for some truly bleeding awful football.
- As for UGA, well, no shit. While the result bore a similarity to my prediction, it wasn't quite in the way I thought it would go down. I was confident that UGA would win going away mostly because if a team with less athletic talent is hoping to play giant-killer, as with basketball, they usually have to slow down the game as opposed to turning it into a shootout (see TCU).
I'll think you'll see a different UGA attack this year. The problem with Shockley in the past was that he was being plugged into an offense that was built for a QB that wouldn't make the track team at your average Samoan high school. Despite Richt having a rep as an offensive genius, the Bulldog offense under David Greene was about as exciting as fucking a BYU coed missionary-style with five condoms on. As anyone familiar with the woes of Ronald Curry will tell you, even the greatest athlete can't do shit at QB without the proper system.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to UGA's offense when the game's a little less "fast-break." We didn't get too many opportunities to see UGA put together "drives," as opposed to TD's that are the result of turnovers and long plays. I have confidence they'll be fine. The running game was curiously muted against Boise, but I'm thinking this was part of a plan to get Shockley comfortable with the pass first. And Boise was a great opportunity to do that, since the difference in raw talent was impossible to overstate; UGA's backup TE was beating safeties deep, and if it wasn't for some "screen pass in NCAA 2006"-awful drops, UGA could've put 60 on the board by the end of the third quarter.
I'm not looking forward to all the attendant hype that will ensue this week, particularly since UT stumbled (like they always say, when you think you have two starting QB's, you really have none) and UF didn't put up 80. USC, like Boise, is an ideal opponent for next week, since it's a game that gets the crowd interested, but there's absolutely no way UGA loses.
In other news, there is no game time more difficult to reestablish your Saturday drinkin' steez for than 5:30. There's absolutely no way you can watch GameDay on the first football weekend and not consume a Sparks before noon (they come in sixpacks now!). After you head to the legit tailgate, you can't lose track of an hour or so during boozemongering, or by the time halftime rolls around, you've got Musical Youth in your ear asking you how does it feel when you've got no food. By the time the game runs its course, you're too far into the evening to acquire your second wind via nap, so you just gotta plow ahead with it and run the risk of passing out face down in your hallway. It's like tailgating with jetlag...the USC game could result in our first casualty.
- Anyone see the Clausen profile on Sunday's SportsCenter? Dear god, just two years ago, we were calling him "Sugar Ray," and now Casey Clausen has a serious "fat David Lee Roth" look to him. All that aside, he hasn't fallen off as badly as Auburn. Unless you're the Kappa Sig IM squad, there's no excuse for having a white guy named Trey as your running back. And the only guy who had a better weekend than Jason White was Jason Campbell, since it appears as if Brandon Cox spent halftime watching Jared Zabransky film.
- The reason I wasn't feeling the TAMU hype was that I've never been sold on Coach Fran's decision making, and every time I decide to pay attention to Reggie McNeal, he's got a 8-16 passing day in store for me. Just sayin', is all. Also, in anticipation for the Clemson/Wake Forest game last year, one my friends who's a Tigers fan got drunk, starting yelling at the recliner, "you are the Wake Forest quarterback!" and proceeded to tackle it. And he's in law school. And even though he was at Death Valley for the game, he sure as shit didn't appreciate knowing that five minutes of Clemson's game-winning drive, were dedicated to the passing of Judge Rehnquist. Speaking of which, I'm sure there was a UGA law professor blowing through rails of Studio 54 toot financed by his winnings in the faculty "Rehnquist Death Pool." But anyways, when you consider the type of person who's watching college football on Saturday night at 11:30, wouldn't it have been far more appropriate to tackle this All-Time "What The Fuck?" story? Who knew? I guess the musical equivalent of this would be to find out that the lead singer of Smash Mouth was shot by CIA operatives because his band was actually a money laundering device created by Al-Qaeda.
Speaking of surprising developments, check this shiznit out. Man, people are really gonna miss my weekly ruminations on why I think he's a white supremacist.
(Ed. My bad...I give weekly ruminations on why I think Trev Alberts looks like a date rapist, not a white supremacist. This is becuase Trev bears a striking resemblance to someone female law students at my institution probably got to know, if not "know," at some point during their time here.)
1. USC (1)
2. Michigan (2)
3. Texas (3)
4. Georgia (13)
5. Florida (7)
6. Tennessee (5)
7. LSU (6)
8. Ohio State (11)
9. Louisville (8)
10. Purdue (10)
11. Virginia Tech (14)
12. Florida State (12)
13. Iowa (13)
14. Miami (4)
15. Notre Dame (unr)
16. Georgia Tech (unr)
17. Texas Tech (18)
18. Cal (16)
19. NC State (23)
20. Arizona State (unr)
21. Alabama (19)
22. Minnesota (20)
23. Fresno State (23)
24. Boston College (unr)
25. Oregon (25)
1000. Virginia (21)- subject to further review
1001. Oklahoma (9)- subject to further review
outta here: Auburn, Pitt, Oklahoma, Virginia
- Taking two days before I reevaluate the UVA team is probably a good thing, because, in reality, this was a no-win situation to begin with. Would I like to have seen a reprise of 59-16? Of course, but then we're right back where we started last year, and no one's going to care until we start digging into the ACC schedule. On the one hand, a lot of what happened against WMU will fly under the radar because we scored 31 points and won. On the other, UVA picked a terrible week to raise questions about their ability to rebound from having seven players in the NFL Draft, as nearly every ACC team that's been used interchangeably with them in preseason bowl projections got a meaningful win.
What did I like? The fact that we got Ottowa "The Senator" Anderson involved early and Deyon Williams looked like he can step up this year. Granted, results against a directional school probably aren't a good gauge, but it's encouraging to see us committing to some semblance of a deep passing game, considering any production whatsoever from our WR's will represent a vast improvement over last year, and I don't think we'll miss Heath Miller as much as people think due to the progress of Santi and Stupar.
What didn't I like? Hoo boy. Okay, I realize that when you go up 24-3 in NCAA 2006, the eyes start to glaze over a bit, you find out that after 15 years, the WR reverse still never gains positive yardage, and overall, you hope that EA Sports will learn from its mistakes and institute a "simulate the rest of the game" function. However, I'm not getting paid $1.7 million to commandeer the UVA dynasty. Al Groh is. And most of the descriptions of the way UVA played, "uninspired," "sloppy," "outcoached" are directly attributable to the man in charge.
Greg Jennings put up 16 catches and 156 yards, a lot of which were the result of poor positioning and tackling. The O-line gave up four sacks. Our vaunted running game also might turn out to be an area of concern if Wali Lundy's foot sprain is as serious as the one that ended his season in 2003. Michael Johnson did his Michael Johnson thing, which is to say, get a case of ol' CriscoHands in a (mostly) meaningless game and bury himself on the bench despite being the true home run threat on a team that sorely lacks big play ability. Jason Snelling's a bruiser, but he also put it on the ground twice. Cedric Peerman acquitted himself nicely, and unlike Hawai'i transfer Andrew Pearman, he's not related to a 4th-round draft pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars that coldcocked one of my fraternity brothers while he was taking a piss at the Biltmore. Still, I'm not certain he's at the point where he could carry a game like Lundy can. So in sum, any team with a modicum of physical talent on par with UVA would've buried us, but fortunately, most of these problems can be fixed (our QB didn't pitch a 7-24) and unlike two teams that got reamed by the NFL Draft (Auburn, OU), we're 1-0.
Although there's nothing I want more than to be reassured about UVA's potential as quickly as possible, I'll take the bye week to get Ahmad Brooks, Lundy and Snelling healthy. And even after September 17th (and the 24th against Duke), I'll still have no idea where UVA truly is, because they'll be playing Syracuse, who turned in the most wretched offensive performance I've seen since Penn State assaulted our eyeballs with a 6-4 loss to Iowa. I understand that Gregg Robinson is trying to institute a West Coast offense with Option personnel, but WVU looked like they had the 2001 Ravens defense on loan. Going to the Carrier Dome still is a scary proposition (or at least it should be), but I'm not gonna pull out the Joy Division CDs yet, mostly because last year's team was the exception to the fact that Al Groh's teams at Virginia have been slow starters and strong finishers.
Other notes...
- Every time I play against Miami in NCAA 2006, TE # 82 wails on my linebacking core, but I always win because QB #7 throws five picks. It's all starting to make sense now after last night...The general consensus is that although FSU won (you'll never see either team attempt a 4th quarter field goal for the rest of the rivalry's history), Miami's got the brighter future this year because their QB play was only intermitantly awful instead of full-scale bed-shitting awful. I'm not so sure it's that clearcut. FSU still has a ferocious D and two solid RB's, while Tyrone Moss seems like a real pedestrian back for the U. Meaning he'll only gain 150 yards against UVA instead the 200 or so that Frank Gore, Greg Jones and whatever other Florida-based RB that wants to make its Draft highlight film in one day got.
- Brian Brohm looks like he was born to do this QB shit, but you have to be somewhat concerned with the defensive side of the ball for Louisville considering UK sent a "not so fast, Vandy" message with an inspired second half. That being said, Louisville doesn't lose a game this year, seeing as how the performances turned in by WVU, Cuse, Rutgers and Pitt assured us all that the Big East will be responsible for some truly bleeding awful football.
- As for UGA, well, no shit. While the result bore a similarity to my prediction, it wasn't quite in the way I thought it would go down. I was confident that UGA would win going away mostly because if a team with less athletic talent is hoping to play giant-killer, as with basketball, they usually have to slow down the game as opposed to turning it into a shootout (see TCU).
I'll think you'll see a different UGA attack this year. The problem with Shockley in the past was that he was being plugged into an offense that was built for a QB that wouldn't make the track team at your average Samoan high school. Despite Richt having a rep as an offensive genius, the Bulldog offense under David Greene was about as exciting as fucking a BYU coed missionary-style with five condoms on. As anyone familiar with the woes of Ronald Curry will tell you, even the greatest athlete can't do shit at QB without the proper system.
It'll be interesting to see what happens to UGA's offense when the game's a little less "fast-break." We didn't get too many opportunities to see UGA put together "drives," as opposed to TD's that are the result of turnovers and long plays. I have confidence they'll be fine. The running game was curiously muted against Boise, but I'm thinking this was part of a plan to get Shockley comfortable with the pass first. And Boise was a great opportunity to do that, since the difference in raw talent was impossible to overstate; UGA's backup TE was beating safeties deep, and if it wasn't for some "screen pass in NCAA 2006"-awful drops, UGA could've put 60 on the board by the end of the third quarter.
I'm not looking forward to all the attendant hype that will ensue this week, particularly since UT stumbled (like they always say, when you think you have two starting QB's, you really have none) and UF didn't put up 80. USC, like Boise, is an ideal opponent for next week, since it's a game that gets the crowd interested, but there's absolutely no way UGA loses.
In other news, there is no game time more difficult to reestablish your Saturday drinkin' steez for than 5:30. There's absolutely no way you can watch GameDay on the first football weekend and not consume a Sparks before noon (they come in sixpacks now!). After you head to the legit tailgate, you can't lose track of an hour or so during boozemongering, or by the time halftime rolls around, you've got Musical Youth in your ear asking you how does it feel when you've got no food. By the time the game runs its course, you're too far into the evening to acquire your second wind via nap, so you just gotta plow ahead with it and run the risk of passing out face down in your hallway. It's like tailgating with jetlag...the USC game could result in our first casualty.
- Anyone see the Clausen profile on Sunday's SportsCenter? Dear god, just two years ago, we were calling him "Sugar Ray," and now Casey Clausen has a serious "fat David Lee Roth" look to him. All that aside, he hasn't fallen off as badly as Auburn. Unless you're the Kappa Sig IM squad, there's no excuse for having a white guy named Trey as your running back. And the only guy who had a better weekend than Jason White was Jason Campbell, since it appears as if Brandon Cox spent halftime watching Jared Zabransky film.
- The reason I wasn't feeling the TAMU hype was that I've never been sold on Coach Fran's decision making, and every time I decide to pay attention to Reggie McNeal, he's got a 8-16 passing day in store for me. Just sayin', is all. Also, in anticipation for the Clemson/Wake Forest game last year, one my friends who's a Tigers fan got drunk, starting yelling at the recliner, "you are the Wake Forest quarterback!" and proceeded to tackle it. And he's in law school. And even though he was at Death Valley for the game, he sure as shit didn't appreciate knowing that five minutes of Clemson's game-winning drive, were dedicated to the passing of Judge Rehnquist. Speaking of which, I'm sure there was a UGA law professor blowing through rails of Studio 54 toot financed by his winnings in the faculty "Rehnquist Death Pool." But anyways, when you consider the type of person who's watching college football on Saturday night at 11:30, wouldn't it have been far more appropriate to tackle this All-Time "What The Fuck?" story? Who knew? I guess the musical equivalent of this would be to find out that the lead singer of Smash Mouth was shot by CIA operatives because his band was actually a money laundering device created by Al-Qaeda.
Speaking of surprising developments, check this shiznit out. Man, people are really gonna miss my weekly ruminations on why I think he's a white supremacist.
(Ed. My bad...I give weekly ruminations on why I think Trev Alberts looks like a date rapist, not a white supremacist. This is becuase Trev bears a striking resemblance to someone female law students at my institution probably got to know, if not "know," at some point during their time here.)
posted by Ian at 12:42 PM
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