Frankly, Virginia Tech, we’re just as surprised as you are. After the horrible month that the Heels had, there was almost nothing to indicate that we would be able to execute well enough to beat perhaps our toughest opponent of the season on the road. There were only three indications that we stood a chance:
1. Carolina has played the Hokies close each of the last two years, and neither the Heels nor Tech were markedly different from the 2007 and 2008 editions.
2. The Heels have a fantastic defense, and Virginia Tech’s offense has struggled consistently. If the front could keep Ryan Williams in check, the offense might have a chance.
3. This is the ACC; whatever the most bizarre result might be, tends to be what happens.
So, in spite of what might be the worst interception you’ll see all year, the perfect storm happened. The defense shut out the Hokies for two quarters, and had Tyrod Taylor fumbled three inches sooner it would have been three quarters. Somehow, someway, John Shoop and the UNC offense put together two creative and well-executed touchdown drives in the second and third quarters. The team had the guts to go for it on 4th and 7 with five minutes left in the game, and they converted with a big pass play up the middle to set up the game-tying field goal.
The fumble was just a big break, and the Heels were able to take advantage. Like many UNC fans, I thought the game was lost after the pick. But the team did an excellent job of not allowing a bad break to affect the rest of the game.
This was the game I thought Carolina was most likely to lose, and the 0-3 start in the ACC did nothing to quell those fears. After this game, the rest of the season is looking a lot less gloomy. On to Duke.
VT blog Gobbler Country and Furrier4Heisman held a preseason conference poll among ACC bloggers and was kind enough to invite my opinion, despite my recent sporadic-ness-ness-ness. (I will save the explanation for another time, but for now I’ll say life got in the way.) Anyway, here were may predictions:
Atlantic Division
1. Florida State
2. NC State
3. Clemson
4. Wake Forest
5. Maryland
6. Boston College
Florida State has the talent, eventually they have to pull it together, right? State is a team on the rise despite the (temporary?) loss of Nate Irving. I sincerely hope he comes back to haunt running backs’ dreams again…just not our backs. Clemson is still talented, but we don’t know how consistent they are. Wake Forest will take a step back on defense, the key to their success the last three years. Boston College is squarely in rebuilding mode after all they’ve lost.
Coastal Division
1. Virginia Tech
2. Georgia Tech
3. North Carolina
4. Miami
5. Virginia
6. Duke
Last year was the time to pounce on the Coastal Division and step up in Virginia Tech’s rebuilding year. That window is now closed, and now anyone who wants to win this division must go through the Hokies. Georgia Tech’s Success will depend on whether their triple option stand the test of a team getting a second look. I actually predicted that North Carolina can finish as well as 10-2, but they have to beat one or both of the Techs on the road in order to win the division; honestly, I don;t think this team is ready. Miami still needs to show consistency to be placed higher than fourth. Virginia lose too many important players from 2008 and Duke is, well, Duke.
Offensive Player of the Year: Darren Evans, Virginia Tech
Partly because he’s very good and partly to be contrarian. How Gobbler Country let me get away with calling him “Darrell Evans” in the email I sent him, I’ll never know.
Defensive Player of the Year: QUANTAVIUS THE MAGNIFICENT, UNC.
I have never been more confident of a prediction in my entire life. Ever.
Rookie of the Year: Josh Adams, UNC.
Not knowing much (read: anything about other rookies in the ACC, I decided to stick to what I know. Judging by the pairty in voting in this category, everyone else voted the same way. I think Jamal Womble will have a bigger impact, but I have a hunch Adams will have better stats.
Thanks again to Gobbler Country for holding this poll.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have a family member who used to work for the University of Texas in some capacity. Having said that, Oklahoma is playing as well as, if not better than, anyone in the nation right now, and they have a better out of conference schedule than Texas or Florida. But if a poller believes that a playoff system, fundamentally based on head-to-head matchups, is viable, then that poller must respect Texas’ victory over Oklahoma and hold it against the Sooners when ranking them. That is not to say that the Sooners are not worthy; they are. But 45-35 is still the reason why I placed Texas ahead of Oklahoma in my ballot.
In the ACC, the three teams with nine wins are in the top 25, including both of the ACC Championship participants. Barely.
Okay, first things first: could someone please explain what the hell just happened this past Saturday?
The general consensus here is that the events of Saturday are less unexpected than at first glance. Sure, Wake, UNC, and Virginia Tech may have all been ahead in the standings. But, as From Old Virginia points out, those were all conference road games, which are never, ever easy.
BC Interruption sees the reason for the ACC’s “fluctuation” has less to do with the teams themselves and more to do with that the media “is easily distracted by shiny things” and constantly re-assesses the state of the conference from week to week.
College Game Balls, however, may have the best answer of anyone:
Heather Dinich used her Greek Goddess abilities to flip the league on top of its head, again.
Dinich bathes in the schadenfreude emanating from the ACC. Of course, CGB’s statement requires the suspension of disbelief that Ms. Dinich has abilities, is Greek, or is anything close to Godliness.
I happen to be of the belief that what happened last Saturday was less a product of superstition and more a product of the three offenses scoring nineteen combined points in regulation. An extra fourteen, of course, came courtesy of Chris Crane throwing to Hokies.
Block C takes his answer in another direction, answering what happened to Clemson against Georgia Tech. The saga of their beloved Tigers’ season is enough to fill a book. Hopefully, it has a happy ending with a new, smashingly successful coach. Wait, did I just use the word smashing?
Good Maryland, Bad Maryland, we’ve seen a fair share of both in 2008. Good Maryland may be the best team in the ACC, while Bad Maryland could probably lose by 20 to anyone left on their schedule. Which Maryland do we see for the rest of the season and where do you expect the Terps to finish?
No one on the panel is particularly optimistic about the Terps for the rest of the season. Currently at 5-2, No one except me expects them to do any better than 8-4, and everyone expects the Bad Terps to show up at least once. Most panelists, like From Old Virginia and The Legacy x4, point out their now-backloaded schedule will keep them from winning more than 3 games. Both Virginia Tech panelists mentioned that the Bad Terps usually show up on the road, while the Good Terps come out of the shell at home. (Hooray for more bad puns!) Most interestingly, Gobbler country discusses Maryland big weakness:
The key for the Terps this year has been their rush defense. If you can run on Maryland, you can beat them handily. But if they stop you from running the ball, things aren’t going to go well for you.
Whatever the case may be, the Roundtable is unanimously bursting Maryland’s Atlantic bubble.
Injuries are a part of college football, but they seem to have ravaged ACC offenses this year. Wake Forest has been without Sam Swank, Clemson is without C.J. Spiller, UNC is without T.J. Yates and Brandon Tate, Virginia Tech is without Kenny Lewis Jr., and NC State is without just about everybody. Which team misses their fallen star(s) most and why?
There seem to be two distinct camps here. Both BC Interruption and College Game Balls say that the conference’s most costly offensive injury is the one to Wake’s Sam Swank, the closest thing to an automatic kicker in college football and a big difference in close games. Which makes sense, until you consider that is reasonable to expect the Wake Forest offense, with all its talent, to score more than one TD in three conference game. Then there’s the factor that Wake’s defense usually keeps them in every game and–
You get the idea.
From old Virginia goes a different direction and points to the gradual loss of staff in Virginia Tech’s offense that has led, in part, to their 110th ranked offense. (And UNC gave up a 14 point lead to it? Yeesh.)Â On defense, FoV references the injury to BC linebacker Brian Toal.
With four votes, however, the player whom the panel thinks is missed the most is UNC quarterback T.J. Yates. This completely florred me, not because it isn’t a good answer but because I never expected my conference brethren to have any sympathy toward the injuries of my beloved Tar Heels. Then again, I probably probably shouldn’t confuse sympathy with acknowledgement.
The primary reason seems to be, despite the admirable job that Cam Sexton has done in his stead, that the Heels just plain don’t lose that game of Virginia Tech if Yates had remained healthy. And that’s probably true. But that throws into question all of the other games that followed. Of course, if we have the same 5-2 record but with losses to Miami and Notre Dame instead of those teams from the Commonwealth, we’re probably in much better shape in the conference race.
Last one: the pretty much unanimous division champs were Virginia Tech and Wake Forest last week. Given all the craziness that just happened, give us your updated ACC Championship scenario.
But enough about my team. With two losses to teams ahead of them in the division, it would take a miracle for UNC to win the Costal at this point.
Many panelists (CGB, Gobbler Country, BC Interruption, and The Legacy x4) are opting for homerism and picking their own teams to go to Tampa. Fortunately for them Virginia Tech, Boston College and Georgia Tech are three of the teams in better position to win. Both BC and GT have daunting schedules, though, and the Jackets would lose any tiebreakers with the Hokies. Despite the Terps’ lights-out performance this past Saturday, no one has the guts to put Maryland in the Championship game as of yet (see Question 2). Of all the CG predictions, my own FSU-Miami pick was probably the most ambitious, and while I had reason to defense the pick, it ultimately boiled down to “this conference is crazy”.
In the final tallies, though, it’s 2.5 votes for Georgia Tech, 3.5 vote for Virginia Tech, 1 vote for Miami, 3 votes for Boston College, 2 votes for Florida State, and 2 votes for Wake Forest.
No team won a majority, but the plurality points to a rematch of last year’s championship game between Virginia Tech and Boston College.
You can almost feel the cynicism oozing out of your screen right now.
If you are an enterprising ACC blogger and are interested in joining the roundtable, just send an email with a link to your site. The more panelists, the merrier.
Coming into this Saturday’s game against Miami, the biggest fuss surrounding UNC is the quarterback situation. T.J. Yates is gone for half the season, and there doesn’t seem to be much separation between Mike Paulus and Cam Sexton (if you believe coach Davis, of course). No matter who plays the general consensus is that the Heels are going to be reeling from this loss.
But you know what? I’m not all that worried about Paulus or Sexton running the offense. Perhaps I should be, but I’m not. And here’s why.
The UNC offense will not change much. Both Butch Davis and John Shoop have made it clear that they are going to run the same offense as they would with Yates as their QB. Both Sexton and Pulus have taken a lot of snaps in this offense at some point, either while the QB situation was still in doubt last year or when Yates was recovering from shoulder surgery this past offseason.
That said, I think we will see a few tweaks to what Shoop has shown us earlier in the year. One of the offenses bread-and-butter- plays last year was the one step drop and quick pass to a receiver at the line of scrimmage. If the corners gave a bit too much space, Yates would take the snap and quickly throw it to Nicks, Tate, or Foster. I lieu of a true running game, this play consistently gained 5-10 yards for the Heels. Those types of plays have been strangely abesnt from the playbook so far in 2008 (presumably because Shoop trusts Yates to make riskier throws). Given the new QB situation and the continued struggles in the backfield, it would be interesting to see if the quickpass makes it back into the playbook.
Both QBs have their advantages. Sexton is certainly a more experienced player than Paulus. While he got a bit of a bad reputation after he was thrown into the fire that UNC’s disastrous 2006 season, people tend to forget that he, like Paulus, was a 4 star recruit out of high school, and was expected to ultimately become the starter before complications got in the way (foot injury, Joe Dailey, his 2006 performance, Yates). A more mobile QB than Paulus, it’s quite possible that he’s a much better quarterback now than he was two years ago. So, no matter what you think of him, Sexton may be every bit the talent (or enigma) that Paulus is right now.
As for Paulus, there is little doubt about his arm strength, but he definitely won;t threaten anyone with his legs. Like Sexton, he was recruited to be the eventual starter before Yates burst onto the scene. While he does have experience in practice, Virginia Tech was his first true in-game situation. For Paulus, the next five or six games are not just filling in at QB. This could be his to prove, if he plays well enough, that he once again deserves consideration for the starting job. (Or if nothing else, possibly auditioning to transfer in the offseason.) If he cracks under the pressure, we’ve got a stable QB situation when T.J. comes back. If he shines, we’ve got 2 very good QB’s from which to choose.
There are 21 other guys on the field, and their feet are fine. As much as we like to believe otherwise, a good quarterback isn’t always the game-changing talent. Often it’s the QB who just manages the offense, doesn’t make mistakes, and helps his team play better. Uh oh, I think I’m beginning to sound like Dr. Lou! OH NO! Too…many…cliches…(administers tranquilizer dart on self, faints)
(wakes up 4 hours later)…OK, where was I? Oh yes. My point is that how well our quarter back plays will depend, at least partially, on how the rest of the team plays. The defense has to continue performing well, starting against the very talented (if green) Hurricanes. In particular, we’ve seen our linebackers perform above expectations and the emergence of Robert Quinn at defensive end. The offensive line has to perform, giving time for the QB as well as controlling the line of scrimmage for the tailbacks. If everything goes as it should, pretty much all the QB will have to do is hand the ball off on half of the plays and find an open receiver on the other half.
The mistakes of last week are correctable. Let’s face it: Mike Paulus’ pick to Macho Harris, while costly, didn’t cost Carolina the game. Penalties cost them the game. A subpar rushing attack cost them the game. Defensive fatigue cost them the game.
Most importantly, experience seemed to cost them the game. Discounting the third quarter drive where everyone believes VT seized momentum, there were many other factors that led to their comeback victory. UNC committed two bad fumbles that led to 10 Tech points. Jay Wooten missed an early 40 yard field goal. The Heels tried to go for the first down on 4th and 1 at the VT 5 and were called for a delay of game, forcing the Heels to settle for a field goal. A late hit on a fourth quarter punt return ultimately led to the game-winning field goal. Discounting the infamous drive and Paulus’ pick, human error on the part of UNC led to a 23 point swing in favor of the Hokies, from a plausible 27-7 UNC lead.
The good news about all of this is that all of these mistakes can be corrected, and almost certainly will not be repeated to the same extent.
Mike Paulus: Yeah, I am sooo pumped for this game, even though I’m probably not going to see a snap. But hey, if I’m in the game, it;s because you’ve slammed the door shut, T.J. Now let’s kick some! Let’s go, T.J.! Let’s go, Quan! Let’s go, Greg! WHOOOOOOOO!!!
(Mike Paulus has just patted the back of each player just mentioned, unwittingly giving them an radio chip in the process.)
Third Quarter. UNC is up 10-3 against Virginia Tech.
This game ain’t looking half-bad. Defense is dominating, we’re in field goal range, and T.J. is looking pretty sharp.
(Yates is sacked for a loss of 20 yards, and hurts his left foot in the process)
Oh, no! T.J. can’t be hurt!
Butch: Get him out of there!
Yates: I’m…fine…coach…I’ll…stay…here…
(Yates performs 7 step drop on bad foot, is sacked)
Butch: WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!
Yates: I don’t know what came over me OW OW OW OW
Alright Mike, get yourself together. This game is on your shoulders now. Hopefully we can get the running game going. Keep the pressure off, you know. You can do this, Mike, This is what you came here for.
Next possession…
Alright, Well start with a run up the middle. Can’t be that bad. HUT HUT! (hands of to Greg Little) GO! GO GO GO GO GO! YEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!!! WAY TO GO GREG! WAY TO GO! Whoo, okay. 17-3. Defense is playing well. Pressure’s off.
VT possession. 3rd and 5. Tyrod Taylor has just been stopped for no gain.
Way to go defense! Way to go!
Unnamed Hokie Player:
Ron Cherry: After the play was over, personal foul, on the…
Okay, we’re in the red zone, getting into crunch time. We’ve made it this far, I think we can finish this drive get the momentum back, and walk away with victory. Alright, keep it cool.
HUT HUT!
Let’s see to the right here. Hey look! Foster’s open in the flat…
Pure jubilation. Sure, it was only a 14 point lead, but Greg Litlle had just run 50 yards for a touchdown to put us up 17-3. And honestly, where the hell was Virginia Tech’s offense gonna come from?
You can use that picture to describe the Paulus interception to Macho Harris. Or the Greg Little fumble. Or the Yates injury. Or any of the frustrating penalties. That was pretty much everyone’s face in the stadium in the fourth quarter.
Well, That blowout of Rutgers was fun. I still randomly yell “FORTY-FOUR TWEE-ELVE!” to pump myself up. But ultimately, while a big morale booster, was a nonconference road game, the only such game we’ll see all season.
This week, the conference season begins. At Home. Against the defending ACC champs. This is the game I’ve had circled on my calendar since June. This is the game that I consider most important toward Carolina’s season. Sure, Virgina Tech isn’t the 3-0 team we expected coming into the game, and it isn’t quite the battle for the Coastal that everyone hoped for. But Tyrod Taylor is their quarterback now, and the Hokies are still the favorites to win the Coastal Division.
Last season, we played as close against the Hokies as we could, but a key run by Eddie Royal, a fumble by Ryan Houston inside the five, and an interception by Xavier Adibi were the difference in Virginia Tech’s 17-10 victory in Blacksburg. If any of those plays go Carolina’s way, they probably get a different result.
How much does a win mean for the Tar Heels? It means they’ll be 3-0 for the fisrt time since 1997. It means they’ll win their conference opener for the first time since 2001, the 41-9 drubbing of Florida State that still makes me smile whenever it comes to mind. It means that both team and fan morale will be sky-high for the first time Julius Peppers graced our campus. This is the first game that will truly tell us where we stand in the college football universe. Most importantly, it means that we will have a season-long advantage over our biggest conference contender. If you’re not pumped about this game, I don’t know what to tell you.
According to the Blogpoll metric, there were quite a few bloggers who placed North Carolina in their top 25. I was not one of them.
Rank
Team
Delta
1
Southern Cal
—
2
Oklahoma
1
3
Georgia
1
4
Missouri
—
5
Florida
—
6
East Carolina
—
7
Alabama
6
8
Wisconsin
2
9
Auburn
1
10
LSU
1
11
Texas
—
12
South Florida
5
13
Texas Tech
1
14
Brigham Young
8
15
Ohio State
8
16
Penn State
2
17
Oregon
2
18
Kansas
2
19
Wake Forest
1
20
Vanderbilt
3
21
Utah
3
22
TCU
3
23
Illinois
3
24
Fresno State
3
25
Clemson
1
Dropped Out: Arizona State (#12), California (#15).
Also Considered: North Carolina, Arizona State, West Virginia, Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Nebraska, Ball State.
As impressive as UNC’s road win over Rutgers was, the Scarlet Knights appear to be a pretty bad team this year, so we have no idea where that victory stands in the grand scheme of things. This Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech will be far more telling. Barring an Aubrun-MIssissippi State encore, I’ll most likely put the winner of this game into the top 25.
The same goes for Florida State. I don’t know why the mainstream polls have the Seminoles in the top 25, as we are 3 weeks into the season and they have done exactly nothing. Fortunately they get a chance to prove their mettle this Saturday when Wake comes to Tallahassee.
As for the rest of the poll, USC is now th unquestioned #1, BYU and South Florida are rewarded for their performances, Ohio State is punished after laying an egg against the Trojans, Fresno State doesn’t drop out after a valiant loss to the Badgers, and Alabama junps six spots for no apparent reason.
Dropped Out: Tennessee (#18), Virginia Tech (#21), TCU (#25).
Also Considered: South Carolina, TCU, Central Michigan, UCLA
Clemson and Alabama aside, not much movement.Southern Cal takes the top spot because 1) they absolutely throttled Virginia 52-7, 2) they most likely have the best offensive line in America, and 3) They’re like, 6-deep at the running back position, which has to count for something. Tennessee and Virginia Tech drop out not just because of their losses, but their general ineptitude in the opening games. East Carolina moves up because if they play to the level they are capable of playing, they could win 10 games and the Conference USA title. TCU played well in their MWC opener, and probably should not have dropped out. I just don;t have a place to put them right now.
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