Since Clemson doesn’t play a game this week, I’m going to just squeeze this paragraph in here at the top. I didn’t want to skip making a few comments about the incredible performance last week by their return man Justin Miller. As you probably know (if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t be reading this), Miller returned two kickoffs for touchdowns against Florida State and totaled 282 return yards. 282 return yards! That’s one incredible performance, and not surprisingly, an NCAA record. Miller has no rushing or receiving yards this year, but still leads the ACC in all purpose yardage with 137.2 yards per game.
And now on to teams who are actually playing this week.
Wake Forest at NC State – There are only two intra-conference games this week of interest, and this is the better of the two. Wake is one of those teams that can beat anyone, but could probably lose to anyone too. They aren’t that talented, but they use what they have very effectively. Let me assure you, no one wants to face this team because they could rush for 300 yards on you. Well, unless “you” means NC State.
NC State proved last weekend that they have a defense to be feared. All that recruiting and scheming that Chuck Amato has been doing to try to build FSU-North is starting to pay off. The Wolfpack defense looks positively Seminolish (let’s see what the ole spell checker thinks of that one). They are fast and aggressive and try to dictate to the offense what it can and can’t do. Usually, a defense reacts to the offense and tries to stop them. Not with this State team. Opposing offenses have to try to stop State’s defense. That’s quite an advantage.
On the offensive side of the ball, State’s been pretty mediocre so far, despite having a number of game breakers in the skill positions. State is even talking about how they want to be more conservative this year on offense. What’s that tell me? It tells me that they might just try to change that this week and open things up a bit on Wake’s relatively soft defense.
Wake has the kind of offense that can make a too-aggressive defense look bad. They use misdirection, run reverses and try everything but the old hidden ball trick. Commit too early and you might find yourself watching the play go the other way. That said, those tricks aren’t quite as effective against a defense with the speed to run them down. State has that speed.
I think State avenges last year’s whipping up in Winston-Salem and takes Wake by a couple of scores.
West Virginia at Virginia Tech – And now here’s the best inter-conference game of the week. This is a nice, old rivalry of schools that don’t like each other – sort of a Hatfields vs. McCoys thing in more way than one.
Two weeks ago, the overrated Mountaineers were extremely lucky to get out of their own stadium with a victory against Maryland. This week, they won’t be so lucky. The Hokies are as good as the Terrapins and they have this one in their house. They’ll cherish having a top ten team come by for a little butt-kicking. It’s not so much that the Hokies are that much better than the Mountaineers. They aren’t. It’s just that West Virginia is not good enough to go undefeated and this is their hardest game left. Virginia Tech knows that they can pop a cap (a black powder cap) in the Mountaineers dream season, and they will.
North Carolina at Florida State – Florida State is still trying to get their offense clicking this season. I can’t think of any better recipe for offensive headaches than the Tar Heels defense. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Noles go for 60 in this one. Afterwards, Bobby Bowden will declare that the starting quarterback job is Wyatt Sexton’s even after Chris Rix returns from his ankle injury. Bobby’s old, but he’s not really old school, so I don’t think he’s going to buy into that you-can’t-lose-your-starting-job-while-injured theory. Granted, having a good game against Carolina shouldn’t really prove that Sexton is the man. It’s sort of like scoring with a Hilton sister. It’s not that difficult, but it’s pretty fun anyway.
The Citadel at Duke – I did some pretty detailed analysis of The Citadel’s recent offensive and defensive trends and I think that when you look at how they …. ah, who am I kidding? I know nothing about the Bulldogs except that you don’t want to cross The Ten.
Game ball to whoever it is in Duke’s athletic department who scheduled this one. Every team needs a gimme game or two per season, and let’s face it, that’s not an easy task for Duke.
Miami at Georgia Tech – This is the other conference game that has some interest. Some. By all accounts, this one should be pretty easy for Miami, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s close. The Yellow Jackets seem to always play good teams tough at home. I would have considered picking this for an upset except for what happened up in Chapel Hill two weeks ago. Now, I mentioned earlier that I thought that game was a anomaly game – Georgia Tech isn’t that bad and UNC (clearly) isn’t that good. But still. You don’t lose to Carolina by three touchdowns and then beat Miami. Doesn’t happen.
So, one of two things will happen. Miami will appear disinterested, since this is third in a series of ho-hum games for them until they get Louisville and NC State in consecutive games, or Miami will come out with their speed and aggression and blow this one open early. It really could go either way. Georgia Tech is just too young and inconsistent to be able to do anything with the Hurricanes if Miami is serious.
Keep an eye on Brock Berlin in this game. This is Miami’s fourth game and he hasn’t really put it together yet. If he can’t do it this week, you have to think that he’s not going to this year. That’s a pretty serious weakness in an otherwise championship-caliber team. A bad quarterback is the kind of flaw that will eventually catch up to you over the course of a season even if the rest of the team is sensational.
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