A few quick notes and comments about the weekend’s games:
Virginia at Temple – Well, I was wrong. Virginia did blow the Owls out. Maybe the Wahoos are legit and all that talent that Al Groh has collected is starting to pay off.
My favorite play of the weekend also qualifies as one of the strangest. UVA used their star middle linebacker Ahmad Brooks as their kick returner for the opening kickoff! Brooks is 6’4″ and 260 pounds. He is a freak of nature though, with the wheels of a DB. He took the kickoff back 40 yards. If that one return were enough to qualify him, he’d lead the ACC (and his return was the second longest of anyone in the league). He also leads the ACC in sacks with 1.5. I bet that combo’s never happened before.
Samford at Georgia Tech – Like UVA and NC State, Georgia Tech took care of business against a lesser opponent. They didn’t score a ton of points, but they dominated the game, which is what you want to see in these games. Things get a bit tougher next weekend when the Jackets pay a visit to Death Valley.
William & Mary at North Carolina – One thing coaches at all levels really look for is consistency. They want their teams to execute the same way every time. Well for UNC, they seemed to have mastered the consistently bad defensive performance. Last year, they gave up about 500 yards and 38 points per game. This year, first game (against a 1AA opponent, no less) and they gave up 442 yards and 38 points. Gonna be a long year in Chapel Hill.
Wake Forest at Clemson – Has a school ever hired the opposing team’s coach just after a game? I bet some Clemson supporters had this in mind as Wake nearly beat Clemson for the second year in a row. It took a late TD and 2-point conversion and then two overtimes for the Tigers to avoid the upset. Talk about Tommy Bowden nearly undoing all of last season’s goodwill.
Clemson is historically a running team and Wake is historically a passing team. Wake had 254 rushing yards to Clemson’s 83. Think IPTAY would rather have Jim Grobe than Bowden?
Duke at Navy – Whoops. I got this one wrong. I didn’t give Navy enough credit for their 8 win season last year. I guess I also got caught up in the Ted Roof hoopla. It just goes to show that sometimes it’s easy to shake things up in the short-term, but that initial success can quickly fade.
Duke is in real trouble already. They were bad against Navy. The score could have been much worse. And it was Navy! The Blue Devils could only win one or two games this year. The only easy ones left are The Citadel and UNC.
Northern Illinois at Maryland – Memo to Ralph Friedgen – drop Northern Illinois from the schedule. The Terps squeaked out another close one against the Huskies. Last year, they lost this game, but it turned out to be a pretty decent loss. It’s too early to say what this close game means.
Richmond at NC State – State took care of bidness, shutting the Spiders out. Yeah, it was only Richmond, but good teams win these games in blowouts, and that’s what the Wolfpack did. Things get a bit tougher in their next game in two weeks – Ohio State.
Florida State at Miami – They’ll play eventually, right?