Never got around to much writing last week, so this one’s actually going to refer to the past two weekends of games. As you know, I like to talk about what I learned each weekend. College football seasons are so short that don’t really know a team until the season’s almost over. Think about basketball. No one pays too close of attention to college hoops teams until about the beginning of January. By then, teams have played about 12 games. It takes about that long. Unfortunately, we don’t get that much time for football, but that doesn’t stop the talking heads from declaring exactly who the best teams are after one or two games.
Miami 52 – Duke 7 – After that first paragraph, do you like how I picked a game that taught us nothing? That my friends, is some first-class blogging.

Actually, while this game didn’t really tell me anything new, it did confirm some things. First, Miami is good. They probably should have beaten Florida State in week one and they’ve quietly improved ever since. I haven’t seen them play much since that FSU game, just bits and pieces of games against Clemson and Colorado as well as highlights, but I think this team is getting better.
As for Duke, well … I know it’s cliche, but they are bad. I mean bad. For years they’ve been bad, but they often seemed just frisky enough to pull an upset. You always felt a bit queasy when your team had to play them, because they seemed good for one or two upsets a year. Not this year. I don’t know what Ted Roof’s plan is, but he’s been there for about two full years now and things are no better than when he started. It’s pretty clear to see now that that great run of games he had when he took over for Carl Franks mid-season was just a placebo affect. Sort of a bad-team version of the Ewing theory.
I know it’s only Duke, and maybe they just really don’t care, but I wonder how long they’ll tolerate this. Roof had little resume for the job, just that great run when he was Interim coach. Maybe they should try firing him and promoting an assistant! Then, they can hire that guy and fire him in the middle of next year. I think I’m on to something. Someone get Joe Alleva on the horn.
Louisville 69 – North Carolina 14 – Oof. Remember way back, like a week ago, when everyone was falling over themselves to write articles about how John Bunting had turned the corner? Remember that? Good times.
Yeah, the thinking was that Carolina that just beaten NC State (on the road) and then avenged their horrific 2004 defeat to Utah. Thing were looking up, right?
Guess not. Nothing like giving up SIXTY-FREAKING-NINE points to send those love songs with a screech of the record needle. Last year Utah broke the all-time yardage record for a Heels opponent. This year, Louisville broke the all-time points record. Who says John Bunting isn’t leaving his mark on the program?
Florida State 41 – Wake Forest 24 – See, now I wasn’t that surprised that Wake kept this game close. In fact, they were only down a field goal heading into the second half. Sure they lost by 17, but that’s not a bad margin against the Seminoles in Tallahassee. The Wake crowd is still somewhat down on Grobe (although last week’s win over Clemson helped stem that), but I don’t see why. It’s incredible what he does with the players he has.
For FSU, I don’t really think it was a bad result. Sure the ‘Noles of the 90’s would have beaten Wake 57-10, but those days are over. The Seminoles aren’t the battering titans they once were, but they’re still pretty darn good. I don’t feel they are any less of a team for playing a close one against the Deacons.
Temple 7 – Maryland 38 – Playing Temple is like playing a scrimmage, only with much less chance of one of your players getting hurt. Maybe that’s why the Owls show up on four ACC teams’ schedules this year.
No, I didn’t learn a damn thing about the Terps this weekend, but the previous game – the very impressive smacking of Virginia, told me lots. In that game, Maryland had an excellent game plan and they executed. It was like the Maryland of two or three seasons ago – mixing up the short and long throws, running inside and then coming at you with an option. Their offensive line was superb and the play-calling was excellent. You might tell that I was impressed. The big question now is can they keep it up. Can they play like that in the next game (in two weeks) against Virginia Tech? If so, they could pull the upset.
Boston College 28 – Virginia 17 – The Eagles played an erratic, but efficient game against Virginia, if that’s possible. Sure, they had a lot of penalties – a bunch in the second half after they got fired up by this cheat shot – and they missed three field goals, but they looked good. They are a very solid football team that can win a number of different ways. They do a great job defending the run and they can run and throw it themselves. I’ve been more and more impressed by them the more I’ve seen them. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think BC is in FSU-Miami-VT class, but they are right below that.
As for Virginia – well the simple truth is that they just aren’t that good. They struggled against both Maryland and BC in different ways. Against Maryland, their defensive line was blown off the ball all day. Against BC, they killed themselves with NC State-like play in the first half (nine penalties) and general offensive ineffectiveness throughout.
Here’s the thing though, it seems like this Virginia team should be good, doesn’t it? I mean they’ve had nationally ranked recruiting classes every year Al Groh’s been there. When you watch them play, it appears that Groh and his staff are doing a pretty good job. They certainly seem to be better coached than UNC and NC State. So, why aren’t they good? Well, one poster at TheSabre had an excellent post last week that went a long way to explaining why. In a nutshell, the problem has been attrition. Sure, they’ve landed a ton of great players, but a surprising number of them have left the program for one reason or another, leaving the team much thinner than it seems it should be. On top that, they’ve had several key injuries this year (i.e. Ahmad Brooks, D’Brickashaw Ferguson and Wali Lundy). So what they are putting on the field is not the team of HS All-Americans I thought they had.
Here’s that whole post (I’m including it because I can’t link to it):

Subject: The Impact of Attrition…
Posted by: Mikeysurf on Wed Oct 5 2005 11:17:47 AM
Message: I know Groh would never talk about the level of attrition this program has felt over the past several years, but I certainly believe it plays an important factor in the team’s progress over the past couple of years. From my view, if many in the media (not the UVa beat guys because they get it) would do their homework, the image that UVa is backlogging class after class of deep talent would not be perpetuated so often.
The ’02 class had 23 recruits (Carter and Brooks went to prep school, with Brooks joining the team the second semester and counting on the ’02 total and Carter joined the ’03 class). We have lost a total of 10 players from that recruiting class — 3 OLs, 3 DBs, 1 DE, 1 QB, 1 LB, and 1 Punter. Two recruited walk-on have also contributed from that class (Hughes and Miller).
The ’03 class had 20 recruits (Philip Brown went to prep school and arrived with the ’04 class). 5 players are no longer with the team — 2 DBs, 1 FB, 1 LB, and 1 DE.
The ’04 class had 16 recruits (Albert and Olu Hall went to prep school and joined the ’05 class). 4 players are no longer with the team — 2 DBs, 1 LB, and 1 NT. This is the smallest class since ’98 when we brought in 14 players.
The ’05 class had 25 recruits. All are still on the team. This is the first class during the Groh era that we used our full allotment of scholarships. I’ve never quite figured why we did not recruit larger classes in ’03 and ’04 since we were already shy on scholarship players?
UVa has lost a total of 19 players from 3 of its last 4 classes. That is more players than we recruited in ’04 and only 1 shy of our ’03 class. If you assess the impact per position, we have lost a total of 7 DBs, 3 OLs, 3 LBs, 2 DEs, 1 NT, 1 FB, 1 QB and 1 Punter. Anyway you look at it, this is a large number of players and certainly has contributed negatively to the depth chart. Moreover, this high attrition level has forced some young players to see the field far before they were fully prepared. Think for a second if UVa had those SEVEN DBs in the mix last year and this year how that may have changed the dynamics of our pass defense? Half of them would have had several years of experience on the field.
It is for this reason why I continue to challenge the hype surrounding our recruiting classes. While we may have signed them, we’re also losing an unprecedented number of players because of various reasons. The football program has yet to get full value from most of these classes because of the continued problems with attrition. Now, when you overlay the impact of key injuries over the past two season (Canty, Mines, Bedesem, Lundy, Cunningham, Brooks, Ferguson, Barthlemes, Dias, etc.) it’s not difficult to reconcile certain aspects of our on-field performances.
Now, before all of the Groh bashers start use my post as a Groh-apologists essay. I also feel there are other factors in play, as well. There are still some things I would like to see our coaching staff work a bit differently. But that’s a discussion for a different day. The fact that our attrition rate is playing a much bigger role than some fans want to admit or accept. Furthermore, there are some in the media who need to do their homework and stop feeding the perception that UVa is underachieving because we’re so well stocked with years of great recruiting. The players have to be here for us to capitalize on their skills!

Virginia Tech 41 – Marshall 14 – I don’t really have much to say about this one. It pretty much went according to the script which is good for these Hokies. The most interesting thing I can say about them right now is that their success is so great that no one seems to be talking about the 5-0 Florida State Seminoles. That’s pretty amazing when you think about it.
Georgia Tech 14 – NC State 17 – And lastly, I get to the most interesting game of the weekend – well, of Thursday. As I wrote about last week, this one was big for both teams. Whoever lost was headed for ten days of newspaper articles and Internet message boards filled with questions about why they sucked and saying the coach should be fired.
Given it’s importance, it’s no surprise that the game went down to the end. It ended (effectively) on one of the most unlikely plays I’ve ever seen. All night, GT stud Calvin Johnson was killing the NC State defense. In the second half, the Jackets seemed to be able to get him the ball any time they tried. So there they were, driving for the game winning touchdown, or at worst a game-tying field goal. Actually, strike that, at worst, they’d miss the figgie, a not-unlikely result given that their kicker had already missed twice that night (and had missed five straight overall). So Tech drove straight down the field (what happened to that top State defense?) and got down to the 2 yard line with about 35 seconds left. They had time for two pass attempts to the end zone and if they missed, a spike and a field goal. On the first play, they did exactly what everyone in the stadium and on TV thought they would do – throw to Johnson. As expected, he dusted his two men, got open and then leaped for the ball. He caught the ball and then – oh wait! – the ball bounced out of his hands and straight to Wolfpack safety Garland Heath (who had been beaten) for an interception. Game over. Wolfpack win.
The play may not sound so incredible, but think about it. Johnson was getting open all night. He is by far the best wideout in the conference and probably the country. He has great hands. Nine times out of ten, if you get a ball to him, he’s gonna catch it. If he doesn’t you assume that since he’s at the back of the end zone, it’ll be incomplete. If it had dropped to the turf, GT probably scores on the next play or at worst kicks the field goal. But instead, the most unlikely – and worst for the Jackets – thing happened. Int.
You can see a great series of picks of that play here.
So where does that leave the teams? Well, clearly they are pretty evenly matched. Neither are great, but both are capable. For the Yellow Jackets though, the loss was their second in a row after a great start. They get Duke at home next, but every other game on the schedule is a tough one. They could have used the momentum.
For NC State, they’ll take the luck, thankyouverymuch. The Pack faithful seemed frustrated not only with their team’s struggles, but with the negative attention from the local media (as if they should have just ignored what was going on). The win doesn’t mean all the problems are solved – after all it was the slimmest margin possible – but that little spark of momentum could be critical. As I’ve said all along, this team has talent. They just need to play better. Maybe a little kiss from the Fates is what they need to start a little run. With their next three games against Clemson (home), Wake (road) and Southern Mississippi (home), it’s easy to seem them turning that good fortune into a four-game winning streak before they pay a visit to Florida State.