Football reading for those found wanting more

Here's a great entry by Navy blogger Mike. He discusses Paul Johnson and new head coach Ken Niumatalolo's efforts in the wake of Johnson's departure.

Yahoo! has always been my favorite source of sports information but the merger with Rivals is a little annoying. Either way, here's a featurette about Roddy Jones on Rivals. My favorite quote:

...it is amazing we won any games last year," he said. "At the beginning of the year we had some guys make some great plays. When a play would breakdown Josh Nesbitt, Jonathan Dwyer or Demaryius Thomas would go out and make some plays. We were able to win some close games and towards the end of the year when we got used to the offense, things started to click...

This quote is the definition of last season. Josh Nesbitt and Jon Dwyer created big plays early on (BC and VT). The season progressed and we saw some Bebe action (MSU). And finally the A-backs and the offense started to roll (e.g. the U, FSU, and uga).

And since I liked the link about Darryl so much this morning I looked up articles about Michael Johnson and Andrew Gardner.

You better have your reading glasses on.

All-ACC Selections

All-ACC Awards came out yesterday afternoon. Here is the list of which I have copied from Heather Dinich's blog. Members of the ACC media voted on the awards. My thoughts are below.

NOTE: A first-team vote was worth two points and second team vote one. An asterisk denotes unanimous selection.

OFFENSE
FIRST TEAM
QB: Russell Wilson, N.C. State (106)
RB: Jonathan Dwyer, Georgia Tech (134)*
RB: Da'Rel Scott, Maryland (76)
WR: Hakeem Nicks, North Carolina (130)
WR: D.J. Boldin, Wake Forest (76)
TE: John Phillips, Virginia (88)
OT: Eugene Monroe, Virginia (117)
OT: Andrew Gardner, Georgia Tech (107)
OG: Rodney Hudson, Florida State (99)
OG: Cliff Ramsey, Boston College (78)
C: Edwin Williams, Maryland (62)

SECOND TEAM
QB: Thaddeus Lewis, Duke (28)
RB: Darren Evans, Virginia Tech (58)
RB: C.J. Spiller, Clemson (50)
WR: Eron Riley, Duke (57)
WR: Aaron Kelly, Clemson (56)
TE: Ryan Purvis, Boston College (45)
OT: Garrett Reynolds, North Carolina (42)
OT: Anthony Castonzo, Boston College (41)
OG: Sergio Render, Virginia Tech (48)
OG: Cord Howard, Georgia Tech (45)
C: Thomas Austin, Clemson (48)

DEFENSE
FIRST TEAM
DE: Everette Brown, Florida State (131)
DE: Michael Johnson, Georgia Tech (99)
DT: B.J. Raji, Boston College (103)
DT: Vance Walker, Georgia Tech (62)
LB: Mark Herzlich, Boston College (118)
LB: Michael Tauiliili, Duke (110)
LB: Aaron Curry, Wake Forest (106)
CB: Alphonso Smith, Wake Forest (134)*
CB: Victor Harris, Virginia Tech (125)
S: Trimane Goddard, North Carolina (105)
S: Michael Hamlin, Clemson (89)

SECOND TEAM
DE: Orion Martin, Virginia Tech (61)
DE: Jason Worilds, Virginia Tech (39)
DT: Ron Brace, Boston College (52)
DT: Darryl Richard, Georgia Tech (50)
LB: Clint Sintim, Virginia (79)
LB: Alex Wujciak, Maryland (43)
LB: Mark Paschal, North Carolina (40)
CB: Ras-I Dowling, Virginia (49)
CB: Tony Carter, Florida State (34)
CB: Kendric Burney, North Carolina (34)
S: Morgan Burnett, Georgia Tech (85)
S: Myron Rolle, Florida State (55)

SPECIAL TEAMS
FIRST TEAM
K: Graham Gano, Florida State (127)
P: Travis Baltz, Maryland (105)
Specialist: C.J. Spiller, Clemson (66)

SECOND TEAM
K: Matt Bosher, Miami (34)
P: Matt Bosher, Miami (60)
Specialist: Michael Ray Garvin, Florida State (41)

HONORABLE MENTION

OFFENSE: Riley Skinner, qb, Wake Forest (26); Antone Smith, rb, Florida State (33); Cedric Peerman, rb, Virginia (30); Darius Heyward-Bey, wr, Maryland (34); Kevin Ogletree, wr, Virginia (32); Dan Gronkowski, te, Maryland (41); Scott Burley, ot, Maryland (34); Thomas Claiborne, og, Boston College (38); Calvin Darity, og, North Carolina (34); Jaimie Thomas, og, Maryland (33); Nick Marshman, og, Virginia Tech (24); Ryan McMahon, c, Florida State (35); Matt Tennant, c, Boston College (33); Ryan Shuman, c, Virginia Tech (23).

DEFENSE: Derrick Morgan, de, Georgia Tech (26); Willie Young, de, N.C. State (25); Vince Oghobaase, dt, Duke (40); Boo Robinson, de, Wake Forest (31); Jeremy Navarre, dt, Maryland (29); Nate Irving, lb, N.C. State (28); Paul Anderson, s, Boston College (35); Anthony Reddick, s, Miami (23).

SPECIAL TEAMS: Dustin Keys, k, Virginia Tech (25); Brandon Tate, spec., North Carolina (33); T.J. Graham, spec., N.C. State (31).



Biggest question is how in the world is Morgan Burnett not a first team All-ACC selection? How did Everette Brown get more votes than Michael Johnson? The second answer is easy...the tv networks love Florida State and they were on in the afternoon and prime time all year. We were noon games. Interesting selection on Andrew Gardner as well.

Ah well, no one expected anything from us this year and clearly our presence was felt. Congratulations to the All-ACC team!

Thoughts?

Gardner Out, Dane in tears

I took me a day to bounce back from hearing the news (actually, I read on a message board that CPJ confirmed this on a radio show, but had no internet source to quote).

http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/ajc/tech/entries/2008/11/05/devastating_los.html

I heard the news, and responded thusly:



As if our offensive line didn't have enough problems this season, we are now going to lose the most beastly member of all - Mr. Andrew Gardner. Its a tough loss, and we can only hope ol' Nick Claytor can come in and finish up the season like a bear-man. Good luck Andrew, and thanks for everything you've done for the program.