Fun with Flash

Eagle in Atlanta shows us a fun Flash program put out by BC Marketing. Looks eerily similar to an Arizona State Flash program...

Ramblin' Wreck Featured on Wikipedia

The Ramblin' Wreck is the featured article on wikipedia's front page today. Pretty cool stuff.

Also, thoughts go out from the Tech Family for this BC kid fighting cancer. That is just a sad story and Eagle in ATL has a really good read that puts the situation into perspective for all sports fans. Good luck to Mr. Herzlich. GT fans all hope he comes back to haunt ACC offenses soon.

Any thoughts out there are welcome

The Definition of Snakebit

If one were to look up the definition of the term "snakebit" one would find the following in the dictionary:

Snakebit [sneyk-bit] adj -
1. Bitten by a snake
2. (In basketball) Losing ten games by two possessions or less
3. (In basketball) Playing in back-to-back overtime games and losing both
4. (In basketball) Losing the last game of the regular season with 1.7 seconds left on a midrange fade away jumper

We've still got Clemson to go this Thursday instead of BC. Preventing a 3-game sweep and progressing to the next round of the ACC tournament does not look impossible with Clemson's performances as of late. Any thoughts on upcoming ACCT or season's ending?

Maryland Terribles Preview

Tech's first ACC series is this weekend at home against the mighty 4-4 Maryland Terrapins. Generally speaking we should expect to sweep the Terps or at least take 2 out of 3. The Terps are batting .286 and just recently were swept by a scrappy UNC-Wilmington team. Hope y'all are ready for a blood bath.

Tech bball finishes the regular season against BC on Saturday. BC's recent upset by NC State makes GT a must win for BC's tournament hopes while GT is playing for pride and "momentum" going into the ACCT. I wanna win this game. I wanna win the ACCT. The best thing for the ACC would be Tech magically pulling a Georgia this year and taking the ACCT and sending an additional team to the tourney. That would be sweet.

Any thoughts on MD? I know Vu probably has some. Anyone think basketball season flew by?

ACC coach departs and Tostitos Bowl

Well, crap. I can't believe BC got rid of ol' Jags. He was a damn good coach. I'm happy that he's gone for [any future possible matchups] but I'm sad for the ACC's coaching ranks. Looking at his background though indicated he was looking NFL all along. I can't remember the sportscaster that said this verbage but basically every coach wants to prove that their system works at the highest level. Coaching's a competition like the game of football itself. Coaches want to prove to everyone that they're the best. Transitioning from college to pros for coaches is a method of ego stroking but also self affirmation.

I watched a little of the Tostitos Bowl last night with a group of Ohionions. Enjoyable? No. ugag fans of the North. Period. How can people that went to Bowling Green, Toledo, Cincinatti, etc. all root for some random bean mascot more than their alma maters? I always ask, "Who do you root for when Ohio State is kicking the crap out of your college?" Answered with, "GO BUCKEYES!" Weird. I'm a different kind of fan than a lot of the "born and raised." My family had no Tech affiliation. I chose Tech because I liked the school's rep and then fell in love with the sports. So goes life. Everyone's different. Gotta appreciate the different types of fans. If all our fans were the same, we'd be ugag fans.

Thoughts on the Fiesta Bowl and Boston College are welcome. Or thoughts on the your favorite Tostitos/Doritos/corn chips are welcome, too. Got a favorite bird of prey?

It's not as bad as it looks. Yeah, I said it.

Right now the ACC is the laughingstock of the college football world, and rightly so. The only team from the ACC that is ranked right now is Wake Forest. Now, I don't mean any insult to the Deacs, but that would basically be like Vanderbilt becoming a top team in the SEC in 5 years from now. No one would give them their full credit, everyone in the SEC would still say "whatever, they are just Vandy," and everyone outside of the SEC would make fun of the conference for having Vandy as their best team.

It's true, as I posted before... the ACC, for now, blows. It is ridiculous. There is no respect for the conference anymore. FSU now also applies to Fresno State. Gone is Miami - Miami(FL) now takes its place. Georgia Tech plays second fiddle to uga. Now Clemson, in the year it is supposed to be in the MNC hunt, has gone and dropped the ball.

Brace yourself. You will be shocked to read that I don't think it is as bad as it sounded on Sunday. In fact, on second glance, it seems like the ship is finally righting itself. Expansion may be finally happening, 3 years after it actually happened. Hear me out on this one.

Georgia Tech, who malaised through the past six seasons with spurts of brilliance and dregs of just plain badness, finally has a coach that, well, acts like a coach should. Paul Johnson is a proven winner, who is expected by basically everyone (apart only a few Bulldog fans and other uneducated nobodies) to be very, very successful. FSU actually kind of had a decent season last year, toppling the ranked Alabama Crimson Tide, losing by a field goal to Wake Forest, and knocking off Boston College from the #2 spot. Honestly, they would have beaten Kentucky in their bowl game if it weren't for the trouble they found a few dozen of their players in, resulting in a depleted squad and a touchdown margin loss for the New Year's Eve game.

Clemson will always be solid (except for 2 games out of the year where they get embarrassed), and even though VPI lost to ECU, they will be back. Miami is on the upswing - GT fans like to think Randy Shannon is a moron because he kept a moron (Pat Nix) around for more than a year. Say what you will - they have the talent to win some big games, and as of right now, in my view, look to be Tech's biggest ACC opponent this year. Apparently Shannon has cleaned house (which, at Miami, would obviously take a looooong damn time) and has the program running like it isn't made up of a bunch of drug slingers and criminals - the first step to becoming competitive year after year. I'm not calling Miami to win this weekend against Florida; however, I will make it known that Miami hasn't lost to Florida during my lifetime, and they damn sure don't want to start now. It won't surprise me one bit if that game surprises everyone else, especially the Gators.

As I said already, BC grabbed the #2 spot last year, and even though a few dozen other teams seemed to do the same thing, it was still impressive. I think the team as a whole will continue to get better, and eventually be better over all without relying on Matt Ryan to make it rain like a true baller.

The jury is still out on UNC, and Duke can suck it until they go 3-5 (this year marks a decade of them not doing so) in the ACC and win a decent OOC game. And, even though I've already kind of talked smack about Wake, they are a good damn team (it's weird, it's almost like I'm turning into a Wake fan...).

So, what exactly is happening? In the Atlantic, Wake is great, BC is good, and FSU has the chance to become good to great again (even if it takes Bobby Bowden finally leaving to do so). Clemson will remain very solid, Maryland can play ball, and NC State will continue to embarrass the state of North Carolina in everything it does. In the Coastal, GT and Miami are both going to be damn good teams, and will easily challenge if not surpass Virginia Tech every year for the Coastal Title, starting this season (these two teamse will also very successfully carry the banner for the ACC in OOC games, mark my words). Not saying VPI won't compete, but I think everyone else is growing up around them very, very quickly. North Carolina will hopefully shape into a solid team, but I am not sold on the predictions that they will start winning conference or even division championships. Virginia - well, screw UVa. Duke will have at least 1 conference victory this season, and that will be against UVa, who is really, really at risk of having a 1 win season. More like the Cavalqueers. (Anyone who is a UVa fan, go ahead, bookmark this entry, mark October 25^th on your calendar, and remember to email me at EffinDane at gmaildotcom. I always manage to eat my own words.)

That's right, BC, Miami, and VT will be strong, strong teams, in addition to GT, Wake, Clemson, and hopefully FSU. All of these teams will get better, very, very soon, and as much as any commentator wants to bring up this season, these teams will be competitive with anyone in the country. (Except for USC, because Jesus is to humanity what Pete Carroll is to Trojans football).

This whole post may be completely wrong, and sorry if it is. However, I do think I have made some pretty valid points. The ACC blows, at least for now. Soon though, the mega-conference will finally arrive.