Photo caption: Kyle Parker says "Let's play two (ACC championship games)."
Summer predictions are about like fantasy teams and social media updates:
Everybody has one, and most of them I don't give a rat's behind about.
Jimbob Blogger gives his Top 25!
I tend to put it right up there with:
Hey, look who I drafted on my fantasy team!
or...
Morning, followers! Coffee tastes good today!
or even...
Hey, I successfully picked three teams in the Final Four ... in one of my 14 brackets!
This is a narcissistic world we're living in, and I guess I have to admit being among the guilty.
I haven't done the fantasy-team thing in almost a decade, and I haven't posted a Facebook status update in months.
But I have partaken in some preseason predictions, forecasting how I think the ACC will shake out in 2010.
Took the conventional route and picked Florida State to win the Atlantic Division. Picked Clemson to place a close second while finishing 8-4 overall.
And I've been second-guessing it ever since.
It makes perfect sense to think the Tigers, after losing last year's best player in college football, will have a bit of a drop-off this year. It makes even more sense when you look at a schedule that is more difficult and includes road games at Florida State and North Carolina.
But the more you think about it, the more you can make the case for Clemson winning the Atlantic Division again, and getting another opportunity to end the agonizing 19-year stretch without an ACC title.
It's about the Jimmys and Joes, and Clemson is stocked with some pretty talented Jimmys and Joes.
In 2004 and 2005, the Tigers began some serious upgrades of their recruiting. They got James Davis out of Atlanta one year. They got C.J. Spiller out of Florida the next. And the roll really hasn't stopped since.
The best way to illustrate the Tigers' depth of talent is to examine how they filled big holes in recent years -- and how they're filling them right now.
Gaines Adams left, but here came Phillip Merling and Ricky Sapp. Sapp is gone, but here come Andre Branch and Da'Quan Bowers.
Safeties Michael Hamlin and Chris Clemons left a huge void after the 2008 season, having started a jillion games combined. But no one was talking about them last season with DeAndre McDaniel and Rashard Hall in the fold.
Cornerbacks Crezdon Butler and Chris Chancellor started a jillion games combined, but here come Marcus Gilchrist and Byron Maxwell.
Tight end Michael Palmer was a major contributor last season, but Dwayne Allen could end up being an upgrade there with his athleticism and play-making ability.
Thomas Austin was a fixture on the interior of the offensive line, but in his wake are veterans David Smith and Mason Cloy.
And then there's running back, where Spiller did all those crazy things. Andre Ellington and Jamie Harper aren't as dynamic or explosive -- it could be that no one on the planet is -- but they could up being among the best tailback combinations in the ACC.
So much in this game is about talent, and the Tigers not only have plenty of talent, but plenty of veteran talent.
Take a look at the names in the 2008 recruiting class that generated so much praise when it was announced:
Dwayne Allen. Da'Quan Bowers. Jaron Brown. Andre Ellington. Dalton Freeman. Rashard Hall. Jamie Harper. Marquan Jones. Antoine McClain. Brandon Thompson. Jonathan Willard.
And, oh by the way, kid by the name of Kyle Parker.
That's strong.
There's no doubt that questions remain, no doubt that this team could go 7-5 if certain things go wrong.
For all the talk about replenishing talent with talent at various positions, we still don't know about the talent at wide receiver.
For all the talk about how good the Tigers' top six offensive linemen have looked, there still could be big trouble if one or two guys up front get injured.
And for all the talk about how this team's talent compares with the rest of the ACC (very favorably, I'd say), it might not mean a thing if the Tigers don't have someone who can put the ball through the uprights consistently.
But don't discount this program's chances of being great when a lot of folks least expect it.
On to a few Friday links...
My friend Dan Collins, longtime Wake Forest beat writer for the Winston-Salem Journal, keeps a blog that offers some good insight on the Deacons.
Some recent notable snippets:
I’m apparently not the only one to envision opposing offenses training their big guns on Wake Forest’s less-than-imposing defensive front.
“I would,’’ Coach Jim Grobe of the Deacons said yesterday. “I would with those guys in there.’‘
Boo Robinson’s career didn’t exactly peak during his senior season, but he and the 6-0, 285-pound Michael Lockett did provide bulk and muscle as well as experience. Of the freshmen and sophomores looking to fill the breach left by Robinson, Lockett and John Russell, only sophomore Ramon Booi, at 6-6, 300 pounds, and redshirt freshman Frank Souza, at 6-4, 285 pounds, have the size we’ve come to expect to see in a defensive tackle.
Souza appears a good bet to start at nose guard. He’s had a good camp, and I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t start again at the scrimmage scheduled for 3 p.m. this afternoon at BB&T Field.
Other defensive linemen vying for time are Kris Redding, John Gallagher, Nikita Whitlock and Daniel Vogelsang. Redding is a 6-4, 255-pound redshirt freshman who started the first scrimmage last Saturday. Gallagher is a 6-4, 255-pound redshirt freshman who has missed some valuable practice time with first a hyper-extended elbow and, more recently, a sore ankle. Whitlock 5-11, 235-pound redshirt freshman. converted from linebacker. Vogelsang is a 6-3, 235-pound freshman who enrolled in January and had the benefit of practices in the spring.
All can move. All will have to in order to survive playing in the trenches in the ACC.
...
If you’ve noticed that Wake Forest is running everything from a shotgun, keep looking.
Offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke said in the spring that the Deacons emerged from the Riley Skinner era as a predominantly shotgun team, but that doesn’t mean we’ll never see another quarterback up under center. Though I don’t think we’ll see it as soon at Thursday’s 3 p.m. scrimmage at BB&T Field, we just might.
But remember how the Deacons, with Russ Nenon and Chance Raines hurt, were having so much trouble getting the shotgun snaps back to the quarterback during the spring, and how it really mucked up the spring scrimmage? That, Coach Jim Grobe explained the other day, is why we’ve yet to see a quarterback under center.
“That’s the one thing we haven’t put in yet,’’ Grobe siad. “We haven’t gone under center.
“The hardest thing to do is take a shotgun snap, not necessarily catching it, but for the center to get it back there. The snap in the shotgun and run-blocking is really tough on a center, so we feel like we’re just going to hit the hardest stuff as long as we can. We’ve been under center so much with Riley, I don’t think any of our centers will have a problem when we decide to do some under-center stuff.’‘
...
Grobe has said he plans to take advantage of the talent and depth at wide receiver. We saw one way of doing that Saturday, when Brown, Givens and Campanaro would line up in the slot, shift to the backfield and then run off-tackle. That’s just one more thing for opposing defenses to be concerned with.
Senior linebacker Lee Malchow has shown great courage and resolve by returning to practice, but he doesn’t look right. He’s still limping on the leg he broke last Nov. 7 at Georgia Tech.
The Deacons have a defense that should be tough to run wide on, given their speed. Grobe said that overall it’s his fastest team at Wake Forest. But I wonder how strong they’ll be up the middle. Kris Redding, at 6-4, 255-pounds, started the scrimmage inside along with 6-4, 275-pound Frank Souza. Ramon Booi, who at 6-6. 300 pounds could provide some much—needed bulk inside, has not exactly distinguished himself thus far in preseason.
And I’ve seen nothing at the scrimmage or this morning’s practice to scare me off last week’s prediction that sophomore Ted Stachitas will start at quarterback in the Sept. 2 opener against Presbyterian.
True insight is hard to come by during August camp as coaches try their best to keep even the most mundane of details under wraps. But you really get a good feel for the Deacons in reading those dispatches.
Steve Spurrier just can't resist taking a jab at Tennessee.
Spurrier joked on his local radio show Thursday night about Tennessee’s recent decision to delay or buy out a home-and-home series with North Carolina. The Vols asked the Tar Heels to push back their 2011 and 2012 meetings, but they refused, which will probably force UT men’s athletic director Mike Hamilton to buy out of the series for $750,000.
South Carolina let North Carolina delay the teams’ season opener this season so the Tar Heels could play LSU in Atlanta. North Carolina and South Carolina now will play in 2013.
“Golly, times have changed when Tennessee doesn’t want to play North Carolina in football because they’re too good for them,” Spurrier said. “That’s kind of amazing right there.
“We’re not going to bail out from playing North Carolina the way Tennessee did.”
Dooley didn’t comment on the matter — or anything else — Thursday night. He told sports information officials that he was too far behind schedule to meet with the media.
Here's an update on Mark Herzlich.
Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich passed routine follow-up tests for his Ewing’s sarcoma Wednesday in Philadelphia, his father said yesterday.
“Mark’s tests came back fine,” Sandy Herzlich wrote in a text message. “Blood work and CT scan were normal. The MRI (on his left leg, where the tumor was) hasn’t been ready yet, but the doctor expects nothing bad. These were his normal three-month checkups.”
In a phone conversation later, Sandy Herzlich said the fractured right foot his son suffered prior to the start of BC training camp wasn’t examined during the trip home.
Speaking of Spiller, great night for him last night in Toronto.
When the Bills selected the electrifying Spiller in the first round of the NFL draft in April, many figured he would be one of the only bright spots for the Bills in 2010.
We can’t speak for the rest of the team, but Spiller certainly came as advertised, rushing for 54 yards and a 31-yard touchdown romp in less than a half of play.
“That’s a great defence we just went up against and that’s a big confidence booster,” Spiller said of his nifty scamper into the end zone. “The guys did a great job of covering them up and opening up the running lanes.
“And then you’ve seen us on the pass protection. If we just give Trent some time, he makes big plays for us.”
And Dr. Saturday brings us a hilarious clip of an Alabama walk-on who does a spot-on impersonation of Nick $aban.
LW
No comments:
Post a Comment