ACC Best of the Blogs: Week 5

BOSTON COLLEGE

BC Interruption: Food Chain: O'Brien Era Accomplishments
"Jeff: Instead of attempting to guess the final score of Saturday's game, or rip Tom O'Brien for all those WTF losses … let's play a little food chain and remember TOB's greatest accomplishments.
Brian: (bites his tongue)"

Eagle in Atlanta: The importance of this game to Jags
"TOB is downplaying the importance of this game. He should. It is just another ACC game for him. While Jags will never admit it, this game means everything. Because of the way the season has played out and because of the guy on the opposite sidelines, Saturday’s results will have short and long term effects on Jags’ future."

CLEMSON

Block-C: DSOT: Maryland Meltdown Mode, Part I
"Now we get the rabid mouthbreathers who have never set foot on Clemson’s campus outside of a gameday and want to get rid of the president of the university because they don’t like what they hear on Gameday. I’d like to toss this guy in a dryer with a pack of razor blades and Magic Johnson."

Sporting Gnomes: Agreed
"Since Saturday’s loss, I’ve been thinking of just how to write what I wanted to write about why it’s time to part ways with Bowden. The situation has become more political, or perhaps more emotional than rational. LawtonFunk wrote to us before the game that he was “getting that Tommy West feeling [he] had back in 1997.” After the game I realized exactly what he meant. It’s just that instead of Tommy West, I’d use the name Larry Shyatt (just because I’m a little younger and wasn’t paying any attention during the Tommy West years). It usually felt like Shyatt’s teams could win any game. But deep down you just knew that they probably wouldn’t win the big ones, and you would never let yourself get too excited because you knew it wouldn’t be rewarded."

DUKE

Dudespin: With USC out of the picture...
"At the game were two representatives to the Orange Bowl. I think they saw about all they needed to see today. Gentlemen, we’ll see you in January!"

FLORIDA STATE

Tomahawk Nation: FSU's WR's Let Offense Down
"Ponder can get a lot better, as he threw three passes that were completions, yet weren't great throws. The wideouts only made ONE impressive catch all day (Fortson over the middle). In just one game, he really put the brakes on the happy feet problem, and stepped up in the (sometimes shaky) pocket to deliver most of the balls. The main thing he needs to do, going forward, is deliver the ball quicker in rythm. Putting the ball in step will allow us to make more yards downfield. The other thing he needs to do is continue to evaluate risk. Against Wake, some thought he played a 'lil too fast-n-loose. He was probably a bit too conservative on Saturday. Through accumulated experience and Jimbo's reassurance that "yes, you really were seeing what you thought you saw", I think he will continue to improve, even if his numbers don't indicate a drastic improvement."

GEORGIA TECH

The Legacy x4: Mark Richt vs. Paul Johnson
"After watching the “game” that threw Alabama into the current national championship picture, I began to notice the complete and total differences between Paul Johnson and Mark Richt. Let’s compare and see why we’re better off:"

MARYLAND

Turtle Waxing: Terps outlast Clemson
"The offensive line had a bizarre day as the run blocking was awful and they were bedeviled by false starts and holding penalties. Yet their pass blocking, which has been an ongoing weakness, was decent enough in the 2nd half for Turner to find his targets. They had five false starts (two of which were inside the Clemson 10 yard line) and at least one holding penalty. I think one holding call was on Landsford Watson at the end of the game. Turner helped his line by getting rid of the ball quickly and avoiding the Clemson pass rush. Take out the 76 yard run by Heyward-Bey and the team had 27 rushes for 63 yards for an average of 2.3 yards per carry. The power running game evaporated against Clemson and their fast and aggressive secondary and linebackers."

MIAMI

All Canes: Growing Pains: Opportunity blows by Canes
"Shannon may be preaching 'finish' to his squad, but it's falling on deaf ears and something has to give. Is it conditioning? Playcalling? A lack of effort due to back-to-back fourth quarter leads? Whatever the case, it's proving to be this team's Achilles' heel and will result in a few more losses if the curse isn't reversed."

Hall of Canes: Noles coming to town
"The big key this week will be the offensive line, which is expected to again be without injured right tackle Reggie Youngblood. The line started last week with a crushing block by left tackle Jason Fox. But late holding penalties against Fox and center Xavier Shannon hurt the Canes' cause."

NORTH CAROLINA

Carolina March: The ACC Controls Your World
"The next leader of the free world may very well be decided because the Coastal Division includes a Hokie and not an Orangeman. The SEC and the Big 12 may decide the national championship, but the ACC decides the presidency."

Tar Heel Fan: Different Sport, Same Story
"Stop me if you've heard this one before. A player comes to UNC as a freshman in a particular sport, is thrown into the fire his freshman year and is pretty close to an abject failure at his assigned role. This is pretty much the case going forward and during the time the player is despondent, thinks about transferring but ultimately hangs in there. Then, out of the Carolina blue, the starter at his position hurts his ankle and once again he finds himself back in the fray much to the chagrin of fans everywhere. But something odd happens, instead of flopping, he plays extremely well and in the short course of a few games completely redeems the previous years of underachievement."

Tar Heel Mania: UNC vs. UConn: The BasketBowl
"I try to make a point about how UNC and UConn are both really good basketball schools, and how it’s peculiar that we enter this game with a combined 8-1 record (and, for all intents and purposes, should have been 9-0). Instead, I end up making this. Such are the inner machinations of my brain."

NC STATE

Section Six: Desperate Times
"*Picks up phone, dials.*
*Phone rings, goes to voicemail.*
"Na na na na na na na na fishing. Na na na na na na na na fishing. Fish-ing! Fish-ing! Fish-ing! Hi, you've reached Lee F--""

StateFans Nation: Red Means Go - Somebody Gets It!
"This campaign rocks! It portrays NC State as not only ‘cutting-edge’ but fast-paced and generally ‘cool’ while simultaneously exhibiting some pride and confidence without turning people off with excessive bravado or arrogance. (Can you tell I like it?)"

Yet another...: ACC Buy, Sell or Hold: Week 5
"NC State: Sell
The injury rate seems to have slowed a bit. That's about the best I can offer up as positives right now. Russell Wilson is still out with a mysterious shoulder injury (though there are reports that he's taking limited part in practices, which is encouraging), and until he returns it's Harrison Beck's show. And it's a show I don't think most folks like to see. As the weeks tick by, the sand in the hourglass for 2008 continues to run out and the opportunities for State to turn things around before the season ends start to slip away. This week's game against Boston College is huge, as it presents probably the best chance State has to defeat a conference foe, well, for the rest of the year, sadly."

VIRGINIA

The Good Ol' Blog: Maryland week: Orange or blue?
"First off, I hate to break to you guys, but it’s not going to register on game day. Even if you convince 1000 or 2000 people to wear blue instead of orange through the relentless message board posts, that number of people scattered throughout a 60,000+ seat stadium won’t be noticed."

From Old Virginia: Introspectivityness
"Well. When you lose to Duke, people start wondering. When you lose by four touchdowns, and it's your slimmest loss margin all year, they go straight past "wondering" and right to WTFing. It sets off all kinds of historical fact-digging, like, Duke hadn't won an ACC game since 2005. Hadn't won a game by that much since 1998. Etc. etc."

VIRGINIA TECH

College Game Balls: Another Sign You Didn't See on GameDay
"Mathew all I can say to you is touche salesman. We’ve heard about censored or discarded GameDay signs before but dammmmnnn yo."

Wild Turkey CFR: The delicious taste of victory and corn
"IT'S OVER! IT'S FINALLY OVER! My away from Lane Stadium misadventures have finally come to an end. For the first time, I witnessed a victory in person away from Blacksburg as the Hokies defeated Nebraska 35-30 in Lincoln. The smile has yet to be removed from my face. The Hokies used a familiar formula to pull of the victory."

Virginia Tech Fan: Hokies vs. Huskers: Lincoln Trip Report
"Virginia Tech’s high drama season continued on Saturday with its win over Nebraska (whew!). This post has my onsite report of the scene in Lincoln, including the town, the people, the tailgating, and the game. All in all, a great college football destination, where our group soaked in thrilling win with tons of Hokies, thrown in the middle of a crazy college football weekend."

WAKE FOREST

Old Gold and Blog: Sunk: Wake 17, Navy 24
"The most obvious place to start with this one is Riley Skinner. Obviously he couldn't keep avoiding interceptions all season long, but I can't say I expected him to throw four today. After last week's poor performance at Florida State I thought Skinner would bounce back, but it wasn't to be. I've never seen him throw so many poor passes in a game. His fumble only made matters worse. Skinner is still the quarterback of this team. He had a bad day, which happens to everyone from time to time. There's no chance of him being replaced any time soon, but yesterday he just wasn't good enough. It wasn't fun to see."