ACC Best of the Blogs: Week 15

Ed. Note: The next Best of the Blogs will come after bowl season.

BOSTON COLLEGE

BC All Access: BC Falls Short Again
"Obviously this is a tough loss to swallow. I thought this was BC's game to lose, and they certainly did not play well enough to win this one. Again the story of the game for BC was turnovers. Rich Gunnell's fumble inside the 5 yard line was a huge mistake. Dominique Davis also committed several costly turnovers, including a fumble for a touchdown and a pick that led to another. Ball security has not been our strength all year and we once again showed this weakness."

BC Interruption: The Blame Game, ACCCG Edition
"Jeff: The conference fixed the problem by moving the game to Charlotte. The game will be a hot ticket there because of proximity to the schools in the game alone. Meanwhile, on average the two teams competing in the game will be ranked higher nationally than they were this year. There won't be the SEC dream game to compete with and the economy hurting ticket sales so the ACC Championship Game will get more hype and will be better attended. Nothing needs to be done beyond moving the game in 2010."

Eagle in Atlanta: Bring the band!
"I don't know where the 39 number came from. It may have something to do with the size of the charter or available hotel rooms. If a 40th member necessitates another plane, have some of the folks fly commercial. Or send the band down in a bus. These kids earned a trip too. Unless there is reason against sending a larger band, then BC should step up and get these BC guys and gals to Nashville."

CLEMSON

Block-C: DSOT of the Day: Vicarious Excellence Edition
"Sun Tzu once said something to the affect of “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” He also wisely stated “If you can’t beat ‘em - talk shit on future opponents’ messageboards.” This sad Sakerlina fan has decided to do just that over on some ‘Husker forums."

Sporting Gnomes: Koenning doesn’t help his cause
"Look, Vic deserves some respect. But if even he says that success is driven by talent, then unless he was primarily responsible for the recruiting of the defense (and he may be, I refuse to follow recruiting), then his resignation/dismissal is largely superfluous."

FLORIDA STATE

Chant Rant: Fisher "Very content at FSU" -- maybe because he now has more control to make things happen
"A less cynical view: Fisher used the mere fact of Auburn's interest to expand his role as Head Coach In Waiting. Put another way, his loyalty statement bought new concessions from T.K. Wetherell. We all know it worked last year with the West Virginia scare. According to T.K., "...he got what he wanted in play-calling and (some other concerns).""

Scalp 'Em: What Scares Me More Than Bowden Staying
"If Jimbo Fisher got hit by the proverbial bus (or in this case, left the program) tomorrow FSU Football would survive. Would it be an ideal scenario? No. It never is for a business when there’s a sudden departure of an important person. Fisher may or may not lead the Noles to national titles, but does anyone think he’s loyal to FSU? I think he’s contractually obligated to FSU as it is right now, and I think that down the road if / when a better opportunity comes along, he’ll be happy to go. It’s a business after all. I don’t fear that after watching OU put up a ton of points, and teams like Buffalo beat Ball State. There’s a ton of parity in college football and a ton of good coaches out there. Everyone is replaceable once the few legends that are left retire."

Tomahawk Nation: FSU Player Development and Attrition, and has a change in control occured?
"I'm not paid to make readers happy like Ellis is, so I'll go ahead and say that Amato is easily the guy the insiders complain about the most. They consider him a clown, a fraud, a total has been who is drawing a charity paycheck, and someone who has zero hope of ever landing another decent D1 head coaching job. Rumor has it that he is the one who frustrates Jimbo the most. Hopefully Chuck "The Clown" Amato has recruited his last kid for FSU."

GEORGIA TECH

The Legacyx4: I promise not to do this too often
"If you live in the 1st District of Illinois or 6th or 10th Districts of Texas, and are planning on voting for Reps. Bobby Rush, Joe Barton, or Michael McCaul respectively two Novembers from now, do me a favor. Don't vote. Go commit a felonious act that will bar you from voting ever again in those states."

MARYLAND

Turtle Soup: Cosh Leaving; Blitzing May Happen in ‘09!
"However, I’m very happy as a Maryland fan that we are going to get a new defensive coordinator. Like I said last week, this team has to get back to being aggressive and not passive. The defense needs to go after people and make things happen, not give up yards and hope to force teams into field goal tries."

Turtle Waxing: Early ACC report
"Outside of the two powers at the top it is oddly Maryland that probably has the best non-conference resume of any team in the league. The Terps have wins over Michigan State and Michigan and have gotten the attention of NCAA prognosticators. Over at Buster Sports Andrew Jones claims Maryland has set itself up nicely with their out of conference play. Michigan State still figures to be one of the top two or three in the Big Ten and Michigan may make some noise this year after upsetting UCLA and Duke in the last few weeks."

MIAMI

All Canes: Marve transfer rumors surface...
"Truth be told, Marve and Harris both seemed to regress a bit this year. Against Florida, Marve had moxie and the issue was a bland offensive game plan from Patrick Nix. At some point, the training wheels would come off and Marve would be unleashed on the college football world."

NORTH CAROLINA

Tar Heel Fan: The Scholarship Numbers Game
"In all likelihood something similar could happen here. Players will quit, transfer, Hakeem Nicks might go to the NFL, some recruits won’t qualify, some recruits will enroll in down the road. It is definitely a huge puzzle and as Allen Wallace points out hugely complicated. The real debate in this whether a coach can or should cut a current player off in favor of giving his scholarship to a new recruit? This seems to be the beef Wolfpack fans have with Davis thus their use of the term “waiver wire” which is used in professional sports to cut a player a team no longer wants."

Tareye/Buckheel: Heels joining Big East?
"Perhaps, as part of some sort of conspiracy the UNC-Chapel Hill Tar Heels are considering joining the Big East as they face their third Big East team this season -- Rutgets, UConn and now West Virginia -- or maybe it's just coincidence."

NC STATE

Section Six: A Quick Glance At Rutgers
"With a couple of hot offenses going up against a couple of blah defenses with bad secondaries, the Pizza Bowl looks like it's going to be one of the most exciting games of the bowl season. Sounds good to me--we haven't had a good shootout in a while."

StateFans Nation: Laugh. Think. Cry.
"It’s important that even the young generation of State fans understands why Jimmy V was such an endearing – and polarizing – personality for those of us that can never remember being anything but a State fan. But it’s not a romantic history; in fact, it’s quite tragic."

Yet Another...: Three Non-BCS Bowl Games You Should Watch
"This game scares me silly, to be honest. Rutgers passes the ball well; State struggles at times in pass defense. The Pack's not nearly as bad as their 90-something-ranked pass defense numbers suggest, but no one would ever confuse this team with one that's impossible to pass against. Teel is playing lights out, as is Wilson, so it may come down to which quarterback dazzles more when the lights come on."

VIRGINIA

From Old Virginia: Ch-ch-changes
"So is this such a good thing? Well, yes. By all accounts, of course, Mike Groh is a good man, hard worker, great with the players, etc. etc. etc. Most coaches are, and I'm not here to impugn the man's character. But there was a direct correlation between Mike's hiring as OC and the sudden plop sound of our offense hitting the water in the porcelain bowl. The playcalling was a particular point of complaint; I maintain that the playcalling was the one single factor more than any other that cost us a bowl trip. So Mike had to go. Mike's been a loyal Wahoo since 1991 and hasn't held a job at any other college; it can't be fun, firing your son, which is why you don't hire him in the first place. 99% of coaching hires end badly, or at least with some degree of animosity, and it only gets worse and more awkward and more uncomfortable and more acrimonious and really adjectivey when flesh and blood is involved."

Good Ol' Blog: Who would want this job?
"As a Virginia fan, I’m generally not shy about allowing my bias to color my blogging. I’m a UVa supporter with a blog, not a journalist living up to objective standards. You know, like those of a Dick Vitale or other non-partisan journalistic types that clearly aren’t rooting for a specific team. So, often, my arguments and contentions are influenced by my desire for UVa and the Wahoo nation to succeed in everything they do. And that’s pretty standard in the world of sports blogging."

VIRGINIA TECH

Beer Control Offense: Champions Again ... a ramble
"What a weird year. Young and crappy on O til the last couple of games, young and mediocre on D til about game 6 then, like gang busters the DT's did their job and everyone got better. The holiday season known as college football is almost over, but luckily for VT their last game is in an enviable, if overlooked BCS game."

College Game Balls: But… But… We’re Texas
"A Sooner fan held this up during the Oklahoma rout of Missouri. This is just a huge fuck you from Oklahoma to Texas."

Fire Bryan Stinespring: The Marcus Vick Effect
"Something else happened in 2005, of course. Marcus Vick self-destructed for the last time and was abruptly shown the door, leading to no small amount of embarrassment and humiliation for Frank Beamer and the entire program and leaving us without a quarterback. And then, as some of you probably well know, that next season, 2006, was the first season for Mike O'Cain and Curt Newsome."

Tech Sideline: Your ACC championship winning Eye in the Sky
"The best news is that Frank and Staff once again correctly measured how many points it would actually take to beat so-and-so. This time it technically (pardon the pun) only took 13 points to to beat B.C., the other 17 were a version of O&M gravy to use that holiday colloquialism loosely. But will that far-right offensive approach be enough to take the next step and get back to a MNC game before Tyrod leaves? I’ll leave that vote and discussion to you…but it is worthy of some consideration in my book."

TechSuperFans: Game Review - VT vs. BC in ACC Championship
"Look no further than with 10:00 left in the game and Boston College taking possession at their own 29 yard line having just cut the score to 24-10 and forced a Hokie punt. Jason Worilds, whose shoulder has popped out in EACH of the last 3 games and been popped back in on the sidelines, willed his way past the BC offensive tackle to swat the ball out of BC QB Dominique Davis' hands. Former walk-on Orion Martin, who showed up at Tech 4 years ago weighing 230 lbs and trying to make the team as a tight end, bull rushed his man into the QB and snatched the ball off of the bounce to dash into the end zone and put the game out of reach. What scored that touchdown and clinched the game was a burning desire to leave everything on the field for one's teammates."

VT Fan: Woe, These Hokie Hoopsters
"It has to be killing Coach Seth Greenberg. Let’s face it, his team is guilty of many of the “ills” of a team that doesn’t have “it”. They fail to win close games. They struggle to beat inferior teams, then get up and play well against good teams, only to fall just short. They are not scrappy as in years past. They get in foul trouble. They can’t put teams away when they get ahead. But most of all, against good teams, late in games, you just don’t feel they’ll rise up and win."