ACC Best of the Blogs: Postseason

I decided to let the BC coaching situation get settled before doing a postseason BOB (Actually I was just lazy. Shhhhhh. No one can know that.). From here on, these will be infrequent and irregular.

A lot's happened in the ACC since the ACCCG. There was a coaching change, players leaving, players staying, big changes at Tech Sideline and a big win for the Hokies in Miami.

BOSTON COLLEGE

BC All Access: Frank Spaziani | Keys to Success
"4. Keep the towel
The towel has been his trademark for years. And guess what? Its worked too. Take my advice Spaz--Don't mess with success. Keep the towel tradition, who knows it may catch on in Chestnut Hill."

BC Interruption: Brian's Somewhat Delayed Reaction to Spaziani Hire
"My point is that if Gene wanted coaches to stay at Boston College until the end of time, he needed to hire a head coach that would make Chestnut Hill a destination-type position. At age 61, Spaziani simply cannot become that type of coach. Yes, he played for Joe Paterno at Penn State and JoePa set him up with his first coaching positions. And yes, he stated today that he wants to be at Boston College for the next 12 years. But the days of the Joe Paternos and Bobby Bowdens of the college football world are numbered. Do I expect Spaziani to be coaching at the Heights at age 73? Highly unlikely."

Eagle in Atlanta: Spaz's To Do list
"3. Show the on the field emotion off the field. Spaz clearly has fire. We see it every Saturday in his reactions. He held his own in the press conference, but I still think his personality was muted a bit. BC fans want passion. They want hope. They want to believe. Share that passion when you speak to the press and certainly when you speak to fans. That, along with winning, will turn the skeptics around and have kids lining up to play for BC."

CLEMSON

Block-C: It's Official
"CJ just announced in his press conference that he will be returning to Clemson for his senior season. It took every ounce of my being not to write this entire post in all caps."

Sporting Gnomes: Zorn & Dabo
"I bring this up because of the somewhat similar situations between Zorn and Dabo. As I’ve mentioned before, I fear that Dabo will coach differently now that he faces dramatically different incentives. But I now also fear that he’s in the midst of the Zorn effect; he’s good because he’s new. He had room to take risks; and they worked out. In the future those same risks will bite him in the ass, so he either steps in for another round of Russian Roulette, or he becomes one of the boring coaches who tries to survive by minimizing risk."

FLORIDA STATE

Chant Rant: What if the Bowl win was Bobby's last game?
"Less coverage of FSU Football. Like it or not, Bowden is the face of the program and drives much of the team's media coverage. No offense to Jimbo, but dadgumit, he can't hold a candle to the funny, quirky quote machine known to the press simply as Bobby."

Scalp 'Em: Dr. Saturday: Don’t Trust Your Eyes
"I’m happy that FSU won of course, whether it’s by 1 or by 70. But, I’ll admit that the first half was a snore, aside from Graham Gano’s Puntstravaganza (Chili donated that word via Mobile IM last night). And the second half was fun to watch because everything went FSU’s way. On top of that, my favorite QB, Drew Weatherford got to see some playing time before riding off into the sunset. All in all it was a good way to end a 2008 season that basically met my expecations. It was a year of “something to build on” and the Noles can build on a Champs Sports Bowl victory heading into 2009."

Tomahawk Nation: Dear Gary Brown
"What is Bunkley doing right now? He just skullcracked Eli Manning. He's leading his Philadelphia Eagles past the Giants. In the Giants Stadium. The announcers are practically having an orgasm over how well he is playing. The announcer had to change his pants during the commercial break. BBunk just threw the center into Brandon Jacobs on 3rd down for a 2-yard loss."

GEORGIA TECH

The Legacy x4: Biggest Fear Confirmed
"What does this do to the season? It doesn't necessarily take anything away from this one. But next year....the hype that everyone was expecting us to ride is been taken out from under us. Paul Johnson's reputation? Well it took a hit, a big one. We were all humbled last night in a multitude of ways."

MARYLAND

Turtle Soup: A Great Day To Be A Terp
"The running game will be super solid as Da’Rel Scott wowed the nation with 174 yards rushing in about a quarter and a half. With Davin Meggett and Morgan Green, we are set. The offensive line was inconsistent, so I can’t imagine it’ll be horrible replacing a few guys. But we’ll see."

Turtle Waxing: Terps close out 2008 in style
"Still there is a sense that the program is approaching a cross roads of sorts. Friedgen is unlikely to remain as the coach at Maryland beyond his current contract and the possible coach in waiting in coordinator James Franklin had a very mixed season in his first year back at Maryland. Al Seamonson did an adequate job in his first game replacing Chris Cosh but there are still major questions about the defense and it isn't clear if Friedgen will resort to another outside hire for the defensive coordinator spot."

MIAMI

All Canes: Marve: True colors shining through...
"Not to sound callous, but The Cancer Card was played to gain more public sympathy. I know prostate cancer is no laughing matter. My father in law was diagnosed last year, had his prostate removed and is going about life in remission. Cancer is serious business and I understand what the Marves are going through. For that, they have my sympathy."

Hall of Canes: Let Marve Go
"I hope Marve can have a good career somewhere else. I thought he was going to be a star here, but it just didn't work out, in part because of some of Marve's off the field issues and immaturity and in part because of Jacory Harris."

NORTH CAROLINA

Carolina March: The Future of the Gimmick Pass at UNC
"Cooter Arnold's first quarter touchdown pass to Hakeem Nicks was the fourth attempt by a non-quarterback for the Heels this season and the third completion. I'm mildly curious as to whether Butch Davis and John Shoop are going to continue to throw such plays into the mix as they recruit more talent (with all the inherit controversies involved) and presumably become more of a favored team and less of an upstart."

TarEye or BuckHeel: 2008 Footall Season Wrap-up: A Season of What If's
"And with a tougher schedule on slate for next season, I do not expect Carolina to improve upon the 8-5 season. The likely loss of Hakeem Nicks to the NFL and Brandon Tate's graduation will severely hamper the offense, and Withers defense will continue to leave more to be desired and maintain the status quo."

Tar Heel Fan: Final Football Thoughts
"A big help in this area would be a breakout season by Shaun Draughan and Ryan Houston. Once Butch Davis figured out what he had in Draughan and Houston, the running game was much better. If this aspect of the offense can improve to a level where it dominates the offensive play calling, it will minimize the losses in the passing game."

Tar Heel Mania: World, Hakeem Nicks. Hakeem Nicks, World.
"The vidoes and statistics speak for themselves: 8 catches, 217 yards, 3 touchdowns. Nicks now holds every major school receiving record. It’s probable that this is the last we’ve seen of the greatest wide receiver in school history, as Nicks is an NFL talent right now and has nothing left to prove in college. UNC should be fine with a talented, if inexperienced, wide receiver trio of Greg Little, Kenton Thornton and Dwight Jones in 2009. If Hakeem comes back for his senior year, however, I may end up knocking myself out from the excitement."

NC STATE

Section Six: Aw Crap
"I don't know. All I heard was my name and a stream of unintelligible profanity."

StateFans Nation: Great Wolfpack fans help save another bowl
"I’ll have more from Birmingham later, but I just wanted to start off with a big shout out to Wolfpack fans for their awesome support of the program. The Wolfpack’s presence in Birmingham was fantastic. The only thing that saved Rutgers from major embarrassment was that their colors are identical to Wolfpack red."

Yet Another...: Get Your Doughnut On!
"As of today, the 13th, there are still 22 days remaining to register for the Challenge. If you haven't done any "training" yet--either running or eating--expect this to truly be a challenge. Vomiting is a common occurrence for many of the participants (the human body wasn't designed to exercise after ingesting 2400 calories in a five minute span?) and no doubt makes for interesting walking along the sidewalks of Peace St. for several days. Pray for rain, I suppose."

VIRGINIA

From Old Virginia: What makes a blog a blog
"Meanwhile at ESPN's blogs, you get journalism school, in short clips. You get editors. And you get one person having to cover 12 teams. Heather, bless her heart, decided to do a rundown of all 12 ACC teams' recruiting needs. (Here's ours.) In the past, that would have been published all at once and called a "column." Now, they break it up into little "posts" and call it a "blog." And look, I don't exactly have the world's most important UVA site here, nor am I read by millions across the world each day (or even thousands), but honestly, I'd like to think I bring you much better recruiting content than "Virginia needs linebackers and wide receivers," especially since most of the class is already verballed in."

Good Ol' Blog: File this under “Not Believable”
"Honestly, where do some of these newsie-types get this stuff? Can anyone really put the word “reportedly” in front of any falsehood and get away with it? Let’s give it a try: “Reportedly, Al Groh is considering The Good ‘Ol Blog’s Rob Mahini to be Virginia’s next defensive line coach.” Yup, I guess so. See you on the sidelines!"

VIRGINIA TECH

Beer Control Offense: 2009 Orange Bowl Champs Thoughts
"VT wanted it more, prepared for it more and fought for it more. Why they don't come out like this for every bowl, I do not know. Beamer likes to reward his guys ... well a win is A LOT more rewarding than a loss. They got all offseason to get their drinks on ... not bowl week. Maybe this is the kick in the ass Beamer needed?"

College Game Balls: Orange Bowl Champions

Tech Sideline: What the Editorial Changes Mean for TSL
"I will still hang out on the boards, as well. I like talking about Hokie sports, plus I have always enjoyed the fine sport of detecting and eliminating message board flamers."

Tech Super Fans: VT vs. Cincinnati in the Orange Bowl
"I will give Stinespring great credit for not only calling his best game of the season (breaking tendency and throwing on 1st down in the first half was fantastic), but also having the offense execute better than it had for most of the year. However, he still demonstrates a true lack of game "sense". A perfect play after running two successful TE hitch routes in that situation would have been a pump fake to Boone and then hit a WR in the zone behind him for a big play. Also, the only catches Boone had in the game were on this drive. With a weapon like Greg Boone at 280 lbs, the Hokies should utilize him in the passing game at various times throughout a contest."

VT Fan: Virginia Tech Football: Orange Bowl Champions
"So this win feels good. its a BCS win. its a 10 win season (and thanks to ESPN for the “10-Win Streak” plug all day). Its a young team, pretty much a rebuilding year. Sets up some good hype and excitment for the 2009 season. Sometimes we as Hokie fans lose sight of the quality program we have."