Thursday, October 16, 2008

Q&A with BC Interruption

BC Interruption takes a look at BC sports in the format of PTI. Because of their unique format, I made their Q&A a little different. I threw out the toss-up questions and let them argue.

Here are my answers to their questions.

First up: Tyrod Taylor or Chris Crane?

Brian: This one is easy. The answer is Chris Crane. Crane has more passing yards (889) than Taylor has combined (338 yards rushing, 495 yards passing). Crane has 7 rushing touchdowns to Taylor's 2. That's a lot of production from a quarterback that the Eagles don't necessarily need to carry the load rushing with three capable tailbacks in the backfield (Harris, Haden and Smith). The only knock on Crane at this point would be that he is 4-1 as a starter while Taylor is 5-0 given that the Hokies have played tougher competition to date. Still, I like Crane slightly more than the sophomore Taylor. Now if you ask me the same question next year replacing Crane's name with Dominique Davis, I'm going with Taylor because of the experience from the last two years.

Jeff: Brian, you are letting your BC bias show on this one. The answer is Tyrod Taylor. He is 5-0 like you said so the numbers do not matter. Crane did have a great day against NC State but he needs to have more than one great day to make up for the 1 he has in the loss column. If Taylor was under center for BC against Gerogia Tech, the Eagles would be the higher ranked team coming into this game.

Brian: For argument's sake, if Taylor was under center for the Eagles BC might very well be undefeated, but if Crane was under center for the Hokies for the East Carolina (instead of Glennon), the Hokies might very well be undefeated as well.

Who would you rather beat this season if you could only beat one: Virginia Tech or Notre Dame?

Jeff: I would rather beat Virginia Tech. I would take any conference win over a win over Notre Dame since conference wins lead to an extra game at the end of the season. But fortunately I don't have to choose who I would rather beat because we are going to beat both Virginia Tech and Notre Dame this year.

Brian: It is hard to argue against getting the opportunity to beat a conference rival ("conference" in this case read as: not only our ACC "rival" but going all the way back to 1991 and our Big East days) but I'll go for it anyway. Look, after the 2010 season Notre Dame is walking away from the Boston College game. How sweet would it be if the Eagles can win this thing again this year to push our win streak to 6 games? Then if BC can somehow manage to win the games in 2009 and 2010, the Irish will be walking away from this series having lost 8 straight dating back to 2000. That would be huge for the Eagles and pretty embarrassing to walk away from that series having lost the last 8 games (kinda like the awful bowl losing streak the Irish are on).

Your choice for the Eagles: Winning a BCS bowl game or appearing in the Final Four?

Brian: We are somewhat spoiled when March and April roll around given the success the men's ice hockey team has had the past few years. So while the Eagles haven't accomplished either feat, the answer going away is win a BCS bowl game. Not only would it be great for the program and for recruiting, but it would help change the much maligned perception of ACC football and get the conference off the snide when it comes to our BCS woes (1-9 in last 10 BCS bowl game appearances).

Jeff: 1-9 and 2-9 are not a whole lot different in my opinion. But regardless of saving face for the ACC this is a very tough question. It's almost like winning a BCS bowl game is not all that important unless it is the National Championship. The important part is just making a BCS bowl game and all the extra exposure that that gives your program. If the question were national championship in football vs basketball I would say football. However, since that is not the question, I am going to say that I would prefer a Final Four appearance since BC is further from achieving that. BC should be able to cross BCS bowl game off the list at the end of this season.

Better BC pre-game activity: Tailgating or going to Mary Ann's?

Jeff: Tailgating. Whether it's in the Mods, Shea Field, the Comm Ave garage or in a dorm room, they all are a better experience than Mary Ann's. Mary Ann's is a better place to go after you already have a buzz going.

Brian: For Eagles fans, the answer is tailgating. Not so sure about for visiting fans though, since unless you know someone with a tailgating spot, it's hard to tailgate and the visitor parking situation is pretty terrible. Might as well go to Mary Ann's and throw a couple back on the cheap.

Finally, who wins on Saturday?

Brian: I don't want to jinx it, but I am feeling an Eagles victory this Saturday night. It will definitely be a great game. Both teams aren't as strong as they were a year ago, but I give the slight edge to Boston College who has lost less talent on both sides of the ball than the Hokies. I'll predict the score is 21-20 Eagles on top.

Jeff: I disagree that Boston College has less talent on either side of the ball. We know BC's front 7 are as good as it gets and overall I would say the talent level is equal this year. This is a good matchup and should be a close game but it won't be. The Eagles will come out and play great under the lights on Saturday night and Virginia Tech's streak of good luck to pull out close conference games will come to an end. BC 27 - VT 9.

Brian: Jeff, I said the Eagles have lost less talent than the Hokies, so we agree, except for I doubt it will be that big of a margin of victory for either team.

No comments: