Friday, December 03, 2004
Craig bleeping James
In any event, I remember not liking Craig James when he did ESPN College Gameday. I remember not liking Craig James when he worked for ABC. He's not doing much to work his way onto my Christmas Card list, appearances aside.
This all started back in August, when he wrote this: (Editor's note. The contents have been redacted. For the most part, I am posting the ranking and removing the team-by-team commentary. You can see the original here.)
Here's how I rank the [Atlantic Coast] conference as the teams get ready for the season:Now to be fair, I don't guess Craig was lying. And I'll also grant that there were times this season (The N.C. State game, the first half of the Georgia Tech game) when I could hear him laughing in the back of my head.
1. Miami Hurricanes
2. Florida State Seminoles
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You could pretty much shuffle the next four schools and not be wrong with the order. Virginia, Clemson, Maryland and North Carolina State are all about the same. I won't straddle the fence and will put them in my expected order of finish.
3. Virginia Cavaliers
4. Clemson Tigers
5. Maryland Terrapins
6. North Carolina State
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7. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
8. Virginia Tech Hokies
This could be a humbling year for coach Frank Beamer. Beamer had a tough offseason dealing with the off-the-field trouble involving Marcus Vick. The talented quarterback won't play this year.
Tech needs to get it together in the locker room to have success on the field. The combination of the off-the-field distraction and the new conference is why I'm picking the Hokies this low. I do believe in Beamer, so we'll see.
So imagine my surprise when I read this today (emphasis added):
Thanks for the vote of confidence, but can you say bandwagon?Virginia Tech at Miami (FL) - 1 p.m. ET (ABC) Preview Virginia Tech, 11:30 a.m. ET
The winner gets the whole enchilada, BCS and all. Last year, Virginia Tech scored three touchdowns off takeaways and went on to dominate the Hurricanes. This year Miami has only nine turnovers, a trend it needs to continue.
Talk about trends, how about Brock Berlin's numbers over the last seven games: 56 percent completion rate, nearly 1900 yards, 19 TDs and only two interceptions. Not bad, but he'll be tested by a Tech defense that has 17 interceptions on the year. And the Hokies have gone on to score 131 points off 28 turnovers.
Here's the deal: The Hokies have allowed just seven touchdown passes all season and only given up a total of 14 TDs! Remarkable.
Pick: Hokies invade the Orange Bowl and are BCS bound.
Now this is one hell of a segue, but I remember a scene from "Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown" towards the end of the movie. After their raft goes over the falls, ends up on a water wheel, and goes crashing back down into the river, one of the kids (I think it was Linus) has the presence of mind to ask "Are we dead?" Lucy, being who she is, coarsely responds 'Thanks to Charlie Brown!" When the same kid gathers up the presence to realize "We're not dead?" Lucy just as snappily remarks "No thanks to Charlie Brown!"
If we win, I won't be in the Receiving Line to give Craig James thanks. But if we lose, I'll find a way to blame it on the extra bandwagon weight.
Go Hokies!
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