The Friday Five.....

We're working feverishly today so that we can hopefully be done with anything productive & have our butt firmly planted on the sofa by the start of the U.S. vs. Finland hockey game. Finns are an ornery bunch, sort of the "mules of Scandinavia", and with a medal on the line we expect a hard fought battle. We feel it's nothing less than our patriotic duty to cheer on the boys in red, white, & blue this afternoon and before we do, here are a few links to get the day started:

• A nice piece on the adversity BayBay had to overcome on his way to being drafted this year. Mother & grandmother incarcerated as a child? A tough road and one Thomas certainly navigated successfully to this point. Good on ya', BayBay, and we'll always be rooting for you.
• We've been preaching the importance of the nose tackle in our transition to the 3-4 defense & the NFL agrees. Interesting to see Chan's take on the position. Finding someone to play the nose this spring will be paramount to next year's success. Hopefully between T.J. Barnes, J.C. Lanier, & Shawn Green we find our man.
• ESPN's Heather Dinich takes a look at the ACC's non-conference opponents. They are actually pretty weak, in our opinion. There are some compelling individual match-ups: VPISU vs. Boise St., UNC vs. LSU, Clemson vs. Auburn to name a few, but as a whole the ACC's non-conference games really aren't all that interesting (Tech included). The blood bath when Alabama travels to Durham to play Duke should be interesting to watch. Would it help the ACC if the conference as a whole played a tougher non-conference schedule? How would that effect the perception of the ACC around the country?
• The College Football Data Warehouse came up with an interesting system & ranked college football teams according to their performance over the last decade. Tech comes in at #18, not to bad, considering where our recruiting classes are consistently ranked (wink, nod, wink...). Three ACC schools rank ahead of us, Miami at #7, VPISU at #11, & FSU at #12. The FSU & Miami rankings illustrate how far they have fallen in recent years as both clearly did most of their heavy lifting early in the decade. Something leads me to believe we'll be ranked higher than #18 at the end of this decade....
• Last & certainly not least, the fine folks in Knoxville are cracking down on the wacky weed. No more "fourth strike" for Volunteer athletes. It's three strikes & you're out. Way to get tough, Vols. Certain elements are vehemently opposed to the new policy (NSFW), while others simply want things kept in the proper rotation.

Enjoy your weekend & don't watch too much NFL combine.....