2010 SCHEDULE
Sept. 4 vs. SOUTH CAROLINA STATE
Sept. 11 at Kansas
Sept. 18 at North Carolina
Sept. 25 vs. NC STATE
Oct. 2 at Wake Forest
Oct. 9 vs. VIRGINIA
Oct. 16 vs. MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE
Oct. 23 at Clemson
Nov. 4 (Thur) at Virginia Tech
Nov. 13 vs. MIAMI
Nov. 20 vs. DUKE
Nov. 27 at Georgia
Sept. 4 vs. SOUTH CAROLINA STATE
Sept. 11 at Kansas
Sept. 18 at North Carolina
Sept. 25 vs. NC STATE
Oct. 2 at Wake Forest
Oct. 9 vs. VIRGINIA
Oct. 16 vs. MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE
Oct. 23 at Clemson
Nov. 4 (Thur) at Virginia Tech
Nov. 13 vs. MIAMI
Nov. 20 vs. DUKE
Nov. 27 at Georgia
Some thoughts at first glance:
- not exactly the best home slate. In fact, the Mayor referred to it as a "shit-fest". Unfortunately, I must concur. Other than Miami, it's a terribly pedestrian schedule with VERY, VERY limited tailgaiting opportunities. Let's see: South Carolina State will be an early afternoon affair, North Carolina State will be just titillating enough that it will be the Raycom noon game that day (I'll bet anyone on this...), Virginia looks to be a 1pm regionally televised start (worst case noon again, best case 3:30), MTSU will be Homecoming and an afternoon affair, & Duke will be....Duke. So that leaves our lone hope for a night game or nationally televised affair as the Miami game.....My liver rejoices, my liquor store does not....
- That's ONE compelling home game this year. ONE. And Tech is largely to blame. I'm fine with one patsy/powderpuff game every year. We need to warm up; enter SCSU. That's fine. But why, oh why MTSU? There is NOTHING good that comes from this game. It certainly doesn't excite the fans & promote season ticket sales. If we win, we were supposed to; it does nothing for us. If we lose (do not sleep on Dwight Dasher, ladies & gents), it's disaster. Why not schedule a real game? Be great to bring in a heavyweight a la Notre Dame in 2006. Anyone who was at that game will tell you how electric campus was all day. And by game time, Bobby Dodd was absolutely poppin'. Let's bring in a Big Televen team. Or a Big Least squad like West "BY GAWD" Virginia. Even Rutgers is somewhat compelling. Just schedule somebody decent. We deserve it.
- As far as tough games, the schedule is broken up pretty well. UNC on the road in week three will be an early test for the Jackets. We really should be 7-0 or 6-1 depending on the Carolina result heading into the heart of the schedule, a three game stint that begins at Clemson on October 23rd, then on to VPISU for a tough Thursday night affair at Lane Stadium on November 4th, & ends with ThugU at home on November 13th. Those three games will really determine our destiny in 2010. If we can go 2-1 through that stretch, we'll have a chance at a return trip to the ACC championship game in Charlotte.
- Can you smell what CPJ is cookin'? It's far more potent than anything the Rock dreamt up. That's fear, folks. Primal, unadulterated fear. That fear manifests itself in the form of the bye week. To wit: four, count them, four, of our ACC opponents scheduled bye weeks before facing us. That's N.C. State, UNC, Climpsum, & Virginia Polly. Half our conference opponents ran to Swofford for extra-time on their GT test this season. I'll hate the playa' & the game.....
- Our bye week is October 30th. Happy halloween...........
That's what we got right now. We'll obviously dig deeper into both our schedule & the ACC schedule as a whole in the near future.....until then, keep sticking pins in your John Swofford voodoo doll.....
-Hash
This is the worst home schedule I can remember, and I've had season tickets for 14 years. D-Rad can do us better. It's a good reminder of why he supported the GT-"u" ga kickoff classic idea, to switch them to an even-year home game. Interesting observation about opponents bye-weeks.
ReplyDeleteDifferent question: what are y'all hearing about the Gilbert and Yandell transfer rumor, and what that may mean for this year's O-Line. May be a lot of new faces in there.
There will be a lot of new faces on the offensive line this year & that's by design. CPJ chose not to burn redshirts last year when there were players who clearly could have helped us as the season went on. Yandell is gone & Gilbert is headed that way - we're hearing the same thing as everyone else: Georgia State. This is logical as GStU is I-AA, which means they would be eligible immediately. A very educated guess is that the Gilbert transfer is motivated by playing time. The writing has been on the wall for a while now that he would at best be a back-up in 2010. The staff seem non-plussed by his leaving, FWIW. Here's our guess at the 2010 offensive line:
ReplyDeleteOT- Claytor/Barrick
G- Uzzi/McRae
C- Bedford/Beno
G- Jackson/McRae/Beno
T-Smith/Foster
Just as Nesbitt's play was the key to our improvement on offense this year, next year it will be the play of the offensive line. We've need to & will be more physical than in the past. Hope that helps,
-Hash
MTSU isn't a bad game. Their fans travel better than any other team in their conference, they're coming off a 10 win season and returning most of their offense including 2k/1k QB Dwight Dasher. Their out-of-conference schedule is Minnesota (6-7, 3-5), Austin Peay (Div 1-AA), Memphis (2-10, 1-7). So there's a good chance that they could be coming to Atlanta undefeated in October.
ReplyDeleteWhen the contract was signed they were supposed to be a homecoming cupcake, but what's more likely will be a team aiming to spoil homecoming and get a signature win for their program.
And that makes good football.
Great points on MTSU. They are a very good team & I've had a man-crush on Dasher for awhile. They will give us a good game. My main issue is that one cupcake is enough every year. Get some real games on the schedule that will excite the fan base & the city. We have the ability to schedule great games, we choose not to. Kansas & UGA are great games, albeit it on the road. Give us a home date with a Big Ten team or a Texas team, we've never played one that I can remember. Not crapping on MTSU, they are & fine program & Stockstill has things rolling in Murfeesboro. But we want to be a relevant program & relevant programs play relevant games. MTSU really isn't a relevant game.
ReplyDelete-Hash
An exciting out of conference home game would help make up for the dose of clap the ACC gave us, but its hard to blame tech when know almost no one schedules difficult out of conference games if they can help it. Don't get me wrong; I'd love to see more exciting inter-conference games not only for tech, but also across the board. The CFA needs to change the balance of incentives
ReplyDeletePlaying week out of conference schedules has become the rule because the BCS diluted the strength of schedule factor in their calculations when Oklahoma lost to Nebraska in the Big XII championship. It was a knee-jerk reaction, and now teams don’t schedule tough games because tough games are all risk no reward.
The BCS can do two things to vastly improve the college football season for all fans. Do not allow any Div. IA games to count towards bowl eligibility and increase the strength of schedule factor in the computer formulas. It would improve schedules on both ends. No more full dress scrimmages, and big rewards for big games.
Tech's schedule is just an example of what is going on across all of college football.
-FLW
Gotta disagree with my esteemed colleague Frank on this one. Top tier ACC teams are playing difficult out-of-conference schedules. There are many ACC teams that have scheduled compelling & difficult out-of-conference games this season. A few examples:
ReplyDeleteFlorida State: BYU, @ Oklahoma, Florida
Miami: @Ohio State, @ Pitt, South Florida
UNC: LSU (in Atlanta), @ Rutgers, East Carolina
I realize that we have two good out-of-conference games in UGA & Kansas. But they are both on the road. We need to balance out the schedule (odd years we get Clemson, UNC, VPISU, & UGA at home) first & foremost. But after that let's schedule some relevant games against quality competition. It's better for the fans & better for the program.