Blogpoll Week 8: Randall Cobb Doesn't Need You Edition....

Barrel of Rum Ballot - Week 8

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oregon Ducks	--
2	Oklahoma Sooners	1
3	Boise St. Broncos	1
4	Auburn Tigers	6
5	LSU Tigers	1
6	Alabama Crimson Tide	1
7	TCU Horned Frogs	1
8	Stanford Cardinal	1
9	Iowa Hawkeyes	2
10	Michigan St. Spartans	4
11	Florida St. Seminoles	1
12	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-10
13	Utah Utes	3
14	Missouri Tigers	4
15	Wisconsin Badgers	--
16	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-11
17	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	5
18	Virginia Tech Hokies	1
19	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
20	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	--
21	Texas Longhorns	--
22	Miami Hurricanes	--
23	South Carolina Gamecocks	-10
24	USC Trojans	--
25	Arizona Wildcats	--
Dropouts: Nevada Wolf Pack, Arkansas Razorbacks, California Golden Bears, Air Force Falcons, N.C. State Wolfpack, Florida Gators

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

The first BCS poll is out & it looks about as we expected. Auburn & Michigan State are the big movers up this week while Ohio State, Nebraska, & South Carolina all tumble double digits. How we see it:

1) Oregon: still work to do with USC on the horizon...

2) Oklahoma: it hasn't always been pretty but they're getting the job done. They are battle tested after a tough schedule to this point....

3) Boise State: any hopes of a boost in strength of schedule went out the window with Nevada's loss...

4) Auburn: Cam Newton everyone.....Auburn fans best enjoy this because Malzhan is GONE after this year...

5) LSU: what magic will Uncle Lester conjure against the mighty Cam Newton's this week?

6) Bama: both Frank & I agree, when it's all done, they end up playing in the big game....

7) TCU: Gary Barnett deserves tons of credit....

8) Stanford: what's the flight plan from Baton Rouge to Palo Alto?

9) Iowa: best wishes to DC Norm Parker on a speedy recovery.

10) Sparty: surprising everyone as they continue their run....

11) FSU: not pretty against BC but it worked....

12) Nebraska: what was Pellini thinking benching Martinez? Spurrier-esque, we dare say....

13) Utah: meh....Frank says hurry up & lose....

14) Missouri: time Gary Pinkel gets some credit....

15) Wisconsin: see below....

16) Ohio State: wanted to flip them with the Badgers just to piss Robespierre off.....

17) Oklahoma State: Brandon Weeden is a man....no really, he's like 27 years old....

18) VPISU: 100 points was a possibility against Wake last week if Beamer hadn't shackled the offense (file under: things you thought you'd never type / Brian Stynespring: offensive guru)

19) West "By Gawd" Virginia: a good week for miner's everywhere....

20) Mississippi State: Dan Mullen is another guy (with Malzhan & Troy Calhoun of Air Force) on my short list if I'm an AD looking for a coach at a big time program....

21) Texas: give Muschamp & the defense their due.....

22) Miami: why not....

23) South Carolina: can't stand prosperity....

24) USC: looked like the 2005 Trojans last Saturday pounding Cal....

25) Arizona: losing your starting QB who boasts a 75% completion rate is going to hurt.....

Right On Time......

(via Smart Football)

While Frank & I were away this weekend, Chris Brown of Smart Football was hard at work cranking out a timely post on the midline option, a staple in our offense. Two really great cut-ups of the midline in the article, one from the 2008 Miami game & the other from CPJ's time at Navy. It's very timely as we used the midline extensively in the second half of last year's regular season game against Clemson; it's essentially the play that won us the game as they simply couldn't adjust fast enough. I expect we'll see it again this year as Clemson features the ACC's best defensive tackle duo in Jarvis Jenkins & Brandon Thompson.

Speaking of Clemson, we'll have a Q&A with the football savants over at Shakin the Southland later on this week. Along with the aforementioned Mr. Brown, these guys provide some of the best pure football X's & O's content anywhere on the web. In the meantime, they take a look at the disparity in recruiting between Tech & Clemson over the last several years.Clearly the "services" rank Clemson's classes higher than ours. I think there are two appropriate questions here: 1) are the services an accurate reflection of talent, & 2) if so, even marginally, are we clearly are doing more with less? Seems to me that coaching has to play into it somewhere but the games have been so close over the last several years I'm not sure what conclusion to draw.

We Have an Announcement......

Oh, but you CAN! The angel Moroni has deemed the Institute a worthy opponent & thus we will play BYU at home in 2012 & 2014 and in Provo in 2013 & 2017. There's probably some legitimate reason we're not playing them in 2015 (like it doesn't fit into either school's schedule) but maybe there's some sort of important date in the book of Mormon that coincides with our trip to Provo?

Week 7 - Picks, no pics

On the road this week, so no time to upload pictures, or really even update my record...

A few notes before we get into it.

First, per the AJC, Cooper Taylor has left the team causing much hand ringing for the Tech faithful. Always hoped Cooper would get more playing time, as he's an amazing athlete, but for some reason he was never able to stay in the two deep. Some of it was bad luck with his heart condition, but the AJC seems to suggest that the whole story isn't public knowledge. For those worried what this will do to Tech's defense, don't. The secondary is the best unit on the defense. Its deep and talented, and has played very well this year. Per CPJ, Taylor wasn't playing because other players where playing better. In any event, best of luck to Taylor in whatever he decides to do. We'll always remember the fumble in the FSU game two years ago.

Second, a quick update of GT stats half way through the year. I went a head and projected out the stats for the year and listed the ranking in the ACC to the side. Some of the numbers don't give exactly because I used my own count and compared it to CFBstats.com. A great website. Be for warned, the passing numbers are down right awful, but the running numbers are SCHWEET!

Joshua Nesbit

Passing

56 completions – 13th

140 attempts – 11th

40% completion % - DNQ

1,026 yards – 11th

102 yards per game – 12th

10 td – 10th

4 Int - DNQ

119.42 Rating – DNQ (8^TH)

Rushing

Joshua Nesbit – 246 carries (1^ST), 1,256 yards (1^ST), 16 TD (1^ST), 6 fumbles, 4.18 (26^th)

Anthony Allen – 172 carries (4^TH), 1,072 yards (2^ND), 6 TD (9^TH), 4 fumbles, 6.10 (11^th)

Orwin Smith – 32 carries (38^TH), 368 yards (28^TH), 4 TD (16^th), 0 fumbles

Roddy Jones – 50 carries (31^ST), 336 yards (29^TH), 6 TD (9^TH), 0 fumbles, 6.72 ypg (3^rd)

Embry Peeples – 50 carries (32^ND), 336 yards (31^ST), 4 TD (42^nd), 0 fumbles, 6.50 ypg(6^th)

Receiving

Stephen Hill – 24 reception, 324 yards, 2 TD

Roddy Jones – 7 receptions, 175 yards, 2 TD

Embry Peeples – 5 receptions, 101 yards, 0 TD

Defense

Brad Jefferson – 87 tkls (16^th), 8 TFL (39^th), 5 sacks (22^nd)

Isaiah Johnson – 62 tkles, (27^th) 6 TFL (50^th)

Dominique Reese – 54 tkles (39^th), 7 TFL (39^th), 12 PBr (2^nd)

Anthony Egbuniwe – 60 tkls (29^th)

Izaan Cross – 54 tkls (39^th), 11 TFL (19^th), 5 sacks (19^th), 6 PBr (18^th)

Mario Butler – 50 tkls (49^th)

Mario Edwards- 54 tkls (39^th)

Julian Burnett – 50 tkls

Steven Sylvester – 44 tkls (33^rd), 16 TFL (8^th), 6 sacks (11^th)

Jerrad Tarrant – 36 tkls

Brandon Watts – 38 tkls

TJ Sweeting – 24 tkls, 6 PBr 918^th)

Team INT = 4 (12^th)

Fumbles Recovered – 10 (3^rd)

Pickly-dickly-doos

Michigan State -7.5 at Illinois.

Maryland -14.5 at Clemson

Missouri +2.5 at Texas A&M

Vanderbilt +16.5 at Georgia

Mississippi State + 8.5 at Florida

South Carolina - 5.5 at Kentucky

Army +6.5 at Rutgers

Nebraska +9.5 vs. Texas

Oklahoma State +3.5 at Texas Tech

California +2.5 (yes getting points) at USC

North Carolina -6.5 at Virginia

Ohio State -5.5 at Wisconsin

Arkansas +2.5 at Auburn

Oregon State -2.5 at Washington

Go Ahead.......

Seems there's a battle brewing......(h/t From the Rumble Seat)

If You Haven't Read This.....

You really should. Paying players has been going on for years & continues, and not just at UNC, but across the NCAA. What's just as insidious is agents "loaning" players money & then, if they don't make it in the NFL, requiring them to work off their "debt" by acting as a "runner" and funneling said agent certain players, generally from the school or hometown the former player hails from. Happens all the time, even at Tech. Those who don't acknowledge this type of thing goes on are simply deluding themselves. It's unfortunate, but it's a fact of football as a multi-billion dollar business.

Blog Poll Week 7: Someone pull the horseshoe out of Les Miles ass.....

Barrel of Rum Ballot - Week 7

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oregon Ducks	1
2	Nebraska Cornhuskers	2
3	Oklahoma Sooners	--
4	Boise St. Broncos	1
5	Ohio St. Buckeyes	1
6	LSU Tigers	3
7	Alabama Crimson Tide	-6
8	TCU Horned Frogs	-1
9	Stanford Cardinal	-1
10	Auburn Tigers	1
11	Iowa Hawkeyes	2
12	Florida St. Seminoles	3
13	South Carolina Gamecocks	4
14	Michigan St. Spartans	8
15	Nevada Wolf Pack	5
16	Utah Utes	3
17	Arkansas Razorbacks	-1
18	Missouri Tigers	--
19	Virginia Tech Hokies	-1
20	California Golden Bears	3
21	Air Force Falcons	3
22	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-1
23	N.C. State Wolfpack	--
24	Florida Gators	-12
25	Arizona Wildcats	-11
Dropouts: Miami Hurricanes, Michigan Wolverines

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Les Miles & LSU have entered Bizarro World while The Ol' Ball Coach snagged him a little Viagra & stuck it to the Nicktator. The Oregon scoring machine ascends to #1 while Nebraska is enjoying a renaissance of late 80's & early 90's football. Sparty flies up while the Gators & Arizona tumble. We're close to some semblance of order after week six & after next week it'll start gettin' serious up in this piece......

1) Oregon: the king is dead, long live the king....

2) Nebraska: Taylor Martinez sounds like the next big thing on American Idol but make no mistake, he can tote the pill. The fact they have an above average defensive line & two certified shut down corners doesn't hurt.

3) Oklahoma: FSU win looks better. Schedule merits their placement here.

4) Boise State: I can't get past their schedule. If they run the gauntlet Bama just ran: top 10 Arkansas in Fayetteville, top 10 Florida at home, & top 15 South Carolina on the road there's no question they lose a game.

5) Ohio State: narrow victory over Illinois looks better after the Illini drubbed Penn State

6) LSU: only a bunch of Cajuns would put two morons like Miles & Crowton in charge of anything & have it turn out well. There's some Louisiana politics/Edwin Edwards/ Huey Long/ David Duke allegory lurking here we just can't see it yet. Laissez Bon Temp Roulez.....

7) Alabama: see above Boise State comment......And a tip of the cap to tough guy Julio Jones, who played almost the entire USCe game with a broken hand that rquired surgery the next day. Saban has deemed you sufficient....

8) TCU: victory over Oregon State looks better after the Beavers beat Arizona

9) Stanford: has the Jim Harbaugh is heading East derby officially started.

10) Auburn: I've been pushing them on frank for weeks to little avail & their performance against Kentucky proved him correct.

11) Iowa: anyone remember that awesome Iowa rap video from last year? Gone from YouTube. A tragedy.......

12) Florida State: seems like Bobby may have been holding them back a bit......

13) South Carolina:

14) Michigan State: Sparty is on the rise & Kirk Cousins is for real.

15) Nevada: the Pistol is to college football what the Wildcat was to the NFL.....Catch the Fever!

16) Utah: 68 points on anybody deserves something....

17) Arkansas: which former Michigan QB would you like to have: Ryan Mallet or Steven Threatt? Advantage: Arkansas.

18) Missouri: Gary Pinkel continues his fine work for now....

19) VPISU: finding their stride. They'll continue to improve down the stretch.

20) Cal: hippie football, catch the wave....

21) Air Force: Troy Calhoun would be on my short list if I was an AD looking for a new football coach. No way UNC is smart enough to hire him.

22) Oklahoma State: as good as they are offensively, they are that bad defensively....

23) NC State: a nice bounce back win....

24) Florida: just play Tre Burton already.

25) Arizona: meh.....

What the hell will Les Miles do for an encore???????