The Fanatic Magazine - A student-run sports magazine for the UVA fanatic

College Football Blog Week 3

Written by Ben Faust

Monday, 01 October 2007

Alrighty then…this week’s edition is going to be a little short because of our game tonight. I’m supposed to be watching the best ACC game that’s on TV and it looks like that’s going to be #13 Clemson vs. Georgia Tech at 3:30. However, we may end up with Maryland against #10 Rutgers or (the game I really want to watch) #6 Cal vs. #11 Oregon. We’ll just turn on ABC when the time comes and see what happens. Virginia Tech is also playing UNC right now, but they should beat the crap out of them and, as much I love seeing UNC get creamed, I hate Tech. We’ll watch the end of that one though, just in case Carolina is making it interesting.

Speaking of interesting, who watched the West Virginia vs. South Florida game last night? That’s going to be the game of the week and no one watched it. I still contend that the Big East is the absolute worst conference in football right now and none of their “big three” (West Virginia, Louisville, and Rutgers) has any business in the top 10. Now I really shouldn’t be talking since we’re in the ACC, but at least Boston College actually looks like they can play with people. Louisville has given up over 100 points in its last 2 games combined. The telling game about the strength of the Big East will be when West Virginia takes on Mississippi State on October 20. Miss State isn’t exactly an SEC power, but they’re an SEC team… If West Virginia dominates that game, I’ll shut up. I just don’t think they will.

3:28: Ok, it’s game time! They tell us we’re getting the Clemson and Georgia Tech game, which I’m sure looked great at the beginning of the season when they decided to air it on national TV…but now, it should be a rout. I’m picking Clemson to win because if we could run all over Georgia Tech, Clemson will definitely run on them.

3:34: I am getting sick of that dumb Dr. Pepper ad with the fat guy doing his touchdown dance. It wasn’t good when it first aired and it hasn’t gotten any better. Anyway, I’m disappointed that Clemson isn’t wearing the all purple uniforms. Those are hot.

3:37: Well that’s how you do not want to start a big game…your QB falls over himself and can’t hand it off to the running back. And you fumble. Awesome job, Tech.

3:42: Clemson’s offense chokes and only gets three points from that though. The Tech defense saves disaster and keeps the crowd in the game. Thank god Tashard Choice, running back from GT, was out last week. We would not have stopped this guy.

3:45: Hahaha…that’s going to get annoying. There is a massive delay when the ref talks. It’s like watching a poorly dubbed foreign film. And we get another flag! Yay! More hilarity!

3:50: That win last weekend was so big for us. Seriously…we have four more difficult games this season and two of them are at home. I think we can definitely beat Maryland, we can beat Wake Forest at home, Miami will be difficult since it’s their last home game and it’s Miami, and then we host Tech. Georgia Tech has a pretty touch schedule too as they face both Miami and Virginia Tech. The fact that we hold a tiebreaker over Georgia Tech is so huge…and if they win this week, it’ll make our win look even better.

3:55: I think we’ve seen more amazing catches today than I’ve seen all season. Golden Tate of Notre Dame had hands down the best catch of the season so far. Plus, there’ve been two other insane catches, as a defensive back for Illinois made a great pick, and this Clemson guy just made a ridiculous grab. *Sigh* I wish we had some wideouts…

4:00: Yikes. Speaking of catches…actually never mind, Georgia Tech isn’t making them. Taylor Bennet must be pissed over there. He is putting the ball on their hands and they just can’t grab them.

4:05: Either they got way better in a week, or we just demolished Georgia Tech’s defense last week. Peerman ran for over 100 yards and this “dynamic duo” for Clemson hasn’t gotten anything going.

4:07: Georgia Tech blocks the punt! Inside the 10! Wow. Now can they move the ball eight yards? That’s a big question after watching their other drives. Just hand the ball to Choice. He was ripping through the line earlier…although every time he did there was a penalty. Maybe that had something to do with how he got through…

4:10: The number one worst thing Clemson could’ve done there: pass interference. That was a pretty cheap play though. It was so close to being uncatchable and the receiver had him in a bit of a headlock which prevented the corner from getting his head around. It was pass interference…but it was basically all that was going to happen from that play. Now they hand it off to Choice and they get it in the endzone. Why didn’t they do that four plays ago? 7-3 GT.

4:20: Well this game is a bit of a snoozefest. Neither offense is doing much of anything. Basically this is a punter showcase. These guys can kick it too…but nothing can compare to the Buffalo Bills’ punter last year bombing a punt from the back of his endzone to the other 25 yard line. That’s 85 yards. Wes Welker had to sprint back to go get it. It was unbelievable. But yeah, this is a slow game.

4:30: Well…that’s the end of the first quarter but its time to go to our game. We want front row seats so, we need to leave now. My score prediction for our game: Us 31, them 17. We should win this game…UConn destroyed these guys so that should tell us something…but who knows which team of ours will show up.
--

Sunday – recap time: Wow. I am completely speechless about what happened yesterday. Absolutely speechless. It’s being called Insanity Saturday and for good reason: five of the top ten teams in the country (numbers 3, 4, 5, 7, 10) and nine of the top 25 lost, the University of South Florida is the number six team in the nation in the AP Poll, Kentucky is ranked in the top ten…in football, and Notre Dame is still winless. I though the USF game was going to be the biggest upset of the week…little did I know. This is why I love college football: take everything you know one week, and forget about it the next. Anything can happen.

Oh yeah, our game was pretty sweet too. My roommate’s reaction when I told him my score prediction was, “Huh…that’s a lot of points,” and I thought he was right. Again, little did I know. Jameel was on fire early on hitting his first 9 passes and moving us down the field easily for score after score. It was refreshing to see us actually scoring easily. And it was also refreshing to see only one quarterback out there for the game…minus the end of the game when it was over. I think the whole two quarterback thing is completely over for this season and I am so happy about that. The only thing that we really need a lot of work on is the third quarter. It’s always awful for us. I think Groh needs to work on whatever he says at halftime because it really doesn’t work. The last two have been painful to watch. Speaking of watching the game, I was quite happy that our game was at night because I was sick of sitting in that oven called Scott Stadium…but I wish it was at noon so I could’ve blogged the biggest upset of the day.

Oh well, there’s always next week. But anyway, if you couple the thumping we laid on Pitt with the win for Georgia Tech over then #13 Clemson, we are looking pretty good right now. Hopefully we’ll be 6-1 by the time ACC play resumes for us and who knows, we may even be ranked soon. Wouldn’t that be insane?